ERP Moves into the Fast Lane

By 1999, ERP had developed a reputation as technology that blew through budgets and calendars. Large corporations cut ERP spending in 1999?in part because they wanted to prepare for Y2K and in part because many were either in the midst of or finished with ERP implementations. So ERP vendors cooked up rapid-implementation schemes for the loosely defined midmarket. SAP defines midmarket as companies with $200 million or less in annual revenue, while PeopleSoft sets the figure at $500 million.

SAP introduced Accelerated SAP in 1998. PeopleSoft jumped on the bandwagon last year with a package build around its new, Web-based PeopleSoft 8 system. Oracle has its FastForward program. Their forays into the midmarket have worked so far. ERP business picked up in 2000, thanks in part to purchases from smaller companies. SAP, for example, experienced 100 percent growth in its midmarket business practice in 2000, according to company sources. In fact, the whole ERP market is back on the upswing, analysts say. That’s good news for companies large and small that were sweating out the fate of their investments in ERP a couple of years ago.