Subscription-based ERP Service For SMBs

Microsoft India has announced the availability of its Dynamics Suite of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications as a subscription service which will allow businesses to use these solutions without the need to install it within the company’s own premise. Customers will have to pay on a per user per month basis.

The ERP application will be hosted by a Microsoft Channel Partner and can be accessed by companies through multiple access modes such as VPN and Internet. Microsoft’s first partner for this service is Bangalore-based Affordable Business Solutions (ABS).

Currently ABS is offering 3, 5 and 10-user ERP packs for basic material and financial accounting functionalities for a small business priced at Rs 25,000, Rs 35,000 and Rs 60,000 per month.

According to Rajeev Mittal, group director– Small and Medium Enterprises, Microsoft India, “By reducing upfront investment costs and eliminating need for in-house IT management resources, our new offering makes ERP solutions much more affordable and easy to deploy.”

“While the hosted ERP application has all the functionalities available as in the traditional on-site model of deployment , customers can opt to subscribe to the specific functionalities that they need at the moment and expand the subscription to others when they are ready,” said Srikant Rao, founder-director of Affordable Business Solutions. “Feedback from initial conversations with customers has been very encouraging, and we believe that this will trigger a rapid upswing in IT usage especially in the SMB segment in India.”