when choosing the best Erp software for your organization it helps to look at what are the top 10 systems out there in the marketplace so what are the top 10 systems for 2024 and Beyond that's what I want to talk about here today my name is Eric Kimberling I'm the CEO of third stage Consulting we're an independent technology agnostic consulting firm that helps clients throughout the world with their digital transformation Journeys and when we're helping clients through digital Transformations we look at a lot of different things we help them evaluate features and functionality implementation cost and risk and overall fit of Erp Technologies with their digital transformation goals and objectives but oftentimes organizations get overwhelmed with all the different options out there and understanding what the best fit is for their organization so what I want to do today is talk about from an agnostic perspective what are the top 10 systems that you should be considering for 2024 and Beyond and just as a quick caveat note third stage Consulting is not affiliated with any of these software vendors or any other system in the marketplace this top 10 list is simply based on our experience helping clients select and Implement all different types of Solutions in the marketplace now if you're looking for more information about these software Technologies we're going to talk about here today or if you're looking for Best Practices to help make your digital transformation more successful I encourage you to read our annual digital transformation report it's a report we publish each year that covers a number of independent reviews and rankings and best practices for digital transformation to help your project be more successful you can read that by scanning the QR code here in front of you or you can go to the description field below for links to that report as well as other resources that will help you through your digital transformation Journey [Music] before we jump into the top 10 list for this year it helps to talk about the methodology we use this year compared to past years as well as what changes happened at a high level to the top 10 list first of all we'll talk about the changes so in other words what systems are no longer in the top ten that were in the top 10 last time we did this ranking well there's two vendors in particular that fell out of the top ten that were in the top 10 in the past one is Sage X3 and the other is accumatica not that there's anything wrong with these products but the Erp software field is becoming very crowded and there's a lot of movement and advances in the industry and there were just simply other vendors that moved further into the top ten and knocked those two out so that's the first thing to note is these two vendors are no longer in our top ten the other thing to note is our ranking methodology how did we decide who is or isn't in the top ten and how do we decide how the top 10 compared to one another well what we do is we look at overall functionality of the software we look at the cost and risk of deploying technology and we look at the result results that our own clients get from having Chosen and implementing these different Technologies and the beauty of being completely technology agnostic and 100 unaffiliated with all of these software vendors is that we get a broad view of the marketplace and we understand the good the bad the ugly of all the different software vendors and the outcomes that we see with our clients the one thing I'll say that is a bit different and has a heavier weighting this year than in years past is the failure rate of implementations we looked very heavily this year at what is the failure rate of these different vendors and that worked against some vendors in this case you'll see a couple of vendors that fell in the top ten largely because of their implementation results not so much because their technology or the functions and capabilities so that's a bit about the methodology so let's jump into the top 10 list now [Music] coming in at number 10 is the force platform and the force platform is actually owned by Salesforce and is created by a sales force and it's essentially a platform that allows Salesforce to be more than just a CRM solution which is what it's known for force allows organizations and third-party developers to extend salesforce's capabilities or change salesforce's capabilities by creating third-party applications and adding additional layers of features and functionality for specific functions and or industries that allow organizations to have a semi-tailored solution that's a broad Erp type of solution last year force was number nine on our list it dropped to number 10 but it's still a very strong solution and it's a good alternate for organizations that don't necessarily want a single application but they want to deploy a platform that gives them a lot of flexibility to tie together different systems and potentially even create their own custom applications to tie together with that Force platform now if you're looking for more information in a deeper dive into Salesforce and the force platform check out this video right here it's a review that I did not too long ago of Salesforce and this video will dive into the features and functionality of Salesforce in more detail coming in at number nine is odoo odoo is an open source system that has gained a lot of traction and momentum in the marketplace it was number eight on our list last year it fell slightly just a little bit to number nine mainly because there were two new entrants that moved ahead of odoo in the top ten but still enough to keep it in the top ten and the reason odoo is in our top 10 is because it offers a good alternative to smaller and mid-sized organizations that are looking for a system that gives them flexibility and allows them Simplicity in a sea of really complex Erp systems odoo is also very cost effective so a lot of smaller mid-size organizations that don't have big budgets are able to afford odoo but the downside risk of odoo is that it may not be big enough or complex enough or robust enough for a larger organization and another downside risk is they don't do as an organization seems to be getting a little ahead of itself trying to go after larger organizations when their software isn't quite capable of some of the larger more complex needs of organizations but despite those negatives there was enough strengths with odoo to keep it in our top 10 at number nine on the list and if you're looking for a deeper dive review of odoo and understanding the pros and cons and Strikes of weaknesses check out this video right here it's an independent review that I did of odoo that talks about what some of those strengths and weaknesses are in a bit more detail [Music] coming in at number eight is Oracle netsuite Oracle netsuite was number two last year and it dropped a few places to number eight largely because of some of the implementation challenges that we've seen amongst their customer base now let me start with the strengths though of what the strengths of the product are and why it's in our top 10 list first of all it's a Pioneer in the software as a service or the cloud space so they have a very mature product that's been around for a long time unlike many Legacy on-premise