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Technology Stocks : FirstWave Technologies (FSTW) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TEDennis who wrote (8003)	2/16/2003 10:37:43 PM
From: TEDennis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9677

Mid-market is not for the faint-hearted VNUNet.com By Michael Vizard Wednesday, February 12, 2003 (Originally Published: 2/11/03) The thing that distinguishes the mid-market from other segments is that there is no room for error. In large enterprise application deployment there is usually a small army of IT people and consultants available to help smooth out the bumps. In the small business segment, companies tend to rely on software applications that cost relatively little, so the company payroll is not at stake. Not so in the mid-market. In this sector, companies tend to spend large amounts on applications and systems but have only a moderate number of IT staff. Instead, they rely on resellers they trust to find applications that are easy to install, use and, most importantly, maintain. And woe betide the reseller that fails to deliver on any aspect of those requirements, because mid-market customers are notoriously impatient. That is why the stars of the mid-market are not traditional enterprise vendors such as SAP, PeopleSoft or Siebel. Nor is Microsoft, with perhaps the exception of its Great Plains business unit, considered a trusted mid-market partner, given the lack of reliability and the complexity of many of its tools. The real stars of the mid-market are companies such as JD Edwards, Progress Software, Portal Software and Best Software. None of these has predicated its business model on extensive services revenue, generated by custom-installing incomplete applications that need to be finished on-site. Instead, these applications tend to be more complete and more flexible, which means they don't require a company to bend as much to meet the business processes defined in the software. But all things and all markets change. Microsoft, following its acquisition of Great Plains, is attempting to come upstream with a new generation of mid-market applications. IBM has come out with WebSphere Express editions of its software that it promises will be easier to install. And SAP is mounting a concerted effort behind Business One, a suite of ERP applications designed specifically for mid-market companies. The good news is that the opportunities in the mid-market are almost endless for those judged worthy. But the faint of heart need not apply. Michael Vizard is editor of Computer Reseller News US crmassist.com