News - Software giants move in on SMEs
June 2007: Historically small firms used to dominate the lucrative market for software that helps small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) run their businesses. Now the big boys are moving in. They want a slice of a market that is worth more than $10bn a year and growing fast.
By Tim Weber, Business Editor, BBC News Website
Companies like Germany's SAP and US firm Oracle already dominate the market to supply enterprise resource planning software (ERP ) to huge corporations. To grow they have to go for smaller customers, not least because the world's emerging economies are "mid-market driven", dominated by rapidly growing SMEs, says SAP boss Henning Kagermann. And then there is Microsoft, which is pushing its range of ERP software yet again, now under the Microsoft Dynamics brand. Bracing themselves for the onslaught are market leaders like UK firm Sage, US-based Intuit, and many smaller players. Microsoft's biggest trump card, is the success of its Office software. Dynamics closely mirrors the look and feel of Office, and is tailored to different corporate roles: to sales people it will look like Outlook, to accountants like Excel, while casual users are offered a web portal. CedarOpenAccounts boss Mark Thompson (whose software targets firms that are too large for Microsoft Dynamics) calls it an "unbeatable" solution.