vendors that are just now making a migration to the cloud the other strength of netsuite is that it's designed largely for small and mid-sized companies so if we were just to look at our smaller clients and that's we would actually be much higher on our list in fact it might be as high as number one on our list if we were to look at our client base right now just among small clients but because we're looking at companies of all sizes and industries netsuite doesn't quite have the capabilities to support larger and even mid-size organizations and perhaps the biggest thing holding back netsuite in our top 10 list this year is the implementation results that we're seeing with some of our clients some of our clients have struggled with the relative lack of flexibility of the product combined with the complexity of the product as well and this is largely because of the SAS model when you have a software as a service model that is essentially multi-tenant that limits the flexibility of what you can do with it unlike other Cloud Solutions but all that being said netsuite is a very strong product it's used by a lot of organizations and if you're in the smaller mid Market it might be especially appealing to you now one other interesting data point as it relates to Oracle netsuite is it is actually number two on our list of the most commonly selected systems by our client base so that's something that's worth noting as well now if you're looking for a deeper dive into the strengths of weaknesses and the pros and cons of Oracle netsuite check out this video right here which is an independent review that I did recently of the pros and cons of the software thank you coming in at number seven this year is ifs and ifs is a unique solution that focuses heavily on construction and field services and some manufacturing and distribution and they're a software vendor unlike many others that are not trying to be everything to everyone they know what they're good at and they tend to stick to their knitting in that regard last year ifs was number five on our list and they are the seventh most selected system amongst the third stage Global client base which is why it's here in our top 10 again this year some of the strengths of the product include the focus that I talk about and the fact that they're growing fairly aggressively throughout the world and they're really putting a lot of effort and time and resources into building out their ecosystem of partners that can sell and implement the solution so those are some of the strengths some of the downside weaknesses are that because this is a general ranking of top 10 systems across all Industries ifs doesn't fit in all Industries and that's okay but it's something that does hold back ifs from being higher in our top 10 list having said that because they do Focus so much on certain industries they tend to have somewhat of a higher implementation success rate as a result of that now if you're looking for more information about the pros and cons of ifs in more detail check out this video right here it's an independent review that they did a VFS that talks about the strengths and weaknesses of the product in a lot more detail foreign [Music] coming in at number six is sap s4hana and s4hana dropped from number four in last year's ranking down to number six and it's also our number four most selected Erp system amongst our Global client base now as for Hana is a very robust product it can do a lot of different things it's designed and built for the Fortune 500 and the biggest organizations in the world that's the good news the bad news is that there are some material deficiencies in the product as they continue the transition from on-prem ECC and R3 types of solutions to their Cloud s4hana solution another reason that s4hana has dropped in our top 10 ranking is because the implementation results have not been as strong as other software vendors there have been a lot of sap implementation failures in recent years and in fact even in our own client base we've had a couple clients that have completely canceled their s4hana implementations because of material concerns with the product and with the implementation itself so for those reasons although the system is falling in our top 10 ranking it's still a very strong and very prevalent product in the marketplace and that's why it's number six for more information and details and understanding of the pros and cons of the system you can also check out this video which is an independent review of s4hana that I did not too long ago [Music] coming in at number five is a new entrant into our top ten and that is epicore and epicore is a vendor that owns a number of different systems that I'm not going to go into in a lot of detail here but they own Vantage and profit 21 and a few other different Erp systems that focus on different Industries some of the industries that Epicor focuses on includes manufacturing distribution and Retail those are three of the industries that we see that most commonly used in fact epicore is the fifth most commonly selected Erp software across our client base which is part of the reason why it's new to the top 10. another reason why epicore is new to the top 10 is because in years past they actually struggled as an organization they had a lot of troubled implementations they had stripped back on their Professional Services Group they had really cut back on their ecosystem of implementation Partners but in more recent years they've really put in in place a new leadership team that looks very promising and it's sort of an All-Star group of Executives that have been in the industry for a long time and the vendor itself and the products themselves seem to be headed in the right direction so for those reasons combined with the results we're seeing with our client base that's why epicore is number five on our list now if you want to learn more about the strengths and weaknesses of Epicor Vantage which is their Flagship product you can watch my independent review of the software which you can find right here on my YouTube channel [Music] coming in at number four is workday and workday has been on our list in the past but it wasn't in our top 10 list last year the reason it wasn't in our top 10 list is because some of the missing capabilities in core Erp functionality workday has historically been known as more of a financials and HCM or an HR sort of Technology but in recent years workday has invested heavily in Supply Chain management and really expanding the erps capabilities of the product the other reason why workday is new to our top 10 list and made the top 10 this year at such a high level is because more and more organizations are choosing workday they're gaining a lot of traction in their sales cycle and in the marketplace and their implementations do have troubles just like any software vendor but they seem to be building a positive track record of implementation success so you may have thought of workday as just in HR or just a financial type of system but it's important to think of workday as more of a complete Erp system if you're looking for more information about the pros and cons of workday in more detail check out this video right here which is an independent review of the pros and cons of the solution that I recently published