Future of Enterprise Resource Planning Software for Organizations

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To get a view of future scenario of enterprise resource planning software it is necessary to understand the present scenario of ERP in terms of its optimum utilization, ignored areas and untouched sectors. ERP has become an integral part of business today due to its proven benefits and huge capacities but it is very easily evident that there is much to be explored and need to give up a previously set goal.

Gone are the days when ERP software was meant for large and big business organizations only which have capacity of investing money in millions. Today with the introduction of SaaS model, ERP on demand and cloud computing, ERP software has come in the reach of small and medium sized companies which has opened gates for ERP vendors to capture new markets. Simply reduced cost, integration and interaction of different departments, capacity to work with different set of rules and regulation, multi currency, multi lingual, web store and SFA are not just the features which are going to suffice the needs of small and medium sized companies.

More dominant role in strategic planning is one of those areas which may see a lot of change in future versions of ERP software. Till today even though a lot of hype has been created by the vendors about this feature but due to one or the other reasons user have not shown trust and courage to rely on the planning which is supported or chalked out largely by their enterprise resource planning software. Utilization of resources at the disposal of the software can help organizations in much more effective way than today, particularly small and medium sized companies are going to be benefited by this feature as they have less to invest on hiring planners compared to large organization.

Another area which might see some positive changes in enterprise resource planning software is budgeting. Many ERP users are still using conservative systems for calculating and sanctioning of budgets for different processes and activities. Perhaps ERP vendors in near future might bring in new ways and solutions to resolve the problem of budgeting.

More of cost effective offers and better SaaS models are expected in near future as all the giants of ERP industry are now trying to fish in the small and medium sized market where companies does not have kind of enormous budget to spend on IT infrastructure and ERP software purchase and implementation. Subscriptions will get more and more lenient and user friendly to draw in more and more users from this sector. Cloud computing promises most till date as far as future planning and developments are concerned.

Perhaps the biggest change that might be in store of future is goodbye to the concept of one single enterprise resource planning software to provide well integrated, seamless working in a large organization where all the departments are knitted together through single application. The future ERP software will be more like a network of applications designed specifically for a particular department of the organization like CRM, SCM and financial management where they are used with a top quality infrastructure enabling them to interact and exchange information in real time.