Compare Cloud ERP Systems & Software

Naturally, all Cloud ERP solutions include hosting as standard. Hosting can be delivered via private datacenters or through a hyperscaler of your choice, such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform or Microsoft Azure.

Cloud ERP solutions tend to work best when you conform to their processes, rather than when you try to bend the system to your own. Although many Cloud ERP solutions do support customizations, in many cases, vendors will suggest adapting your processes to the system.

Cloud ERP solutions typically include system updates and maintenance as part of their service offerings. Although this is usually the case with multitenant Cloud ERP solutions, it's worth checking the small print if you're evaluating a private Cloud ERP solution.

The core advantage of Cloud ERP is that it reduces the operational and IT burden on your organization, for a service which in most cases is not a unique differentiator for your business. Cloud ERP allows you to stream your key business information wherever you are, without having to worry about servers, networks or anything else to distract you from your day job. Secondary to that, Cloud ERP vendors would also argue that overall, Cloud ERP is cheaper than an On-Premise solution once you consider the IT personnel, upgrade costs and other overheads of maintaining an On-Premise solution.

The biggest disadvantage of Cloud ERP solutions is typically the lack of flexibility and control they provide. Rather than having your software sitting on a server you control, you're just leasing the software from a vendor and they control everything. Whilst this is also an advantage for some, for others this makes Cloud ERP too inflexible, especially in some regulated industries such as financial services and pharmaceuticals. That said, there are options available for customization, however this differs from one Cloud ERP solution to another.