Bristol, UK. Feb. 28, 2011 -- UNIT4, the world’s leading provider of business software for fast changing organisations, today cautioned ERP solution buyers against buying into “all or nothing” cloud computing models being promoted by some industry technology analysts.
A number of reports published in December/January, providing predictions for cloud computing in 2011, promote the one and two dimensional views held by some industry analysts, suggesting that multi-tenant cloud is the only way to gain the advantages inherent to cloud computing.
“We’re not exactly sure what is driving some of these analysts to such black and white views but they are causing confusion among the buyer community they are supposed to serve,” said Ton Dobbe, Vice President of Product Marketing, UNIT4. “What we are seeing and hearing from software buyers is very different. UNIT4 has a direct line to nearly 6,000 organisations and the reality is that these analyst predictions have little or no bearing on what much of the largest buyer segment – the mid-market – is asking for from vendors. This holds particularly true for the highly volatile market segment that we call Businesses Living IN Change (BLINC). Today’s cloud solutions are starting to come of age when it comes to functional scope, and although they serve the needs of many organisations, they do not support the needs of a rapidly growing group of organisations that experience ongoing pressures from business change.”
UNIT4 has successfully installed several hundred organisations both on multi-tenant cloud solutions, but also a growing number on hybrid, virtualised cloud computing models that are reaping substantial cost savings. In a recent case study, the CFO of one European client, PRI Pensiongaranti, reports that UNIT4’s hybrid cloud computing model has quickly, cost-effectively and seamlessly met all of the company’s cloud computing requirements – without the underlying data security, data residence and change control concerns that are still driving many ERP buyers away from pure cloud computing models.
“The underlying architecture of an application, whether cloud or on-premises, either supports easy change or it doesn’t,” Dobbe continued. “Rapidly changing companies in particular are seeking technology options that meet their own unique business requirements. Consequently the organisational and operational effects when dealing with reorganisations, mergers, acquisitions, compliance and regulation etc, are still not addressed by the majority of on-premises or cloud solutions,. It's therefore likely that the key drivers for replacement of on-premise ERP will continue in the cloud era. The big ERP companies have successfully glossed over this issue and convinced some industry analysts that cloud technology solves the change problems these companies have always had. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Instead, UNIT4 advises enterprise solution buyers to focus on their business requirements first, then their technology management preferences, and only then their deployment models. Focusing only on rapid-change organisations that UNIT4 calls BLINC, UNIT4 offers two change-supporting cloud-based solutions with a choice of deployment options:
- A full ERP suite mode for Agresso Business World (called Vita Cloud Angel ™)
- A financials-suite- only approach for Coda Financials (called Coda Cloud Rebel ™), for organisations preferring to mix and match their own best of class solution set.
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About UNIT4
UNIT4 is a global business software and services company aimed at helping dynamic public sector, and commercial services organizations to embrace change simply, quickly and cost effectively in a market sector it calls 'Businesses Living IN Change' (BLINC)™. The Group incorporates a number of the world’s leading change embracing software brands including Agresso Business World, our flagship ERP suite for mid-sized services intensive organizations and Coda, our best-of-class financial management software.
In the UK we focus strongly on the public sector, where we are the leading provider of ERP systems to local government and post 16 education organisations, as well as having a considerable presence in the emergency services and health sectors. We also focus strongly on professional services organisations and a range of commercial sectors including Financial Services, Retail and Media and Publishing. Overall we aim to be the UK’s foremost business software company, providing solutions that transform the delivery of public services and comprehensively support commercial organisations in their ability to adapt and prosper in rapidly changing environments.
With operations in 17 European countries, as well as 7 countries across North America, Asia Pacific and Africa and sales activities in several other countries, its revenue was €421.7 million in 2010. UNIT4 is headquartered in Sliedrecht, the Netherlands and has over 4,000 employees. It is listed on Euronext Amsterdam and is included in the Amsterdam Midcap Index (AMX). For more information on UNIT4 or any of its operating companies, please visit the website at www.unit4.com
