Mid-market businesses in Europe have reported savings of more than 25 per cent when they deploy cloud over on-premise solutions, with one in five reporting reductions of 50 per cent. However ERP is lagging behind many other cloud services.

Nearly nine in ten (87 per cent) of mid-market organisations are now using cloud solutions, according to a study commissioned by Sage Mid-Market. The recent rate of cloud adoption has been rapid, with four out of five organisations introducing the new services model to their business in the past two years.

However, despite its growing popularity, cloud is not yet ubiquitous – with ERP lagging behind other services. Currently just 20 per cent are using a cloud-based ERP solution but Sage's study suggests this is set to change. 60 per cent of those who do not yet have Cloud ERP are keen to adopt it, while 55 per cent want to roll out cloud ERP with mobile functionality.

The driving factors for migrating ERP solutions to the cloud include cost reduction (50 per cent), becoming more efficient (40 per cent), gaining a strategic advantage (32 per cent) and growth (31 per cent) while the main barriers to adoption were cited as security and privacy concerns (57 per cent), internal barriers such as lack of understanding (23 per cent) and price (20%).

"We're clearly at a point of inflection for ERP and businesses are telling us that it's the right time to move to the cloud," said Christophe Letellier, CEO at Sage Mid-Market Europe. "Two years ago, businesses were wary of cloud. But as more have embraced cloud for a range of services, the benefits are clear - choice, scalability and flexibility.

"For many, the push to invest in the cloud is driven by three main priorities: reducing costs, increasing competitiveness and efficiency. At Sage, we are on a mission to help small to mid-sized businesses make the move to the cloud, giving them the confidence and opportunity to succeed," he added.

Sage announced the launch of its Sage ERP X3 Online solution in August. As a cloud solution, Sage ERP X3 Online is aimed at businesses who value the ease of deployment, accessibility, simple management and low cost of ownership of an online service, without compromising the functionality and scalability of Sage ERP X3 version 7.

Sage ERP X3 version 7 now has usability and mobility at its core, allowing mid-sized organisations the ability to get more done faster and on the move, therefore helping to reduce costs and win new business.
With a completely new, intuitive and collaborative web interface based on HTML5 which supports multiple browsers and user personalisation Sage ERP X3 version 7 also offers mobile access and a host of web apps, as well as Microsoft Office integration and an all-new powerful search function.

Sage ERP X3 Online is being launched initially in North America before being rolled out globally.

The cloud trail blazers: League table of European cloud ERP usage
33 % Spain
32 % Netherlands
23 % France
20 % UK
20 % Portugal
18 % Poland
16 % Romania
12 % Germany
6 % Belgium

Methodology

The survey was conducted among 670 IT decision makers across business professionals across 10 countries. All were working within medium sized businesses (with between 100 and 499 staff).

The interviews were conducted online by Redshift Research in August & September 2014 using an email invitation and an online survey. Sample was drawn from Redshift's Crowdology panel & partner panels.

Results of any sample are subject to sampling variation. The magnitude of the variation is measurable and is affected by the number of interviews and the level of the percentages expressing the results. In this particular study, the chances are 95 in 100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more than 3.7 percentage points from the result that would be obtained if interviews had been conducted with all persons in the universe represented by the sample.

Please click here to view our ERP infographic.