SYS-CON Events announced today that Verizon has been named “Gold Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 13th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 4–7, 2013, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Verizon Enterprise Solutions creates global connections that generate growth, drive business innovation and move society forward. With industry-specific solutions and a full range of global wholesale offerings provided over the company’s secure mobility, cloud, strategic network...| By Tom Miller | Article Rating: |
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| October 14, 2013 01:31 PM EDT | Reads: |
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Cloud computing has been an important trend for several years now and that trend is continuing to gather weight with new and improved ERP software offerings for manufacturers. Like any ERP selection choice, the decision to move to the cloud has pros and cons compared to traditional on-premise ERP systems.
One of the biggest advantages, regardless of the vendor selected, is low cost of ownership. There is little up-front cost for cloud ERP software and often no additional hardware cost. One low subscription gets the software now and includes all aspects of ERP support. You don't need a help desk and you don't need people to maintain the servers required for an in-house ERP.
Another major advantage to cloud ERP is that you can use it anywhere. This is not just mobile. If you acquire another business, your ERP is ready to use in the cloud right away.
Start up is very quick. Epicor estimates 20- 30 days to go live. Many traditional ERP systems require years to prepare before ERP go-live.

Two Sides to Every Story
On the other hand, manufacturers have many specialized needs that might not be satisfied by one-size-fits-all ERP systems from cloud providers. I can only find one cloud system specifically designed for process manufacturers. Generally cloud ERP systems are designed for small job-shop types of manufacturers. Cloud systems are still behind in-house systems in rich functionality available to a wide variety of manufacturers needs.
There are still only a small percentage of manufacturers using cloud ERP. This means your peer group whom you might contact for help and suggestions is quite small. You will be the guinea pig, so to speak.
Things are changing though. Netsuite began with light assembly and less complex manufacturers as its target. They now provide work in process tools that will broaden the target market substantially and they continue to improve the scope of their system. Plex began with automotive suppliers in mind and has solutions to fit a wider variety of manufacturers today. Microsoft recently made their dynamics software available over the cloud. Epicor, Infor, QAD, SAP all have cloud ERP available and more providers will add cloud offerings to meet the needs of manufacturers over time.
If you think cloud ERP is the answer for you and your business but still don't see what you need, be patient. What you need is probably coming soon to an internet connection near you.
Published October 14, 2013 Reads 309
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More Stories By Tom Miller
Tom Miller is an ERP project manager and writer at ERP Focus - the free and independent resource for ERP advice and knowledge. He has completed implementations of Epicor, SAP, QAD, and many more ERP systems in manufacturing companies across North America. For daily ERP updates, follow @ERPfocus on Twitter.
SYS-CON Events announced today that Verizon has been named “Gold Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 13th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 4–7, 2013, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
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The journey to the cloud has created demanding new challenges for IT departments who are tasked to support global users accessing applications from a multitude of devices. As the pace of application development and deployment increases, organizations need ways to provide global scale and optimal performance without sacrificing security.
In his session at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, Tim Bishop, Strategic Engagement Manager at Akamai Technologies, will provide technical details for how d...
Cloud computing continues to gain momentum as enterprises of all sizes and across all industries seek to harness the business agility promised by this computing model. Despite its long-accepted benefits, the cloud has also fallen victim to performance and reliability challenges, combined with a perceived lack of security. As a result this has led to slower predicted growth and adoption of this still promising infrastructure methodology.
In his Lunch Keynote at the 13th International Cloud Expo...
What should you pack in your suitcase to be prepared for the Journey?
According to a recent marketing survey - 91% of IT decision makers have a positive opinion of cloud computing. So how do they get the corporations they manage to leverage the cloud for growth and keep the same standards or improve the business processes, legal, compliance, finance and operations?
A 2013 McKinsey survey reported that 75% of CEOs find value for their company in Cloud Computing. So what are corporations waiti...
SOASTA’s five-year journey began at the very first Cloud Expo back in 2008 when they launched an enterprise cloud service called CloudTest. CloudTest quickly became one of Cloud Computing's "Killer Apps" by helping the world’s largest consumer brands to test and deliver quality online experiences. SOASTA is a story of the evolution of cloud computing through the eyes of one of its largest consumers. What SOASTA learned along the way may help you with some challenges and pitfalls of cloud computi...
Overlay networks (virtual networks built on top of existing networks) introduce exciting new potential for a highly inclusive Hybrid Cloud.
In his session at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, Matt Shover, Manager of RackConnect Operations at Rackspace, will talk about the practical application of overlay networks and how it may be able to help you solve scalability, security, and availability challenges. He will cover:
A primer on overlay networks
Practical applications for layer 2 adjacen...
As the storage landscape continues to change, the industry must differentiate and mature its business beyond a standardized market by designing new platforms, features and products for specific customers and application workloads. New products and services in the cloud are fueling the growth for faster storage solutions and improvement in throughput and I/O performance with no latency. Economical and operational pressures in the data center to do more with less are driving the need for reduced t...
SYS-CON Events announced today that Domo, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) venture that is redefining the business intelligence (BI) market and transforming the way business is managed, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 13th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 4–7, 2013, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Domo is a new form of business intelligence unlike anything before—a cloud-based business management platform that transforms the way org...
SYS-CON Events announced today that SOA Software, an API Management and SOA Governance leader that powers the API economy by helping businesses to fast-track API deployment, drive developer adoption, and reach more customers, has been named “Gold Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 13th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 4–7, 2013, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
SOA Software is a leading provider of API Management and SOA Governance products that enable orga...
How can one effectively Sync and Move large volumes of content from existing on-site storage platforms like SharePoint, Network File-Shares and ECM systems with Business Cloud services?
In his session at the 13th International Cloud Expo®, Jonas Sostakas, a Senior Systems Engineer at Portal Architects, will illustrate how to overcome the challenges of syncing large-volumes of content across on-site and cloud-based storage platforms, followed by live demonstration. Tightly integrate and bridge ...
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