Mobility, social and cloud are crucial, says Gartner

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Research firm Gartner feels that ERP and business application suites will continue to dominate application software investment. Cloud, mobility and social, it says, will be unavoidable features in enterprises' parlance.

Gartner managing vice president Alexander Drobik feels that in-memory technologies are good and reduces cost via database and legacy applications offloading.

"Vendor wars are increasing, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM and SAP focuses on different needs and objectives within enterprise," said Drobik.

Gartner research director Sunil Padmanabh said that ERP is no more about back office integration. "Enterprises are trying to leverage ERP in unconventional sense, while measuring customers' productivity is becoming important," he said.

SMBs, in the areas of exports and trade, are jumping to cloud ERP and have actively started pursuing it.

"There have been several opportunities emerging in the public sector. Government's focus to integrate public services as well as e-tendering and e-procurement are a welcome step," Padmanabh said.

Indian companies, he added, will have more choices in ERP adoption with new technology and mobility trends. "Going forward, mobile, social and cloud will be the most happening areas," opined Padmanabh.

Gartner believes that SAP's mobility solution may see more traction in next one to two years. The company has been actively working with partners in this arena. SAP, he believes, is driving thought process in the mobility space in India.

Microsoft, though actively involved in SMB pace, is trying to educate clients around mobility. Many large enterprises, Padmanabh said, are looking at Microsoft Dynamix as a tier-II solution.

Oracle has been focusing on Fusion apps and trying to enable its early adopters. Ironically, the progress, Padmanabh said, is lukewarm. On the other hand, IBM will be able to see traction in cloud and retail in days to come.

The key areas that companies should focus at, Gartner said, include roll-out innovation, leverage of analytics, competitive pricing, shared services and outsource potential.

The firm also recommends that vendors should make their capabilities clear with strategic options, as well as they should provide clear roadmap to support cloud, mobile, social and analytics.