As TMC’s (News - Alert) Shamila Janakiraman reported, Research firm, Gartner, published the results of a study, indicating that sales of business management software like enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are set to witness remarkable increase. The new analysis report published by Gartner (News - Alert) highlights the fact that across the globe, ERP software revenue will soon shoot upwards to $253.7 billion. This is an increase of 7.5 percent when compared to that of 2010.

Openbravo, a company invested in making open source ERP software well-known in the U.S., plans to be a part of this 2011 increase. With nearly two million downloads of its free software, Openbravo has seen great commercial success beating SAP (News - Alert) in the EMEA market, while building regional partner networks.Now, Openbravo is releasing the next-generation of its open source ERP software, Openbravo 3. Openbravo’s Agile ERP approach is a departure from mainstream ERP, which forces businesses to over-pay for massive, yet inflexible systems. Openbravo is an ERP vendor with a 100 percent native Web-application, making it ideal for the cloud and universally accessible.

The key business benefits of Openbravo’s Agile (News - Alert) ERP approach include business agility, rapid and sustained ROI, and increased productivity. All of this is possible with a modular product architecture, Web-based and cloud-ready fast roll-out capabilities, a redesigned user interface, and workspaces.

“Legacy ERP systems can consume as much as 18 percent of revenue from large businesses, and the ‘one size fits all’ approach often leads to expensive customization in addition to expensive software licenses and pricey maintenance contracts. The current state of ERP alienates hundreds of thousands of small companies that can help revive the global economy, but are struggling with software that’s too rigid and expensive for their needs,” said Paolo Juvara, CEO of Openbravo, in a statement.

My suggestion and Juvara’s would be one in the same, cover all the bases before buying or investing in an ERP software solution in 2011. Before committing to an ERP software solution and a vendor, you must recognize the challenges that implementing an ERP system into your organization can bring. The key is to derive the most benefit and minimize the risks of project failure. The aim of ERP software is to deliver tangible business benefits: cost reduction, productivity improvement and measurable bottomline results.