The SaaS wave is coming. It has been building for a number of years and at this point, the wave looks unlikely to turn back. Large enterprise-wide ERP systems have dominated IT stacks of companies for a number of years. These mega systems have dominated for decades costing enterprises tens of millions of dollars to implement and maintain. These large systems have required many years to customize and a huge number of specialized personnel to support them. With the growing adoption of the cloud by enterprises, large ERP vendors have responded by re-platforming their applications for the cloud. That said, functionally and structurally, these applications are still behemoths of cross enterprise functions that struggle to accommodate the huge array of customizations perpetrated upon their on-premise cousins.
Large ERP systems have had a difficult time keeping pace with their smaller, more nimble and functionally superior, SaaS platform competitors. For example, “Composable ERP” allows the user to pick and choose functional best of breed applications while the larger ERP systems remain as the transactional interface. Jim O’Donnell, a freelance technical writer, has highlighted this in a recent article and says, “Composable ERP may break up monolithic systems”. This is due to the proliferation of disruptive SaaS applications providing exceptional functionality and an abundance of APIs and middleware that facilitate integration the move to the cloud. Additionally, more functionally efficient SaaS platforms promise a new era of mix and match applications that seamlessly integrate, perform efficiently, and provide a quick and less costly business solutions for both large and small businesses.
With cloud adoption expected to increase, a more rapid movement to cloud based SaaS platforms is envisaged. Google, Amazon, Microsoft and other service providers have combined to provide a huge capacity of low-cost computing infrastructure by reducing the comparative cost of ownership of a company’s IT stack. These providers have also provided large and small companies the ability to shed costly data centers, employees and equipment, which has allowed them to operate at lower costs. The platform providers have also included support, sometimes to the discomfort of the large SIs that have counted on that revenue. In return, customers can remain up to date as part of the package cost, and reduce the need to negotiate for constant updates in terms of functionality and technical capability.
LTI has created a group (D-SaaS) that focuses on these disruptive SaaS platforms. The group, focused on providing implementation and support to a wide array of leading edge SaaS platforms provides objective advice on appropriate platform selection and implementation services. This is the first in a series of short articles on these platforms. From a functional perspective, we are focusing on supply chain, procurement, lead to revenue and integrated business planning.
Stay tuned, there is much more to come!
