I do not know how many of you saw this study by the Yankee Group. They say that ERP vendors do not have a strong hold on their customers which makes it hard to sell them additional software. The study ranks different ERP vendors.


See here.

http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=17301674#

What's the reason behind buying an ERP system (and having a support contract)? You want to have a system that get's updated when new technologies arrive. That's the reason for an ERP system - not the need for "best of breed" business processes or whatever else the marketing guys do think of.

Trying to *sell* those updates to the customer base it what Baan was trying to do all the time and what SSA is still doing. I don't think that was/is a good strategy, I know many customers that were/are really angry about that behaviour.


Uli

I agree with Uli's comments.

The irony of it is that Baan failed to sell much additional software to most of its customers but the sure did generate ill feelings.

I think we need to give SSA a bit more time before we pass final judgement on their modus operandi and business ethics.

If Version 6 is free and the upgrade straight forward and SSA don't try to extort conversion charges or rescind source code, then they will be good guys. I think they still have to clean out a lot of the ex-Baan employees yet. In my view they need to rid themselves of all ex-baan peple who were managers or above and all those who dealt with customers.

Terry