Why does Baan seem to be less popular than other ERP's such as SAP?

Lacking functionality? Surely Baan has the edge over a lot of the other ERP's in many different areas?

So why do many companies opt for other ERP's? Is it really a purely functional decision?

What is the future for Baan then? Arise triumphant amongst its competitors?

Do Invensys have suitable goals implemented that would make Baan better in the future? At least to become more popular? Baan software certainly has the correct foundations but does the company?

Should Baan/Invensys then be communicating/advertising to the community in a better way?

Lets discuss the best of classe (BOC) in the ERP software:

- SAP is BOC in finance, undiscutible.
- Baan is BOC in manufacturing, also undiscutible.
- JD Edwards is BOC in Human Resources.
- [Others?]

If we take a good look at the companies out there, we see that manufacturing went really down the last years, while services companies pop out like mushrooms everywhere. Also lately I see too many companies that focus only on HR (job hunting anyone?).

I think that this company trend is what lead to Baan having such a small quota of the ERP market, giving the lead to SAP. We also have to think about support, where SAP is really strong when compared to Baan.

just look at the size of SAP implementation practices present in the major consultancies. SAP projects take longer and do need more consultancy input, so it is no surprise they are the ERP of choice for the big firms. Baan will be bid only where SAP is unlikely to be acceptable