on my YouTube channel [Music] coming in at number three is infor cloud Suite which is up from number six last year it's also the number three most selected system amongst third stages client base and the reason info Cloud Suite has moved up is largely because it's being selected at a higher Pace amongst our client base but also because Cloud Suite is starting to finally get some traction and some stability to the cloud Suite solution for a long time infor has really struggled with M3 and sightline and some of the other Legacy products and having a clear road map for cloud Suite going forward and having a unified roadmap for cloud Suite going forward but now we're starting to see the fruits of the last few years of their investments in Cloud Suite in advancing the product as well having said that there are still imperfections with the product there's still some confusion and sort of a mix and match of different solutions that are required to satisfy many clients needs but they've come a long way and their product is a lot more complete than some of the other products in the marketplace so for those reasons infor is number three on our list this year and you can learn more about infor Cloud Suite in more detail in terms of features and functionality and pros and cons by watching this video right here from my YouTube channel that dives into my independent review of infor cloud Suite [Music] coming in at number two is Oracle Fusion Cloud Erp which is up from number three last year so it moved up one in our ranking and it's also the sixth most selected software among third stage's Global client base now the reason Oracle has moved up in the ranking and the reason it's so high in our ranking is because it provides a flexible option for large organizations Oracle generally focuses on the big multinational organizations it's a robust product it can do a lot of different things it has a lot of diversity in its functionality but it's also flexible more flexible than say an sap s4hana which is why it rates higher than sap Oracle also has less of a black eye when it comes to implementation results although there are plenty of implementation challenges and even some failures in the Oracle ecosystem Oracle Fusion Cloud Erp has a lower failure rate than sap in terms of the data we've seen the other thing to note with Oracle Fusion Cloud Erp is that it has more of an open architecture that can more easily be integrated with other types of systems and solutions now if you're looking for more information on the pros and cons of Oracle Fusion Cloud Erp check out my review right here on my YouTube channel that provides the pros and cons from an independent and Tech agnostic perspective foreign coming in at number one this year which is the same as last year's number one is Microsoft Dynamics 365 FNL and the fno stands for finance and operations the reason it's number one again this year is largely because Microsoft e365 appeals to such a large customer base they generally focus on mid-market and larger organizations so while sap and Oracle tend to focus on just the big companies and netsuite and odoo and others tend to focus on the smaller companies Microsoft e365 sort of straddles between both they cover the mid-market as well as larger organizations so it's a product that can scale but it's also not too much overkill for a smaller mid-size company that might want to deploy technology the other reason why Microsoft is number one is because first of all it is the number one most selected software by our client base but also because it is a very flexible solution and it's also a solution that has a familiar user interface in that Microsoft look and feel it's also an open architecture that can integrate well with third-party Solutions so these are just some of the reasons why it's number one on our list now if I were to focus on the negatives the things that might hold back Microsoft e365 I would say that the biggest negative is the value at a reseller ecosystem they really have no control over their ecosystem there's a wide variety of discrepancy in the qualities and the strengths and weaknesses of different bars out there so you really have to be careful in choosing the right implementation partner because there's quite frankly too many of them out there but all that being said that's enough to land Microsoft d365 at number one on our list and if you're looking for a more detailed review of the pros and cons of the functionality of the software I encourage you to watch my video right here that dives into my independent review of the software [Music] so those are the top 10 systems in our top 10 list but there's a lot of systems that didn't make the list that you can make a pretty strong argument should have made the list and in some years past they have made the list some honorable mentions worth noting would be ukg ukg is Ultimate Chronos group it's the merger between Ultimate Software and Chronos and they've provided really a best of class sort of HR and workforce management sort of solution so if you're not looking for a complete Erp system but you're really honing in on HR and workforce management ukg might be a great option another honorable mention goes to palantir palantir isn't an Erp system per se which is why it did not make the top 10 list but it's more of a platform a workflow management solution that can help tie together multiple systems and in fact you can watch my independent review of the pros and cons of the system by watching this video right here another one is servicenow servicenow is oftentimes viewed as a pseudo Erp system even though it's not a full-blown Erp system but it's oftentimes used for service-based organizations and customer service in organizations and you can watch my review of that software in this video right here and then finally snowflake snowflake is a sort of a business intelligence tool on steroids that takes business intelligence to another level it could be a great alternative to traditional Erp systems but because it's not a complete Erp system we did not include it in this year's ranking but it is an up-and-coming technology that you might want to consider and then of course the other honorable mentions would go to Sage X3 and accumatica two very strong solutions that were in the top ten last year and they fell out of the top ten mainly because we had two new entrants that moved to the top of the list but there's still two strong Solutions worth noting so I hope you found this information useful and if you're looking for more information about software options in the marketplace as well as best practices to make your digital transformation more successful I encourage you to read our digital transformation report to report we publish each year that highlights the strengths and weaknesses of different software Solutions in the marketplace as well as the implementation tips and best practices you can read that report by scanning the QR code right here in front of you or you can go to the links in the description field below so I hope you found this information useful and hope you have a great day the relative lack of flexibility of the product and wow that was weird and in fact epicore is the fifth I'd already forgot yes fifth 20 the last time we'd published it prior to last time that is a Robinson