Report:

Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises

Top Vendor Products for Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises in 2024

• Epicor Software
• IFS
• Infor
• Microsoft
• Oracle (Fusion Cloud ERP)
• SAP (S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition)

Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises Vendor Product Comparisons 2024

• Epicor Software - Leader
  

  Pros:

  • Robust midsize offering for discrete: Epicor provides a comprehensive, single-vendor ERP solution tailored for midsize enterprises, integrating core operations into a cohesive system and effectively managing complex requirements specific to discrete manufacturing, engineering workbench and advanced subassembly operations.
  • Data-driven ERP approach: Epicor's product strategy to deliver a cognitive ERP continues its evolution from traditional transactional ERP systems to a data-driven operational model, enabled by AI and business intelligence capabilities. Its "data as a service" (DaaS) approach is innovating data sharing within enterprises and their extended ecosystems to optimize supply chain processes and minimize disruptions.
  • Embedded integration platform as a service (iPaaS): Epicor's low-code integration workbench, Automation Studio, enables users to automate workflows and connect disparate systems without extensive coding, allowing users to streamline operations and integrate systems seamlessly.

  Cons:

  • Geographic coverage: Epicor continues global expansion, with plans to expand its Europe and Asia presence in the next three years. Customers entering new product lines or regions should evaluate their alignment with Epicor's multiregional support strategy, ensure completeness of country localizations, verify regional presence, and assess local partner capabilities and regulatory compliance.
  • Sustainability and ESG considerations: Although Epicor has made innovations in governance, risk and compliance (GRC), energy monitoring, and ERP reporting for sustainability, it is lagging behind current market trends. The roadmap includes a patent-pending carbon cost roll-up. If ESG goals are critical, evaluate Epicor's offerings to ensure they meet your specific requirements.
  • Missing app store: Epicor doesn't offer an app store, which means customers may face a more limited ecosystem of third-party applications and integration options specifically built on Epicor Industry ERP Cloud for enhancements. This environment may increase dependency on Epicor's own enhancement capabilities, potentially limiting flexibility and innovation. Epicor offers a library of packaged integrations with Automation Studio, as well as industry-certified integrated extensions for independent software vendors (ISVs).


• IFS - Visionary
  

  Pros:

  • Strong industry focus: Through granular licensing, IFS supports customers needs ranging from moderate to complex manufacturing, and markets a portfolio of integrated capabilities with manufacturing execution systems (MES), EAM and field service. The solution strategy offers a core set of capabilities that organizations can then augment with additional components according to their strategic needs.
  • Remanufacturing coverage: IFS provides differentiating functionality for circular manufacturing to reduce waste, where organizations can use old parts — disassembling, repairing and reusing them in manufacturing new products.
  • Composability strategy: IFS continues to provide depth of capabilities that give customers an opportunity to follow a composable strategy. IFS Cloud has built-in IFS Cloud Designers for UI configuration (i.e., Lobby pages, Workflows, and Queries), and the IFS Connect integration tool, along with a well-populated API library, delivering options that help users customize their solution inside-out or outside-in.

  Cons:

  • AI and sustainability capabilities: IFS is heavily invested in AI and sustainability functionality, but it is still behind some peers when comparing the maturity of AI scenarios or the scope of greenhouse gas emissions measurements covered. Current and prospective customers should evaluate IFS' roadmap in these areas when making investment decisions.
  • Modular licensing and lagging adoption rates: Prospects and customers looking to implement or expand functionality within IFS need to pay close attention to licensing. IFS provides flexibility in terms of modules and functionality, which also makes it harder for clients to understand what they are buying. IFS is lagging in comparison with other vendors on adoption, which leads to relatively low visibility in service and pricing.
  • Partner network development: IFS' rapid organic growth continues to pressure the partner network that will be responsible for customer implementations. That network will need to mature at an accelerated rate to keep pace with IFS' growth track record and trajectory. Prospective customers should thoroughly evaluate the experience, capabilities and customer references of the network implementation partners to gauge suitability.


• Infor - Leader
  

  Pros:

  • Deep industry vertical focus: Infor is deeply committed to comprehensive, industry-specific functionality through its CloudSuite offering, which includes multiple ERP options tailored for specific industries. These solutions provide advanced core competencies, with minimal customization, through prebuilt industry best practice configurations.
  • Advanced Workspaces: Infor delivers Advanced Workspaces, which focus on role-based predesigned visualizations, process flows and configurations. They are delivered with specific persona-based settings that can be easily tailored to further drive productivity.
  • Augmented technical services: Infor enhances customers' ability to address mission-critical operational challenges through its Infor OS platform. This enterprise orchestration platform integrates AI, machine learning (ML), data fabric and other services to provide greater data-driven insights and process automation, thereby improving decision making and operational efficiency.

