Bristol, UK, July 28, 2011, UNIT4 Business Software Ltd, the UK division of UNIT4, the world’s leading provider of business software for Businesses Living IN Change (BLINC), today published research findings from 54 councils in the UK, that confirm Agresso Business World customers in local government are spending considerably less to run their ERP systems than their counterparts working with the two brand leaders. In many cases, councils using Agresso are spending up to 3.5 times less in annual running costs, with almost half the number of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff supporting the software.
Late last year UNIT4 – whose Agresso Business World ERP solution is used by more UK councils than any other - announced the findings of research among 20 UK councils that found they spend on average £1.2 million per year maintaining other ‘big ERP’ systems. A further independent survey conducted from April to June this year compares the annual ERP running costs reported by 54 UK councils and the number of full time IT support staff needed for Agresso Business World versus the two ‘big ERP’ brands.
Users of the two brand leading ERP solutions reported that they employ on average 1.1 FTEs and 0.72 FTEs respectively to support their ERP system for every 1000 employees, but for Agresso this figure was just 0.62.
The average cost to maintain ERP systems for every 1000 residents was reported to be £3,024 PA and £1,680 PA for the same big ERP brands. Agresso local government users have a considerably lower cost of ownership, on average spending just £870 PA using the same measurements.
“The flexibility of Agresso has been incredibly important to us,” said Steve Vasey, Finance Manager (Business Services) at Xentrall, the shared services venture between Stockton-on-Tees and Darlington Borough Councils. “The sector has been particularly volatile recently but because we use Agresso we can adapt our systems internally without spending precious budget on external IT consultants.”
Agresso Business World is uniformly acknowledged and documented both by industry technology analysts and customers to offer unrivalled post-implementation agility.
“It came as no surprise to us that some councils are spending 248 percent more to run other ERP systems but there’s no reason that needs to be the case as the days of ERP vendors holding users hostage are over,” said Anwen Robinson, Managing Director of UNIT4 Business Software Ltd. “This proves that not all technology can adapt to more austere times and clearly highlights the need to consider the total cost of owning ERP as the ongoing financial burden of maintaining systems can be very high.”
With more than 170 local government customers in the UK and Ireland, UNIT4 is already the number one provider of ERP systems to the sector. The company is continuing to expand its market share with a series of recent wins where rapid, low cost change management has been the influencing factor.
A high resolution infographic illustrating these findings is available to download here
A PDF of the infographic illustrating these findings is available to download here
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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, follow us on Twitter @ UNIT4_UK
