ABSTRACT
The investment made in purchasing and implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is a significant enough part of a company’s expenditure to make it worth taking time to consider the nature of the marketplace. The marketplace has evolved at an alarmingly rapid rate reflecting the rapid developments in technology, rapid increase in demand for applications and the opportunities for new entrants who adopt the next generation of technology advance. The mainstream ERP players, as they attempt to come to terms with the maturity of their traditional market, re-establish themselves and break free into new markets, embracing all that encompasses Supply Chain Management, Customer Relationship Management and e-commerce. A buyer of an ERP system is in a position to start making use of the purchased application, both the technology and the vendor will have moved on in their evolution.
