Best of Breed vs. ERP: Who Will Win?
Global Trade Management solutions streamline and automate processes related to customs and regulatory compliance, trade financing and financial settlement, ocean/air transportation procurement and contract management, and visibility into trade activities and events. Additionally, GTM solutions facilitate the flow of information, money, and goods between buyers, sellers, and intermediaries including customs agencies, banks, and freight forwarders.
Since our last study, one leading ERP supplier has grown into, by far, the largest supplier of GTM solutions. Another leading ERP supplier is poised to enter the market and ARC expects them to grow very quickly.
However, in contrast to other markets, ERP solutions will not kill strong best of breed suppliers. In short, ERP GTM growth does not need to come at the expense of best of breed suppliers; it can come in conjunction with them.
There will continue to be a need for the ERP GTM solutions to coexist with best of breed solutions. GTM must support the “3 Cs”: compliance, content, and connectivity. For a variety of technology and business model reasons, ERP and GTM suppliers differ in their abilities to support the “3 Cs”.
Strategic Issues
study provides an in-depth analysis of GTM solutions. In addition, it provides an insightful analysis of key issues that will affect this market in the future. This study will help to answer questions such as:
- What technology platform best supports GTM? Networked solutions, software as a service, or software built on a service oriented architecture?
- What has been the impact of large banks and logistics service providers buying or creating GTM software?
- What functionality should a GTM suite include in terms of global compliance processes, trade content coverage, sourcing & supply chain design, global visibility, and trade financing?
- Are different strategies required for new installations vs. retrofit?