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Industry Specific ERP Systems

Industry specific ERP solutions: resist the temptation.


Industry specific solutions sound great in theory, but find out why their extinction is imminent.

The Evolution of Industry
Specific ERP Solutions

As legacy business systems were labour intensive to customize, most second-generation systems were developed with generic manufacturing in mind. They try to be all things to all people. If these generic systems had 80% of all manufacturers' requirements, they could market to a large audience.

All specific industries have unique business methods and use some unique terminology. Some of these specific industries include contract electronics, plastic injection moldings, etc.

Not finding exactly what they wanted in standard systems, some companies customized the systems they purchased to better meet their industry specific requirements.

Some of these customized systems eventually were marketed to their specific industries.

The Attraction

These industry specific systems would include features and terminologies the generic systems didn’t have.

It is difficult for anyone to recognize the differences between ERP systems. These unique features stood out as differentiators to the companies evaluating systems, and the industry specific systems began to sell.

The Problem

The problem arose where companies assumed that industry specific systems also included all the generic ERP capabilities, which wasn’t always the case.

As these industry specific systems had a smaller audience potential, new customers were few and far between. Software vendors finance their new

product development with the software maintenance their customer base pays. A small customer base (under 1,000) means limited funds to develop the system and less customer feedback to evolve new ideas around.

Having limited development funds, these industry specific systems focused their development only on the feature requests that their customers would pay to have developed. In addition, these software vendors commonly have limited support staff. Resolution of customer support issues could often take days, months or in some cases never are resolved.

Companies that gambled by purchasing these industry specific systems often found them wanting. Generic features such as accounting, material planning, etc. were found to be very weak and sometimes non-existent. This caused some customers to abandon them and re-purchase generic systems. This customer exodus only intensified the lack of development of these systems.

Why are these Industry Specific solutions not as popular today?

Today modern systems are easily modified without major customization. ERP developers that are in tune with customer needs include customization ease in the design of their applications. Unique requirements and terminology can now be incorporated into generic systems, providing companies with the best of both worlds.

As for the Industry specific systems, they remain available, although in limited quantity. To continue their product life, many have had to resort to drastically lowering their prices to attract consumers. Potential customers naively purchase these apparent bargains without realizing the pitfalls until after they have implemented.

The school of hard knocks can be an expensive method of selecting software.

 

Find the answers and get expert ERP selection advice using the knowledge attained from years of business software experience. For additional information, contact BSA Inc. at info@BSAinc.ca.