You would be amazed at how many ERP vendors want your business. They could be one of the more well-known vendors that have a solution for multiple industries or a vendor focusing on one industry.
Types of ERP Vendors
ERP vendors can be classified based on the size of company they target. They can also can classified as:
- Horizontal – Vendors with solutions for multiple industries.
- Vertical – Vendors that offer a complete solution for a specific industry.
- Hybrid – Vendors that offer an extension to a horizontal system for a specific industry.
The horizontal vendors are typically the largest ERP vendors. The vertical vendors are much smaller than the horizontal vendors. With the hybrid vendors, the base system is usually from one of the largest vendors but the extension is usually provided by a smaller company than even the vertical vendor. We believe that all ERP vendor types should be considered including the smaller ones:
- Small companies can be successful.
- The risks are small for a small company going out of business or the vendor’s system is no longer supported after a potential acquisition if the technology platform is current.
- The hybrid extensions are usually certified by the horizontal vendor.
- There are benefits of being a big fish in a small pond.
How to Identify Potential ERP Vendors
- ERP Portal which provides listings of systems broken out by tier, industry and distribution model
- Top 10 ERP Systems to identify the ERP systems that best match your requirements (based on a short online survey)
- ERP Comparison for detailed charts containing hundreds of features for about 100 ERP systems as well as ERP articles
- Internet searches
- Contact colleagues
- Contact consultants
- Contact industry associations
- Look at trade journals for articles and advertisements
- Attend trade shows
- Contact exhibitors from trade shows
- Espionage – we are not advocating anything illegal but you could, for example, go to a competitor of a retailer client to see the number to call on the POS terminal
- Contact Us