Over 75 percent companies in Saudi Arabia gearing up to deploy or upgrade ERP Solutions: Epicor Scala survey

Announcing the results of the independent survey conducted in association with the leading global research firm, A C Neilson, Mr. Ziad Aqrabawi, regional director Epicor Scala MEA said: "The survey results are indicative of the high potential in the Saudi Arabian market for ERP solutions. Being the largest IT market in the region, enterprises across the board in the Kingdom are enthusiastically adopting technology solutions like ERP to bring more competitiveness and efficiency in their business operations."

"Being one of the leading mid-market integrated ERP solutions providers in the region, we undertook this extensive survey to better understand the continuously evolving needs of our existing and prospective customers," he said.

"The findings of this survey will help us better design our product offerings, enhance the already high recall of iScala by over two-thirds of the respondents, and meet the requirements of our customers."

"The survey shows that the brand awareness of iScala is third, only behind Oracle and SAP among ERP solution packages. This reflects our consistent efforts to offer the right solutions to the Saudi Arabian market" Mr. Aqrabawi further added.

The key objectives of the survey spanning over 160 companies in the Kingdom were to better understand the nature of decision making process involved in the implementation of ERP solutions in organizations, evaluate the key motivators and barriers to ERP implementation, monitor the current satisfaction levels with available solutions to determine corporate customer expectations and also to assess the potential of the market.

Commenting on the key findings of the survey, Mr. Aditya Gokhale, Research Manager AC Neilson said: "There was a fairly high understanding of the benefits of ERP implementation, with over 60 per cent of the respondents citing 'Cost' & 'Process' Efficiency as the key advantages, but this view primarily came from companies that have already implemented ERP solutions. There exists a huge need to further educate the market to make enterprises understand the benefits of ERP."

On the sectoral growth prospects, the survey indicated that there were tremendous growth opportunities in the region's trading and distribution business. "The key factors that make companies go for ERP packages are largely driven by ease of use and enhanced efficiency that the implementation of these solutions bring. Contrary to the existing perceptions that reputation and VFM (Value for Money) were the least important factors in the ERP decision making process," Mr. Gokhale added.