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by Erin Callaway, Contributing Editor Posted on Friday, November 03, 2006 3:10:08 PM   | Abstract: | Managing Automation and AMR Research have teamed up on this third annual Software Leaders issue. This article examines software providers' strategies for success, including their shift to e-business, and detailed tables of the leading vendors in 12 technology sectors provide a financial guide to the software companies serving manufacturers. |
Buying business software has never been easy, but today the task is harder than ever. Vendors you once knew well are shifting direction and selling totally different products than they used to. Spanking new startups say that they, with their unfettered visions, technology smarts, and pockets full of venture capital, can do better. Confusing matters, Wall Street doesn't seem to like any of the players. Companies new and old that last year were valued at multiple times their actual worth are now in the tank. Some have disappeared entirely, pawned off at fire sale prices by desperate investors looking for even a small return. As Hollywood's Mel Brooks put it, it's a mad, mad, mad, mad world. And there you are in the midst of the chaos, behind your desk with a job to do, problems to solve, products to make, and customers to please. You need help making purchasing decisions-and you need it badly. Together with our partner AMR Research Inc. (Boston, MA), Managing Automation created Software Leaders specifically to help you navigate the complicated and dynamic market for manufacturing software. We don't provide all the answers in these pages, but we do offer the most targeted financial guide to software providers serving manufacturing companies available. Rather than rank companies by their total corporate revenue, we rank them by the revenue they generate by selling to manufacturers-buyers just like you. So as you review each of the 12 segments we track-enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain planning (SCP), supply chain execution (SCE), sell-side e-commerce, buy-side e-commerce, factory floor software (MES, PIM, & PE & C), enterprise asset management (EAM), industrial automation (IA), computer-aided design (CAD), product lifecycle management (PLM), and business-to-business (B2B) trading exchange platforms-you can quickly identify not only the largest and financially strongest vendors, but also those that focus most on your industry. [Click to continue] |