Like other vendors of cloud-based ERP software, NetSuite offers the key benefits of software as a service (SaaS): a smaller upfront investment, faster time to value and potentially lower operating costs. Beyond that NetSuite’s essential point of competitive differentiation from is broad functionality beyond financial management, including capabilities for customer relationship management (CRM), professional services automation (PSA) and human capital management (HCM). These components make it easier for businesses to manage processes from end to end (such as quote- or order-to-cash) as well as to have transactions and business data available in a single system in consistent forms and synchronized. This in turn facilitates real-time reporting, dashboards and the use of analytics that integrate a wider set of functional data. Midsize companies are most likely to benefit from this integration because typically they have smaller, less sophisticated IT staffs than larger ones. A side benefit of having a single, integrated data source is improvement of situational awareness and visibility for executives and managers. It also enables organizations to reduce their use of spreadsheets for stitching together processes, doing routine analyses and reporting. These sorts of activities waste valuable time and reduce an organization’s agility.
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Topics:
Microsoft,
Mobile,
SaaS,
Sales,
Customer Experience,
ERP,
HCM,
Human Capital,
Office of Finance,
Operational Performance Management (OPM),
communications,
Dynamics AX,
Dynamics GP,
Dynamics NAV Dynamics SL,
PSA,
Sage Software,
UI,
Unit4,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Cloud Computing,
Business Performance Management (BPM),
CFO,
CRM,
Customer Performance Management (CPM),
Financial Performance Management (FPM),
FinancialForce,
HR,
Infor,
Sales Performance Management (SPM),
Supply Chain Performance Management (SCPM),
Workforce Performance Management (WPM),
Social,
Financial Performance Management,
FPM,
Plex,
Professional Services Automation,
Workday Collaboration
Epicor used its recent user group conference to explain its strategic direction and product roadmap. The company is the result of multiple mergers of business software corporations over the past 15 years; its target customers are midsize companies and midsize divisions of larger organizations. Its most significant products are Epicor (ERP software aimed mainly at manufacturing and distribution companies) and Activant Solutions (software for small and midsize retailers, including a point-of-sale system). The company also has software that manages CRM, HR and human capital and supply chains, and provides financial performance management (FPM) and governance, risk and compliance (GRC) capabilities. These components of the software suites are adequate for the needs of many of the company’s target customers and are not intended as stand-alone applications.
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Topics:
Microsoft,
Mobile,
SaaS,
Sales,
Customer Experience,
ERP,
HCM,
Human Capital,
Office of Finance,
Operational Performance Management (OPM),
communications,
Dynamics AX,
Dynamics GP,
Dynamics NAV Dynamics SL,
Epicor,
Sage Software,
UI,
Unit4,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Cloud Computing,
Collaboration,
Business Performance Management (BPM),
CFO,
Customer Performance Management (CPM),
Financial Performance Management (FPM),
FinancialForce,
HR,
Infor,
Supply Chain Performance Management (SCPM),
Workday,
Workforce Performance Management (WPM),
Social,
Financial Performance Management,
FPM,
Plex
From my perspective, Infor’s strategy to accelerate revenue growth is to offer companies more innovation and a lower and more predictable cost of ownership than its rivals in the business software market; its products include the major categories of ERP, human resources and financial performance management. It aims to innovate by focusing on improving the user experience and to lower costs by redesigning its software architecture. The innovation stems from a fresh approach to designing interactions between users and business software: simplifying it and providing a more modern user experience that people have grown accustomed to in their personal software. The better cost-effectiveness rests on designing its software to reduce the expense of integrating and customizing it. One element of this is creating richer functionality for narrowly segmented micro-verticals. Another is offering cloud-based versions built on less expensive open source infrastructure and third-party commodity services. The software markets that Infor serves are mature and offer limited growth. So to be successful the company must increase both its market share and its share of a company’s IT spend (capturing internal IT spending and outlays to third-party consultants and systems integrators). To prove that the company’s strategy is working will require sustained organic growth (excluding new acquisitions) in revenues.
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Topics:
Microsoft,
Mobile,
SaaS,
Sales,
Customer Experience,
ERP,
HCM,
Human Capital,
Office of Finance,
Operational Performance Management (OPM),
Dynamics AX,
Dynamics GP,
Dynamics NAV Dynamics SL,
Sage Software,
UI,
Unit4,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Cloud Computing,
Business Performance Management (BPM),
CFO,
Customer Performance Management (CPM),
Financial Performance Management (FPM),
FinancialForce,
HR,
Infor,
Information Management (IM),
Sales Performance Management (SPM),
Supply Chain Performance Management (SCPM),
Workday,
Workforce Performance Management (WPM),
Financial Performance Management,
FPM,
Plex