  Cons:

  • ERP selection process: Determining which core solution is best suited within the portfolio can be challenging when evaluating CloudSuite. When evaluating CloudSuite, customers must have clarity on the core capabilities required, versus capabilities that vary by industry, in order to make the best choice among the CloudSuite solutions.
  • Geographic coverage: Multiple core ERP solutions in the portfolio can complicate securing global support, consulting and managed services, as most systems integrators (SIs) specialize in only one of the core ERP solutions. Customers should identify the support, education and user network for each CloudSuite component. Infor's geographic coverage should be evaluated at each ERP core level and not at CloudSuite as a whole.
  • Market strategy and adoption: Infor supports large enterprise customers with complex and multiline operations; however, most of Infor's customers have less than $250 million in revenue. Prospective customers, especially large enterprises with multiple lines or highly customized processes, should evaluate their alignment with the Infor best practice flows and incorporate the change management required to adjust to vendor best practice recommendations.


• Microsoft - Leader
  

  Pros:

  • Vision of a modern ERP: Dynamics 365 has a strong vision for a modern ERP. Microsoft has a broad set of horizontal capabilities and technologies that allow for extensibility and connectivity. Modern user experience examples include mixed-reality guides on the shop floor and Copilot for Finance, which organizations can use for finance-specific automation, even if not running Dynamics 365.
  • AI and GenAI differentiation: Microsoft has differentiated itself by the scale of its AI and GenAI delivery to the market. Copilot in Dynamics 365 releases focused on creating content like Procurement Copilot, which generates vendor follow-up emails or similarly generated customer summaries for customer care teams.
  • Robust platform strategy: Dynamics 365 provides a robust Power Platform strategy to support development. It provides specialized solution development tools, like embedded Power BI, low-code extensibility, workflow automation, UI development, robotic process automation (RPA), AI and its GenAI Copilot, and is supported by a broad network of ecosystem partners that build tailored capabilities. The Power Platform delivers prebuilt product-centric integration to support end-to-end manufacturing execution, automated material handling, Internet of Things (IoT) sensor data integration and label printing.

  Cons:

  • End-to-end delivery complexity: Dynamics 365's Vertical solutions are supported by a network of ISVs, OEMs and SIs. Customers must be aware of the complexity being introduced in solution life cycle management, as this may involve different partners for delivering end-to-end solutions.
  • Complex manufacturing environments: There are still gaps in some product-centric capabilities required for complex manufacturing. Microsoft continues to release capabilities for traceability and product genealogy. Organizations should evaluate whether vendor capabilities are at a stage of development that meets their requirements.
  • Contract and pricing: Microsoft has established a defined semiannual cadence for aligning Microsoft Cloud pricing globally to U.S. dollar levels, and may make adjustments in response to currency fluctuations. Organizations should pursue transparency of regional price adjustments to determine movement attributable to currency inflation, versus any other factors influencing price realignments.


• Oracle (Fusion Cloud ERP) - Leader
  

  Pros:

  • Breadth of capabilities: Oracle supports customers' needs, including manufacturing, supply chain, finance, procurement, HCM, warehouse management system, transportation management system and enterprise performance management, in organizations with moderate to complex operating models. These capabilities are augmented with AI/ML features (e.g., more-intelligent guided "put-away" support in warehouse management).
  • Complex corporate capabilities coverage: Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP's robust data model enables adoption across organizations with complex corporate operating models that have requirements like planning across oceans, multitiered shipping, or transfer orders sourced from overseas vendors. These scenarios are supported with deep granularity, which distinguishes them among vendors.
  • Sustainability offering: Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP delivers comprehensive embedded sustainability. Its sustainability control tower brings together key measurement data and manages supplier compliance by way of GenAI-created questionnaires. Users can select the type of emissions to track and analyze.

