ERP strategy survey favours two-tier global approach

Those are among top findings of a survey by mid market manufacturing ERP developer Epicor, which also reveals that nearly half (46%) of organisations choose a tiered ERP approach to better meet the functional needs of different parts of the company, while 42% do so to improve data quality and reporting, and 38% do so to enable a rapid roll-out. The survey received over 1,600 responses from a variety of companies worldwide and a third of all respondents said they were considering a two-tier strategy – including 254 in the UK and 1,008 across EMEA. "It was very interesting to note that although 59% of the respondents have a single tier ERP strategy in place, only half have actually succeeded in getting that system implemented in the majority of their sites worldwide, comments James Norwood, senior vice president, worldwide product marketing for Epicor. "Epicor's ability to seamlessly co-exist with Tier-1 implementations coupled with its flexible deployment options [including on-premise, on-demand, hosted or any combination] from a single next-generation ERP platform, offers these organisations the flexibility they need," he adds. Norwood suggests that, today, Tier 2 ERP solutions, such as Epicor, offer all the capabilities that an organisation would expect from a Tier 1 system "but without the associated cost of ownership". "Modern Tier 2 packages, designed with multi-site business deployment scenarios in mind, also offer ease of use, strong global functionality and a rich, repeatable footprint based on established business processes and master data management stewardship," he says. According to the study, benefits of the two-tier approach to global ERP implementation come from significant savings through consolidated purchasing, but also during the rollout process and as a result of lower maintenance and support costs.