April 26, 2011 - Almost 60 percent of respondents to a study conducted for IFS North America said their enterprise resource planning (ERP) or other enterprise software slows them down and prevents their organizations from changing the way they do business. The results of the survey, conducted by an independent research firm among more than 200 executives with mid- to large-sized manufacturing companies throughout North America, is sobering proof that the ERP, enterprise asset management (EAM) and other enterprise software is in many cases more of a hindrance than a help to businesses that need to adapt to changes brought on by market shifts, customer demands, merger and acquisition activity, and new products and business models.
Specifically, 57 percent of respondents said that their ERP software forces them to do things in a proscribed way and cannot be configured to accommodate different processes, and 54 percent agreed that once in place, their enterprise software is very difficult to reconfigure, “as if it were dipped in concrete.” “As we look at our customer and prospect base, the one constant is change,” IFS North America President and CEO Cindy Jaudon said. “That is probably why 57 percent of respondents to this study said they wished ERP vendors would design enterprise software for fast implementation and reconfiguration.”