A different view on ERP software

I've been reading some posts about ERP software in general over at the 360° blog, a blog from Eric Kimberling of the Panorama consulting group.

They turn the spotlight over at MS Dynamics (in general, not Ax specific). With some strange, expected and not so expected conclusions.

Like this one (about MS Dynamics):

• Leads all ERP vendors in the product’s level of employee satisfaction
But a bit further, we read as a tradeoff:

• Below average executive and management satisfaction.

So if I understand this correctly, the normal users are delighted with their Dynamics solution, but their bosses not so.

There are some more contradictions in this article.
As a pro, we can read following statement for Dynamics ERP:

• Highest predictability (or least variance) of actual ERP implementation costs of all vendors.

A good thing. The customer gets what was offered to him, moneywise.
But again, further on we read

• Highest variance and unpredictability of actual implementation duration

As implementation takes longer then expected, costs will rise. Where does that leave us with 'Time is money'?

Microsoft scores well in another post on this blog, in the 2010 ERP Vendor Analysis report.

From this post:

• Microsoft Dynamics delivers the fastest payback and ROI of all the major ERP vendors, followed by Infor and Epicor.

Nice!
But then again, some statements that make you think. Like this one:

• Tier I solutions (SAP, Oracle EBS, Microsoft Dynamics) are much more likely to require customization than Tier II and Tier III counterparts.

Strange. You'd expect the bigger systems to be less subject to customizing by code, as more parameterization is possible in general.

Maybe there is no budget with Tier III solutions to customize them, or maybe not even the possibility?



What's your 2p?