How are bespoke software solutions getting the ERP job done?

The days when the only option available for mid to large sized corporates looking to solve their ERP requirements was to engage with large international ERP companies. No doubt, this came with costs that ate at a company’s bottom line and needed massive amounts of time to implement. But for corporations there just wasn’t any other option, because not many companies could solve all their requirements in a single system or application.

Consultants would come in and spend ages setting everything up and getting the system to work. This meant system changes, and there was no real flexibility either - it was their way or no way.  A minor inconvenience in some areas of the business might be acceptable but there’s well documented proof some changes actually interrupted the business - Spar supermarket chain is an example of this.

Over the last decade, there’s been a shift away from large single system solutions to a more fragmented approach where corporates are choosing best of breed software that matches both their budgets and technical requirements.

The single biggest development in the industry that’s allowed this change, is of course, integration between systems. We are now hyper connected and most applications can integrate with other applications and systems. And that’s great, because corporations can now pick the applications they think will do the best job rather than be stuck with one large system that does an average job all around.

The advantages to this are massive both operationally and financially.

• There’s no longer an overreliance on a single software provider with their army of consultants in tow.
• Implementation timelines and costs are drastically reduced as project sizes reduce in size.
• The software itself is often less expensive.
• Applications specialise in their space and are able to offer superior functionality as opposed to single providers that tend to be laggards in development of functionality required by customers.

This is precisely what’s happening right now on your smartphone. You’re not using apps made exclusively by Apple or Google. You’re picking the best navigation, food delivery and music apps that work for you.

And that’s exactly what’s happening in the corporate space when it comes to the software they choose. Large corporates are downscaling from single service providers to a core system that they can integrate multiple solutions with. The trend will continue into the foreseeable future especially with the proliferation of software marketplaces globally.

So ERPs won’t be disappearing (especially for the largest of companies) but the movement of this trend is undeniable and will continue to eat away at the single software solution.And that’s where companies like Quick Consols come in. A smaller specialised offering that’s not going to blow the foreseeable future budget, but does exactly what it needs to do, smarter, faster and with more accessibility for the CFO than ever before. Because, just like other businesses, reporting is evolving and Quick Consols is leading the evolutionary path, one consolidation at a time.