Shortlisted ERP Vendors

Over the last decade or so the ERP market space has matured considerably. Whereas 10 years ago there might have been one or two players in the space, there are now many vendors offering a range of outstanding solutions.

This article will summarise the top six lenders in terms of their number of employees, annual sales, market share and customer base. As this is any rapidly changing industry, the circulation changes monthly so you might want to bookmark this page and return to it from time to time to ensure that you get the latest information.

Perhaps the best known vendor is SAP. SAP is based in Germany and has 17,000 employees. Their annual sales is estimated at $3.3 billion and they hold a commanding 30% market share. They have 9000 customers including Chrysler, Honda, IBM, Bank of Canada, Proctor and Gamble and General Motors.

The other major European vendor is Baan. Baan is headquartered in the Netherlands. It has just under 5000 employees with an annual turnover of approximately 700 million US dollars. It holds 5% market share with about 300 customers including Motorala, Mercedes Benz, Boeing and Nortel.

PeopleSoft, a Californian company, has just over 4000 employees with a turnover of $815 million. Its 6% market share consists of 13,000 customers such as Adidas and Nynex.

Oracle, also based in California, has 36,000 employees with an annual turnover of over $7 billion. It has a 10% market share. Its key clients include U.S. Postal Service, CBS, Nike and Kodak.

The other US vendor is J.D. Edwards. They have 4100 employees with a turnover of $650 million. Then for the half thousand customers comprise approximately 7% of the market share.

SSA is the only UK-based company on this list. They have two half thousand employees and an annual revenue of almost $450 million. Their market share is 5% and their clients include Revlon, United Distillers and Smith Kline Beecham.

All these vendor's offer of products which can operate on the latest client/server architecture. Their products are also web-enabled and can easily accommodate e-commerce applications.

Selecting a vendor is a nontrivial task. Generally, companies seeking to implement an ERP system, conduct an extensive formal evaluation of shortlisted venders. This is process can take up to six months and is often managed by external consultants who specialise in vendor selection.