Executives in charge of ERP applications are working hard to keep pace with new functionality and products coming from Oracle and other ERP vendors, but while they seek to upgrade to new solutions, many are feeling intense budgetary pressure. Close to half of the executives in a new survey say they have held off on new upgrades for at least a few years.
These conclusions are based on a new survey of 266 enterprise application and business managers involved with or knowledgeable about their organization's budgeting process, conducted among members of the Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG). The survey, which explored ERP upgrade strategies, was fielded by Unisphere Research, a division of Information Today, Inc., in partnership with Fujitsu America, Inc. in August 2012.
A majority of respondents report that portions of their ERP upgrade budgets come from outside of the IT departments, particularly from finance. ERP upgrades are often big-budget projects, and thus likely to be subject to changing financial conditions occurring within organizations. Close to one-fourth of respondents report that their original ERP upgrade budgets have been scaled back over the past year due to economic circumstances.
While a large portion of enterprises in the survey have been holding back on their ERP upgrades, a new round of upgrades is imminent, according to the survey. A total of 42% of respondents say that they are either in the process of an upgrade or planning to do so within the next 12 months.
Get the report, titled “The ERP Investment Climate: 2012 OAUG Survey on ERP Upgrade Economics,” here.