Tech Update

A who's who of ERP By Adrian Mello February 7, 2002  Add your opinion Forward in Format for

and services for other parts of the market. For more information, contact the vendors directly using the associated links. Additional vendors of ERP software are listed in our product catalog.

Company	Market Served	Description
Baan	Medium to large companies	Baan is among the five largest ERP vendors and it provides a broad range of applications including supply chain management, customer relationship management, business intelligence, procurement, manufacturing, inventory management, logistics, demand fulfillment, portal, and collaboration tools. Baan's XML-based integration layer, called OpenWorld, is used to connect Baan components as well as third-party applications. The company is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Invensys.
BRAIN International	Medium companies	German company that focuses on automotive market segments including automotive machine construction, power/electrical engineering, construction elements and textile collections with special focus on the variant production industry. Provides applications for finance, supply chain management, sales force automation, merchandise management system, production planning and e-commerce.
Epicor	Medium companies	Offers integrated front- and back-office applications including financials, distribution, manufacturing, planning, scheduling, customer relationship management, sales force automation, business intelligence, e-commerce, and portals. Serves the manufacturing, technology, financial services, and hospitality markets.
Frontstep	Medium companies	Provides manufacturers and distributors with front- and back-office applications including business intelligence, customer relationship management, supply chain management, finance, planning, project management, and workflow. The company, formerly known as Symix, serves industries such as automotive, consumer products, electronics, telecommunications, and transportation.
Geac	Small to medium companies	Canadian company with applications including financials, human resources, manufacturing, procurement, sales, logistics, and supply chain management serving industries such as apparel manufacturing, auto-parts manufacturing, financial services, food and beverage processing, government, and construction.
Great Plains	Small companies	This leader in the small business market was acquired by Microsoft in December 2000 and is now a separate division within Microsoft's small business organization. Although originally focused on financials, applications are now available for human resources, distribution, manufacturing, and e-commerce.
IFS	Medium to large companies	Provides applications including engineering, design, manufacturing, distribution, maintenance, finance, human resources, customer relationship management, supply chain management, e-commerce, e-markets, e-procurement, project management, and portals for markets such as aviation, defense, energy, forest products, railways, and telecommunications.
J.D. Edwards	Medium companies	One of the five largest ERP software companies, J.D. Edwards provides OneWorld as a platform for integrating its ERP applications and third-party e-business applications over the Web. Applications include financials, human resources, project management, supply chain management, customer relationship management, supplier relationship management, asset management, business intelligence, and others for many segments within consumer and industrial markets.
Lawson	Medium companies	Targets professional services, health-care, financial services, retail, and public-sector markets. Software includes applications for financials, human resources, procurement, distribution, customer relationship management (through a partnership with Siebel Systems), services automation systems and analytics.
MAPICS	Medium companies	Provides manufacturers with customer relationship management, supply chain management, manufacturing, product lifecycle management, financial and business analytics, and maintenance and calibration management. Supports Windows, Unix, and AS/400.
Navision	Medium companies	Danish software company with applications for financials, human resources, inventory, contact management, manufacturing, distribution and logistics, and portals.
Oracle	Large companies	Recognized as the world's second-largest software company due to its leadership in enterprise database management software. For several years, Oracle has built on this business by providing ERP software to the point where it is second in market share only to SAP. Oracle's 11i e-business suite is tightly coupled to its database management software with applications including human resources, financials, manufacturing, project management, supply chain management, business intelligence, customer relationship management, sales force automation, and others.
PeopleSoft	Large companies	Among the large ERP providers, PeopleSoft has most vigorously embraced a Web-based architecture. The latest version of the company's software, known as PeopleSoft 8, provides access solely through a Web browser to applications including financials, human resources, project management and planning, service automation, performance management, customer relationship management, supply chain management, e-markets, portals, and others for communications, consumer products, government, financial services, health care, technology, utilities, and other industries.
QAD	Medium and large companies	Chiefly focused on manufacturing but also supplies complementary applications for supply chain management, e-markets, customer relationship management, and business intelligence. Targeted at automotive, packaged foods, electronics, industrial equipment, and medical and pharmaceutical markets.
Ramco Systems	Medium companies	India-based company with applications for production, sales, financial, human resources, logistics, plant maintenance, process and quality control serving industries such as aviation, construction, and energy.
Ross Systems	Medium companies	Focused on process manufacturing with features that handle attribute matching and tracking, available/capable to promise, lot and batch traceability, maintenance management, quality and regulatory requirements, quantity precision, and yield planning and tracking. Ross provides applications including supply chain management to financials, manufacturing, distribution, maintenance management, human resources, decision support and knowledge management for process manufacturers in industries such as food and beverage, forest products, metals, pharmaceuticals, and specialty chemicals.
Sage Group	Medium to large companies	A UK-based company whose early business was in accounting and payroll software. It has since grown through acquisitions to offer applications including financials, distribution, manufacturing, customer relationship management, human resources, time recording and billing products.
SAP	Large companies	The market share leader for packaged ERP software aimed at large enterprises. SAP provides a broad variety of applications including financials, human resources, manufacturing, project management and planning, business intelligence, customer relationship management, supply chain management, product lifecycle management, e-markets, portals, and others. The company's flagship product is the client/server-based R/3, which is gradually being transitioned to a Web-based architecture called mySAP.com.
SSA Global Technologies	Medium companies	A UK-based company that provides financials, manufacturing, supply chain management, inventory management, and e-commerce applications for industries including automotive supply, consumer packaged goods (including fast-moving consumer goods, food and beverage, and consumer electronics), pharmaceutical/specialty chemical, and general manufacturing.
Systems Union	Small and medium companies	A UK-based ERP vendor that provides financial and business management software under the SunSystems and Pegasus brands to industries such as energy, finance, government, hospitality, and telecommunications. SunSystems applications include financials, business intelligence, sales order management, purchasing, inventory management, and product management aimed at larger companies. Pegasus Software focuses on providing financial and accounting software to small to medium-sized companies.