I recently received some research and was pleasantly surprised to see our company holding the No.3 spot of the world’s top 100 mid-market resellers. I don’t know why I was surprised but it was precisely that feeling of “why am I surprised?” that made me question the science.
Here's what I found.
After looking at the top 10 and I suddenly noticed that every reseller in positions one to nine were Microsoft Dynamics resellers.
Crikey, does that mean the Microsoft Dynamics resellers are outselling all others by a huge margin.
Holey moley.
So, what about top 20?
Yep, it's a similar story - 14 of the top 20 are Microsoft Dynamics resellers.
Now many of these, like ourselves, have other ERP products in their portfolio and this survey doesn’t break the sales down. But if, like Columbus, 70% of their business is actually coming from Microsoft ERP, it still screams the same message.
All of the most successful partners in the world sell Microsoft Dynamics! That suggests Microsoft has now reached the position of predominant ERP of choice for mid-market companies.
Forgive my indulgence here, but with my interest now piqued, I started wondering if this was fatuous assumption or if it could be reasonably proven by this research. Surely, it’s not that the Microsoft resellers’ sales teams are better at selling than the other ERP’s sales teams, even within the same companies?
I just couldn't resist looking into the meaning of this data a little further. Can we reasonably calculate the relative market share/success of the ERP products using this data?
Let’s give the sales professionals the benefit of the doubt and assume that the ERP sales teams are all as good as each other. That seems fair.
To be equally generous to all the ERP products, let’s assume they all sell the same amount for their respective resellers. So, if Columbus mentions two ERPs, I will assume they sell the same in their company.
Fair to all?
Using the top 20, which represents around 50% of all the revenue reported in this mid-market ERP research, this revealed the following market share calculation using the top 20 list and the ERP products they sell:
Commanding 68% of the market, the top three ERPs sold to the mid-market via the top 20 resellers are:
So, this suggests to me that, if the sales teams are equal in both skills and success:
The old adage, “success breeds success”, comes to mind here.
The more a product (ERP) is sold, the more investment is available to go into its future development, the more it will sell… and so on. And, borrowing a phrase from an old business acquaintance of mine, this “virtuous circle” of success leads to ever better news for the customers of the top ERP solutions.
Unfortunately, it also drives the less well-funded ERPs into niches, away from the mainstream, and into the margins as remorseless time rolls on. I’m afraid that's just simple economic evolution. Everything eventually consolidates and commoditises over time.
So, based on this research, if you are a mid-market company (circa 200 to 2,500 staff) looking for an ERP system, why look any further than these top three products?
Well, actually you might need manufacturing, which means you just need to look at the top two and look further down the list at Infor (7%), Acumatica (7%) and SAP (5%). That should give you five perfectly reasonable options to evaluate and one of those will almost certainly do the job for you.
I hope you found this useful. If you’d like to read more, check out my post on the differences between Dynamics 365 Business Central and Finance & Operations.
And once you have chosen the right ERP system for your business, it’s time to think about the implementation. Set your ERP project up for success by partnering with a consultancy who can ensure the system is implemented properly and best practices are followed.
Download our guide to discover how partnering with a consultancy compares to keeping the project in-house or working with the software vendor, plus some key tips to help you choose the right partner.