Writes InfoWorld about the next battleground in ERP as the enterprise software companies seek out new markets: “The ERP mid-market — once the exclusive domain of a handful of companies with limited functionality — quickly is becoming crowded with big-name players such as Microsoft, Oracle, PeopleSoft, and SAP revving new enterprise software applications to meet mid-market demand for integrated front- and back-office systems.”
NetLedger has been one of the active ASPs in this segment:
NetLedger, which makes the Oracle Small Business Suite, last week announced a new online suite that combines ERP and CRM for companies with less than 500 employees.
The new NetSuite adds advanced accounting, warehousing, and CRM to Version 8 of the small business suite.
“The large businesses have been able to afford to integrate the systems,” said Zach Nelson, president of NetLedger. “The best-of-breed application for this market is an integrated system.”
NetLedger has done a significant amount of listening to the needs of the mid-market, said Louis Columbus, an analyst with AMR Research.
“Evidence of their commitment to listen and respond to the market includes the inclusion of workflow support for sell-side and CRM applications, enhancements to order management, and strengthening of their integration approach,” he said. “NetLedger has risen to the challenge of integration with strong XML expertise on their hosted platform.”
We want to look at SMEs in emerging markets with our Emergic Enterprise. It is a market which others are not looking at right now. In fact, they’ll need radically different cost stuctures to reach out to this segment – our target is USD 5 per person per month for the entire set of apps they need. We are hoping to be ready by 2Q 2003.
