"Misconceptions in Domestic market"

I would like to share something from my own experience I had in the domestic market. I had talks with many SME based business people. Whenever we landed up on the point of a business solution all claimed that they have an ERP system. I was surprised and taken back to see that all are having an ERP solution. Then when I enquired I came to know that the so called ERP system they were talking is “Tally” or a typical billing software. Many people think that Tally is an ERP system and this is because they dont have knowledge about what an ERP system means. They are little aware that tally is just a pure accounting software. When we try to impart knowledge of what an ERP system/business solution is, they would counter saying that, what they have heard from people is that Tally or a typical billing software is an ERP solution. When I ask them how they do their customer and supplier management, they shows me a list with customers/suppliers names in the software. They are little aware that customer/supplier management is not just having the list of names or contacts but managing companies constant interaction with the customers. For business having more than one unit they install these billing software on all the units and at the end of the day prepares a report in excel sheet manually and sends it across to the top management. Similarly the same thing is followed in other areas of business. After doing all this they are believing/claiming that they still have an ERP solution with them. So from my various experiences I can say that awareness is the first and the foremost thing that should be imparted to these people. Once they understands the importance of business solution and how it will change the face of there business, they will automatically start searching out for powerful,cost effective, affordable solutions like OpenERP which will fit in there pocket and have all the functionalities as in like big proprietary business solutions.