ERP boom reaches plateau

NEWS Growth in the ERP (enterprise resource planning) market is declining, according to the latest figures by IDC. Last year's 30 per cent increase has been equalled this year, despite predictions of growth. Anne-Lise Wang, director of European Software Research at IDC, said vendors will have to add features and functions to their software to automate the front office. She claimed such a move would further the technology's use beyond the manufacturing industry, which is the heaviest buyer of ERP. Retail, wholesale and services industries are other major ERP users. SAP, Oracle and Baan continue to lead the ERP market with each company's share showing moderate growth. Despite SAP's domination at the high-end, figures for the latest quarterly breakdown show a slowdown in sales. The company only sold 2 per cent more software licences in the past three months compared with the same quarter last year.