David Carter argues that buying a new accounts package has become much more difficult in recent years. Industry consolidation means that there are many well-known packages out there that are no longer being actively developed, but are being kept alive to milk the maintenance revenue. How do you can recognise and avoid these "sunset" packages?
You've decided that your current accounts package is no longer good enough; it's time to go out and buy a new one. And it's a very big decision, since packages nowadays don’t just cover the accounting function, they cover the whole business.
So it's a massively important decision, and yet choosing a package has become so much more difficult in recent years because there's been so much consolidation in the industry. The same packages are around as before, but they are owned by fewer suppliers. The result is that a lot of these packages aren’t going anywhere. If you are looking to buy a new system, you really want to avoid these packages.
Consolidation or elimination?
If we look at industry consolidation, there are two types. The first is where one software company takes over another.
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