I read interesting stuff on ERP and Web 2.0 everyday. It's clear something's afoot but IT pundits continue to discount the 'demographics'. Every large company that is going to invest in ERP has already done so.
Ergo the battle is for the smaller companies. How small? Maybe that doesn't matter. What matters is usability. Why? In a large company the positive cashflows from any investment in ERP are generated by the reduction of overhead - primarily people. In a smaller organization, these are harder to realise but the need for ERP is just as real because managing a fragmented spreadsheet-based picture of the company is horrible.
BUT... users in smaller organizations are far more influential than in larger organizations. They behave more like CRM users. They don't like an application... they will ignore it and keep doing things the old way.
In a larger company this behaviour will result in the user eventually being shown the exit door, in a smaller company, owner/managers can't afford to assist the exit of every rebel.
And here's the rub; Web2.0 (or 3.0) can be ERP's saviour. Someone, somewhere figure this out. Is there a pageflakes for ERP out there that can add a user layer to make ERP pretty?
Pigs in lipstick rule.
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