Yes to some extent. But certainly not Dead. Austin Merritt, VP Software Advise, explains it very clearly and the comments that he has received for his post expresses mixed feelings.

In my experience, clients want a Software that always fit their exact requirements. Compromise in their requirements is the sin they would least commit. They can’t be blamed for that. One would always start looking at an Accounting Software from their specific business requirements. Once they are convinced that this ERP fits their process, they start looking at the suppliments this product is going to offer them.

Most of the time, Customer Relationship comes first to their mind. Once we are happy with internal processes and the way we do our business, next comes a question: In spite of having best product to sell and also a vision, why we do not see Customers conversion and sales not going up? That’s when we start looking at a product which will give us clear picture (Past, Present & Future). CRM comes into picture.

Now once we visualise an ERP & CRM for our requirements, we start thinking of keeping these two working in tandem. Once we are clear with that, we start thinking about how to present the entire data inside these two systems meaningfully to arrive at Decisions. Business Intelligence comes into picture. How to collaborate all these things and keep it in one single place? Sharepoint comes into picture.

Clearly, we want an Overall System, that keeps our business safely and soundly and tell us what & how we need to go in future.

Vertical Software is always NOT the solution. We have to think beyond our processes. We have to start thinking something futuristic to keep us in a better position when we overshoot our current requirements. While we do have a core Business Area, we do would like to venture in something added to that. And at that time, we would require a system which handles new business requirements without giving nightmares and/or loses in implementing one.

My option in this case, would be, a Horizontal Accounting Software, with required Customizations to leverage each modules of that ERP to cater for varied in-depth requirements.

VAIDY