On January 11, 2020 I published an article on LinkedIn on the 3 Reasons to Partner with a Leading Software Company. There a plenty of business management systems in the market which can perform required tasks; however, this third blog on the subject is focused on market Leadership.
In general I believe a leader is created by their followers. You follow a leader because you want to, were a commander has authority to compel you to march. Technology and software development are more linked today than ever and choices are emerging whereas there used to be greater monopoly power. For example, we have seen growth of Linux operating systems, Mongo, HANA and MySQL databases and other technologies which create more options and better business cases for developers. Although Microsoft still dominates the office productivity suite, they are also adapting under the pressure of Google and other new competitive pressure.
Leading Change
The largest providers of business management software and technology are being challenged and have the wherewithal to respond. We talked about size and adaptability which enable response and the stability you want for your business management platform. The last attribute for consideration is leadership.
In the second blog in the series on Adaptability we talked about three biggest changes in technology currently affecting ERP being:
- Cloud deployment and/or interaction
- In memory computing (big data and analytics), and
- Artificial intelligence
When looking at the publishers and researching the investment in these trends, you get a sense of how they adapting their products. Although many publishers will argue that they have products born with these trends, the reality is ERP is evolutionary not revolutionary as most businesses can’t afford the uncertainty or withstand dramatic revolutionary change on a regular and recurring basis.
Some products were born in the cloud and struggled to become viable, where others were born on premise and struggled to make it to the cloud. The leaders have all made the transition to include cloud, in-memory and AI. They are all now working toward Customer Experience (CX) and quantum computing or the next technology you may not even have heard of.
Leading Cloud
I-BN didn’t invent the cloud, but we started hosting Sage 100 cloud in 1999 and SAP Business One in 2003 because we saw the potential for the technology for small to mid-sized business. We didn’t create Office 365 integration or Azure Active Directory integration, but we saw how incorporating single sign on would improve the customer experience when using our cloud. In developing our Cloud 3.0 platform, we partnered with CodeLathe for FileCloud, and ManageEngine for cloud service and operations management. We observe and identify leading products and providers that can be integrated into cloud platforms to make powerful business technology simple.
I-BN was never the largest cloud service provider, but we were considered a leader in our segment. By specializing in small to mid-market business management software and the database platforms, we select clouds specifically for the application, database technology and computing profile to optimize for performance and adaptability. These “application defined clouds” provide the right balance of performance and flexibility without sacrificing security. Because we have succeeded for over 20 years, software providers call on our experts to participate in forums, leadership councils and to speak at events.
For more information call one of our solution architects at 678-627-0646, or e-mail an I-BN representative at ibn@i-bn.net.