Thanks for sharing your experience. I completely agree that implementation challenges are the greatest.

Recently though we have launched an online (SAAS) ERP and we find that there are two things that are very critical:

1. The cost of online ERPs is much lower than on-premise ones from traditional vendors. For example our own product is priced at $7 /user/month. The online ERPs may still be maturing, and we agree that it will take sometime till these products mature but they are on a completely different pricing point.

2. Due to the low cost – we see that the pressure to drive ROI is reduced. Instead of considering ERP as a “discontinuous” change, SMBs now consider a “gradual” adoption of ERP. Though the long term effect of this is debatable, but the low upfront cost gives companies more breathing room to enable the behavioral change that is needed.

Also I agree, online ERPs need to build credibility and as adoption grows and the number of satisfied customers increase, online ERPs will pose a new alternative for companies!

cheers!