  Cons:

  • Last-mile capabilities: Large, complex manufacturing enterprises will need to identify vertical gaps between requirements and configuration when using Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP. Although the offering will satisfy a wide breadth of horizontal solutions, users needing last-mile vertical capabilities will probably have to rely on Oracle's iPaaS capabilities for extensibility or integrate with partner ecosystem solutions.
  • Single-vendor presence (manufacturing): Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP is seldom used as a single vendor in complex manufacturing environments. In these cases, users typically see it as part of a tiered strategy to cover corporate requirements. Prospective customers with complex manufacturing requirements will need to seek peer connections to benchmark suitability.
  • Continued service and support improvements: Customer feedback reveals scores for service and support as lagging compared to other vendors in our analysis. Customers must pay attention to how SLAs are written in terms of client issues. These findings indicate an opportunity for Oracle to improve how it manages client problems and provide resolutions in a timely manner.


• Oracle (NetSuite) - Challenger
  

  Pros:

  • Infrastructure and services: NetSuite offers operational resources suitable for midsize enterprises. It incorporates Oracle's iPaaS resources, including a global data center presence, database services, integration capabilities and AI/ML capabilities. This integration enhances NetSuite's functionality and provides midsize enterprises with additional resources for creating tailored solutions.
  • ESG capabilities: NetSuite offers comprehensive functionality to cover sustainability by providing organizations with a robust tool to benchmark their ESG goals and gain insights through ML pattern recognition in incoming energy data, enabling the identification of anomalies to drive sustainability initiatives.
  • 360 dashboards: NetSuite continues investments in various 360 dashboards, making reporting and insights available for customers, vendors and cash flow on consolidated levels, with the functionality to drill down to various product components or subsidiary levels.

  Cons:

  • Manufacturing functionality: Organizations should ensure they understand the scope of NetSuite's manufacturing offering, as it may not fully align with more-complex manufacturing organization needs. Examples on the roadmap of developing capabilities include material returns and material staging.
  • Product delivery schedules: Despite continuous development, NetSuite has lagged in areas such as GenAI. Although it has announced plans for an aggressive rollout aimed at addressing this in the future, prospective buyers evaluating the solution should scrutinize delivery schedules for innovative capabilities that align with their modernization strategies.
  • Contracting and cost: In comparison to its market competitors, NetSuite's pricing structure often leans toward the higher end, especially for its target of midsize organizations. NetSuite offers pricing that ranges by users, data volume, infrastructure and support levels, providing some flexibility to customers as business needs grow.


• Plex, by Rockwell Automation - Niche Player
  

  Pros:

  • Midsize offering: Most Plex customers are lower-midsize, and the offering has a strong solution set to handle complex requirements for discrete and process manufacturing. These capabilities include native PLM, advanced engineer to order, a built-in electronic data interface and other capabilities supported by an implementation methodology for rapid adoption. Additionally, Plex provides a benchmarking service to provide customers with data on specific areas for process improvement.
  • MES expertise: Plex has historically delivered strong MES capabilities. It has native integrations and capabilities from the ERP solution with its MES solution, which is appreciated with its small and midsize business (SMB) segment of customers looking for a one-stop shop for manufacturing capabilities.
  • Contracting and pricing: Customer feedback indicates Plex is a highly rated vendor with regard to contracting. Plex's "elastic packaging" licensing gives customers the opportunity to license capabilities as needed. This approach is attractive to midsize organizations that can use revenue generated by specific plants as a price basis for specific process improvement components.

  Cons:

  • Geographically dispersed adoption: With a strong focus on manufacturing capabilities for primarily small to midsize organizations, Plex has a limited footprint across other industries, compared to peers. Adoption is primarily in North America, with global partners supporting international needs. Clients should evaluate its coverage of local, geographic-specific needs that are outside of the target market.
  • Artificial intelligence: Plex has deployed AI solutions in its supply chain planning functionality. It has acknowledged the importance and impact of AI, but has less-mature AI capability coverage when compared to its peers.
  • Customer support: Feedback from some existing clients, indicates support response times may be long. Prospective clients are advised to assess the adequacy of Plex's support model.


• Priority Software - Niche Player
  

  Pros:

  • Performance for small and midsize enterprises in EMEA: Priority Software has executed well in winning cost-conscious SMB manufacturing customers in EMEA, the region in which it is headquartered. Customers surveyed report high levels of satisfaction with the value for money delivered by its SaaS suite.
  • Implementation lead time: In comparison with peers, Priority Software is reported to have a short implementation project timeline, which is an advantage for SMBs looking to get onto an ERP in a short period of time.
  • Loading and unloading control: Priority Software has embedded capabilities for loading and unloading control for warehouse management, including digital signature, which appeals to target customers in the midsize enterprise (MSE) segment that don't want to spend time developing functionality for loading and unloading control.

