Attached.

SUPPORTING INNOVATION THROUGH A CLOUD-BASED ERP
1

Supporting Innovation through a Cloud-Based ERP
Course
Name
Date

Instructor

SUPPORTING INNOVATION THROUGH A CLOUD-BASED ERP
2
Supporting Innovation through a Cloud-Based ERP
Introduction
The global Enterprise Resource Planning market has experienced tremendous growth
over the last several years. Like every other segment of the information technology industry, the
ERP industry is evolving fast. The sector has differentiated between large enterprises and the
small and medium business sectors. It is the second segment that is seeing rapid growth and the
emergence of new players in the ERP business. This paper identifies and describes the major
competitors in the cloud-based ERP market and identifies the critical capabilities that the cloudbased ERP competitors are focused on, as well as the key advantages these software packages
offer firms. It also reviews the application for one system and evaluates the strengths and
weaknesses of the system compared to that of its competitors.
The Description of Cloud-Based ERP Systems
In essence, Cloud computing means access remotely to computing services offered by
third parties, which are vendor offering cloud-based services. The cloud provides the users with
internet connection enabling the storage of solutions and other system capabilities. The data is
stored in a data center that allows multiple users to access and retrieve the relevant information.
The cloud also allows effective sharing of resources and many users can use at any time.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) may be described as integrated business applications. The
ERP tools have a common process and data model, with certain functioning processes. The
system delivers unified business processes and utilizes databases sustained with database
management system. Cloud-based ERP is essentially a new flexible business process
phenomenon that integrates the ERP services with cloud computing. Cloud-based enterprise

SUPPORTING INNOVATION THROUGH A CLOUD-BASED ERP
3
resource planning depicts an integrated scheme of immigration from in-house resources to shared
resources in which the customer and employees get enterprise services, on demand, from thirdparty service vendors by the Internet. When using the cloud-based services the customers allow
their control to go to the respective vendor, who provides solutions to run in-house for the
customers. The vendor can serve numerous customers on one database and application software
(Al-Ghofaili, & Mashari, 2014).
Major Competitors in the Cloud-based ERP Market
There are several major competitors in the cloud-based ERP market. These include Epicor,
NetSuite, and Microsoft.
Epicor
The vendor started in 1984 and worked initially with DOS, it later changed its products to
Windows and then followed a merger and acquisition path to acquire the companies offering
enterprise resource planning products and to offer their solutions as a comprehensive package.
Epicor has a presence in more than 150 countries and has more than 20,000 customers. Epicor
provides effective solutions, which are tailor-made for the specific needs of manufacturers,
distributors as well as service firms, supporting a comprehensive range of industries and vertical
market solutions. Epicor applications' global capabilities enable the local, regional, or centralized
deployment of master data and standard processes within a consistent, pervasive security
framework (Snellman, 2017).
NetSuite

SUPPORTING INNOVATION THROUGH A CLOUD-BASED ERP
4
NetSuite provides cloud financials, customer relationship management, e-Commerce, human
capital management and professional services automation management for different
organizations from fast-growing midsize companies to large global firms. In essence, each
component of NetSuite is modular, thus enabling it to be deployed and integrated with existing
investments as seen appropriate. NetSuite offers a complete cloud ERP system for global
businesses. Therefore, businesses running on NetSuite can operate a single chart of accounts
across subsidiaries, or use different charts-of-accounts for each company within a single instance
(Shukla & Verma, 2015).
Microsoft
Microsoft Dynamics is mostly focused on Tier II clients in the ERP space. It provides
solutions in some different business domains including the Customer Relationship Management
domain. A significant advantage of Microsoft products is the ease of use. This aspect holds for
its ERP products as it automates and streamlines financial, customer relationship, and supply
chain processes in a way that enables an organization to drive business success (Hedges, 2017).
Capabilities these Competitors are focused on
Competitors work to ensure that the security is built in from the role based security at an
individual level all the way up to the division and the business level. They focus on
customizability, where they check carefully how flexible the solution is and what adding new
functionality entails, to determine how much one can customize without needing to ask for
support. Technical Fit; the solution must fit the technology already being used – for instance, if
an entity is solidly on the Windows platform and use SQL Server as the database, one could opt
for an ERP solution built on. Interface with vendor and client systems is a crucial area of focus

SUPPORTING INNOVATION THROUGH A CLOUD-BASED ERP
5
where electronic data interchange with collaborators and clients is often essential and provides
this functionality. Another capability is integration, where hybrid apps must support a common
set of integration technologies. Competitors evaluate the impact of high latency on real-time
integrations and estimate the budget for maintaining the integrations that can change over time
(Duan, Faker, Fesak & Stuart, 2013).
Key Advantages that these Software Packages offer Firms
These software packages profit clients by giving provision versatility and lessened
equipment costs. Also, clients can put together an internal cloud to lower the continuous
equipment expenses while supporting more significant control over coordination or integration
and by getting access to their data server. Therefore, there is reduced ERP cost and better
support. The software packages enhance system speed and performance. Such enhanced system
speed and performance can, in turn, augment user satisfaction and business efficiency. Enhanced
ERP mobility is also n advantage where the clients check and update important data in cloud
ERPs immediately after the data occurs regardless their locations, and thus ensuring high
business efficiency and performance (Duan, Faker, Fesak & Stuart, 2013).
A Review of Oracle Cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning
Oracle ERP Cloud Service combines the power of Oracle ERP applications with the
simplicity of the cloud so that organizations can fully transform their back-office operations. It
focuses on financial and procurement functions such as planning and budgeting, sourcing, and
inventory management. Oracle Cloud ERP ensures that the production environment is
maintained to the most current update levels always providing notifications to clients in advance
of any maintenance downtime as a result of cloud updates (Miranda, 2013).

SUPPORTING INNOVATION THROUGH A CLOUD-BASED ERP
6
Strengths and Weaknesses
The system’s strengths entail the aspect that it provides a global enterprise solution, not
just a siloed, departmental offering. Global capabilities, security, and performance of the system
meet even the most demanding requirements. The system moves beyond simply accessing
information to taking action with information, and addresses how people work, not focusing
solely on transaction efficiency. However, the system can be less user-friendly, which limits its
applicability in different contexts. It is difficult to implement and operate the system in an
environment...