While enterprise resource planning systems have become standard in nearly every U.S. industry, hospitals and other healthcare organizations have been slow to adopt them, according to a survey from consultancy Black Book Market Research. Describing the healthcare ERP software sector as “inert,” the survey noted growth of less than 2% in 2015 as hospitals devoted funding instead to medical billing conversion, cybersecurity and population health and analytics, among other priorities.

When US rental company Herc Rentals wanted to simplify its operations across 280 branch locations, executives knew that quality ERP software would go a long way toward getting them there. After analyzing the competition, Herc ultimately chose Infor CloudSuite to manage everything from data consolidation and customer demand response to fleet management and asset availability.

Two manufacturing companies – Kahiki Foods of Ohio and Process Technologies of Pennsylvania -- have chosen Deacom’s ERP software to simplify and consolidate their existing business process systems. Kahiki Foods, a manufacturer of all-natural frozen Asian meals and appetizers, also wants Deacom’s system to help them scale up both their branded retail and private-label businesses.

Godfreys, a specialty retailer of domestic and commercial floor care cleaning products, has selected Pronto Software’s ERP solution to replace its old, outdated and jury-rigged resource planning system. After a thorough review of the company’s legacy system, Godfreys IT manager Mark Norman concluded that the world’s largest vacuum cleaner retailer was so hamstrung by its legacy ERP system that some business process changes simply couldn’t be implemented.

Roughly half of all K-12 schools instructing about 32 million students in 70 countries will be able to tap into ERP technology now that PowerSchool has purchased educational back-office software maker SunGard K-12. By purchasing SunGard from financial services technology leader FIS (formerly Fidelity National Information Services Inc.)

If there’s one thing enterprise resource planning systems have taught businesses over the last few years, it’s that they need data, analytics and cognitive applications instantly available at all times. With that in mind, IBM has announced a new line of all-flash storage solutions aimed specifically at the enterprise resource planning and cognitive applications market.

Collegiate athletics’ Big Ten Conference has had a busy few years, growing to 14 member institutions (note, though, that no name change is in the offing), opening new headquarters near Chicago, and adding a second administrative facility in New York City. So it’s no surprise that it outgrew its legacy ERP software along the way.

With business booming in the healthy foods category, gluten-free manufacturing company Apogee Foods had upgraded its Dallas, Texas, facility to state-of-the-art equipment and a top-tier management team. But the company still relied on QuickBooks and Microsoft Excel to track quality control, human resources and financial data.

Driven by increasing demand from small-and-medium-sized companies, the cloud ERP market is expected to grow 10% annually - 160% over the next five years to nearly $30 billion, new research has found. A report by research firm MarketsandMarkets puts the current cloud ERP market at $18.52 billion and calculates the growth will occur across industry verticals and in multiple regions.

After business expanded eight-fold over a decade, parts manufacturer Quatro Composites knew it had outgrown its antiquated, spreadsheet-based data management system. But which of the 40 ERP systems under consideration would best help the company move forward? A wholly-owned subsidiary of Tec Industries, Quatro’s needs were multiple.

Decking the holiday halls via ERP offers lessons for all companies. When custom holiday ornament maker ChemArt Co. decided to deck its own halls with a new enterprise resource planning system, finding the right match wasn’t easy. The company, which has made the official White House holiday ornament for more than two decades, knew back in 2009 that its ancient Unix infrastructure would need to be replaced.

The education market for ERP systems is expected to grow even faster than the overall market, ramping up to $15 billion by 2024 – a compound annual growth rate of 15%, according to a new report from Global Market Insights. Several factors will help drive that growth, the report notes. Increasing global demand for educational services means new schools are opening every year.

When two affiliated companies decide to deploy the same ERP system at the same time, they get more bang from their IT bucks. Witness Diversified CPC International, based in Illinois, and its Texas subsidiary, Diversified Pure Chem LLC. Both were growing fast, needed to replace legacy ERP software and wanted to leverage resources across companies.

It’s a story common to many growing midsize companies: New Pig, the world’s largest supplier of leak and spill containment supplies, had a patchwork IT infrastructure that had expanded without a framework over three decades. By the time the Pennsylvania-based company decided in 2016 to fix that situation, its IT comprised 31 different systems, including two separate ERP systems - each more than 25 years old.

Janet Rae-Dupree has been an award-winning editor and writer at national magazines and newspapers since the early 1980s, first as a general news reporter, and later as both a science/medicine writer and a business/technology editor. Since 1993, she has been covering Silicon Valley for a number of publications, including U.S. News & World Report,

Two of every five American adults have embraced mobile technology on a daily basis, but not all of them believe being so connected necessarily is a good thing. In a study released by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, nearly 40 per cent of 3,553 Americans surveyed reported an abiding attachment to their mobile devices.