  Cons:

  • Support: Users of Gartner's client inquiry service indicate that Priority Software's documentation updates and customer support, particularly with respect to resolution times when addressing new features and technical issues, can be inconsistent. Priority Software has stated plans to enhance and grow the function to address the issues.
  • AI and sustainability: Compared to peers, Priority Software has no clear roadmap on embedding AI and sustainability functionality in the product. Prospects looking for innovative solutions would need to work closely with Priority Software to better understand their roadmap.
  • User Interface: According to Gartner customer feedback, Priority Software's UI is behind the competition in terms of intuitive user experiences. Although Priority has recently refreshed its UI, there is opportunity to provide capabilities with embedded collaboration features, advanced visualizations or assistant-driven navigation, for example.


• SAP (Business ByDesign) - Niche Player
  

  Pros:

  • Target MSE adoption: SAP Business ByDesign has high adoption among its MSE client base, suggesting that it is well-suited to target customers. The solution provides sufficient breadth of capabilities and has several industry-specific solutions to better accommodate customers.
  • Horizontal ERP suite for MSEs: SAP's focus is on providing a comprehensive horizontal suite approach. This is attractive for customers in the MSE space looking for simplicity and a solution that may be able to cover administrative ERP functions, like finance and HR, as well as simpler, product-centric supply chain management capabilities.
  • Market understanding: The pricing model is straightforward, which is a known need of this offering's target market. Clients perceive this pricing strategy as beneficial when compared to the more complex pricing and licensing models of other solutions, such as SAP S/4HANA.

  Cons:

  • Portfolio position and future roadmap: SAP Business ByDesign; SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition (GROW with SAP); and SAP Business One all target the same MSE customers. Gartner has received feedback from customers and partners who are concerned about the future of SAP Business ByDesign as a product. Prospective customers should assess whether this uncertainty about the product's longevity is a risk to consider in their decision to shortlist SAP Business ByDesign.
  • Future innovation: Data points, including various communications from SAP, suggest that Business ByDesign is a "complete" product, which means that strategic new innovation is not concentrated to be delivered to the core of the product. While SAP pitches its business technology platform as a way to drive this innovation, this approach may require additional licensing and technical capabilities that go against the simplicity that favored most SAP Business ByDesign choices in the past.
  • Lower availability of resources: As a result of the higher emphasis on SAP S/4HANA, partner customer references mention challenges with motivating consultants to continue focusing on SAP Business ByDesign skills, especially new consultants. While still not a major issue, the long-term implications of this effect are starting to concern existing customers and potential prospects.


• SAP (S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition) - Leader
  

  Pros:

  • Comprehensive capabilities: SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition provides a comprehensive set of ERP operational capabilities for product-centric customer needs. The solution delivers PLM, supply chain planning, manufacturing planning, warehouse and transportation management (including SAP Sustainability Control Tower), and embedded AI/ML within the cloud instance.
  • Product-centric innovation roadmap: SAP's innovation roadmap includes advanced product-centric key capabilities, like predictive replenishment in retail and automated trade claims processing in consumer products, as some of the innovations are aimed at specific industries. It will also target specific AI capabilities in back-order processing, production order handling and quality management.
  • Partner ecosystem diversity: SAP's partner network is critical to reselling and delivery of programs, like GROW With SAP, which delivers SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. It promotes a strong global ecosystem of partners that consists of consulting services, development and integration services, business transformation services, implementation partners, technical migration partners, and ISVs.

  Cons:

  • Complexity in portfolio selection: In addition to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, the current solution being evaluated, users can also choose the S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition and On-Premise Edition. SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition currently has less breadth and depth of capabilities than SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition. Organizations struggle to understand which application is most suitable based on capability, degree of control or variability with user experiences.
  • Completion by line-of-business (LOB) solutions: SAP's strategy is to deliver S/4HANA as core operational and finance capabilities while delivering additional LOB solutions, like SAP SuccessFactors, SAP CX and SAP Analytics Cloud, as add-ons, which are not embedded as part of the GROW With SAP offering.
  • Pricing: Our client interactions reveal that SAP contract negotiation is complex. SAP often provides summarized proposals, with products listed in sections and a single price for each section. This strategy makes it difficult for prospective users to compare pricing for competitiveness and business cases.

Reference

• Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Cloud ERP for Product-Centric Enterprises, 11-Nov-2024, ID G00803806

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