India Erp Market A Scenario

In the last decade, ERP software has exploded into the global business landscape. With the opening up of the Indian economy, there has been a turnaround growth in different industry verticals thereby helping them reach a level of maturity that demands advanced technology to efficiently manage and streamline their processes. This growth and along with the associated competition and quest for enhancing market share has led the organizations to re-look at its processes and procedures and put in place proper processes enablers and solutions to make its business more efficient and effective. Many Indian industries already have realized the need for ERP solutions, and the industry-related market growth should match the expansion of the sector as a whole.

According to a research report, The Indian ERP market experienced compounded annual growth rate of 25.2 per cent during the period 2004-2009. The market was $83 million in 2004, and is projected to be around $160-180 million in 2010. Some of the potential target segments which have shown high penetration are Automotive, Steel, Consumer Durables, Engineering, Retail, Communications and Textiles thereby making it attractive for the ERP vendors

An ERP package can streamline and automate different important functions of an organisation such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, activity management, benefits administration, and billing, invoicing and cost tracking (for project-based businesses), payroll, Sales and Marketing. With ERP, companies can also improve cash management, while manufacturing firms can practice more effective capacity planning and cost containment.

Major Benefits

a) A primary benefit of ERP is easier access to reliable, integrated information, elimination of redundant data and the rationalization of processes, which results in substantial cost savings.

b) It enables decision-makers to have an enterprise-wide view of the information they need in a timely, reliable and consistent fashion. The system provides consistency, visibility and transparency across the entire enterprise.

c) The integration among business functions facilitates communication and information sharing, leading to dramatic gains in productivity and speed.

Market Trends in the Indian ERP Market

a) SMBs as a potential market for ERP Vendors: Most of the mid sized organizations are working with applications which are non-integrated and on disparate technology architectures, built in-house. This has resulted redundant technology, loss of support, non availability of critical information at the right time resulting in overall business loss. ERP vendors in India will have a great opportunity when they explore into the untapped areas of the SME segment with innovative practices tuned to mid size organisations processes and business needs.

b) Adoption of ERP as a Service (SaaS) - SaaS (Software-as-a-Service)-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is an on-demand deployment of ERP software, where the user can access the software through license as a Web-based service. It provides an alternative to implementation or maintaining ERP software. SaaS - based ERP includes finance, order management, inventory control, purchasing and manufacturing functionality. The increasing popularity of the SaaS-based applications account for the growth of ERP, as the enterprise resources are maintained by a service provider.

There needs to be no doubt in the promising opportunities and prospects of ERP in the future in both software and non software sectors. Whether your growth plans include buying and selling in the global marketplace, adding more talent to your team, or expanding your services, ERP has the tools and the flexibility to successfully accelerate your business expansion and streamline existing business and operational processes thereby improving efficiency and productivity.