Big software for tiny firms
You might have heard of SAP systems. It’s a software package deployed by the majority of medium sized and large enterprises all over the planet. The objective of the system is to ‘wire’ the entire business together and enable hundreds and often thousands of employees to store, share and recall data about the physical and financial processes of the firm. Large businesses are lead by smart people who know the strategic benefits of this category of software, such as how it can give them a picture of why issues are happening inside their organisation or where there might be opportunity for improvements.
This type of software application is commonly known as ERP. It is very complicated, very expensive and can take along time to deploy. An implementation of ERP software is a significant investment but this doesn’t stand in the way of major firms buying these applications.
Until a few months ago software similar to this was not available or affordable for small businesses. As a result tiny firms have not been aware of the significant benefits that ERP systems can deliver. Tiny firms have been wrongly convinced by aggressive vendors like Sage Software and Intuit that small business accounting software is what they need. These packages most often have no functionality to enable their users to connect the entire company or perform fundamental tasks such as customer relationship management.
The achievements of Web based CRM software from organisations like Salesforce.com is a good example of the small business accounting software enterprises misleading or misunderstanding the market.
It is for this reason that small business ERP vendors like Salesorder.com have started to make great strides in the market. They sell saas which includes all of the specific functionality a small enterprise requires at very low cost. What is even more interesting is these platforms are simple to operate and can be installed rapidly.
Now ERP platforms are no longer the privilege of substantial firms.
