Managed services aren’t just for small business. In fact, the managed service providers see ample opportunity in mid-size businesses. But targeting the mid-market often means competing with well-funded, profitable consulting firms that specialize in host ERP (enterprise resource planning) applications.
A case in point: Ciber Inc., a publicly held solutions provider with about $1 billion in annual revenue, has announced a managed services partnership with Lawson Software. The consulting firm plans to host and manage Lawson’s ERP applications for customers.
Lawson is a classic mid-market software provider. The company’s software typically fits somewhere above Microsoft Dynamics but below enterprise ERP suites from Oracle and SAP.
About a year ago, Lawson became far more aggressive in the managed and hosted services market. In March 2007, the company announced Lawson Total Care Platinum, a hosted ERP service that also included application management and support services. Early backers of the hosted offering included IBM.
While ERP isn’t necessarily a sweet spot for many MSPs, some solutions providers are certainly are moving into the hosted ERP space. Microsoft Dynamics, in particular, has been attracting interest from solutions providers that want to host ERP and CRM (customer relationship management) applications.
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Posted In: Platforms | Software as a Service and Hardware as a Service
Tags: Ciber | CRM | Customer Relationship Management | Enterprise Resource Planning | ERP | IBM | Lawson Software | Microsoft
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Dynamics is the way to go. Lawson, Oracle and others are too complex for the small msp looking to get into erp.
IMHO, ERP is not part of the managed services discussion. At least it’s not here in London. I’d be curious to know if any US MSPs are testing hosted applications (ERP, CRM) as part of their offerings.
Carol: I have to agree with Kirk in terms of who has the buzz with hosted ERP in US, at least in small businesses. It’s Dynamics.
We are an ERP consulting firm with an MSP proprietary model specific for ERP. We have great traction and interest from SMB to the largher corps. We can increase clients ROI’s significantly compared to the consulting world. We even provide implementations under this model without issue.
I would be interested in talking with you folks in the UK just out of curiousity.
Darian: So, how do readers get in touch with you?
The Aner Group provides ERP Managed Services and Hosting in the Oracle and PeopleSoft application space. It’s not that difficult if you know the application(s) and the database inside and out.
I would be happy to speak with anyone interested in gaining the much improved service levels AND roi realized by this delivery model (jeff.hanestad@anergroup.com)
Jeff: I’d like to hear more about Aner Group. I’ll be sure to reach out to you. Please also feel free to touch base with me (joe [at] NineLivesMediaInc.com). Thanks.