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e important parts of its business. Evolving from MRP systems, ERP has played a significant role in IT for several decades. Since the first symbiotic ERP product SAP created in 1972, ERP market revenues are expected to be as high as $52 billion by the year 2020. While there is wide acceptance of ERP in developed countries such as the USA, Canada, the UK, and Australia, developing countries lag far behind. At present, North America occupies 66 percent of the ERP market, Europe takes 22 percent, while the whole of Asia is only at 9 percent. However, due to economic growth, developing countries in Asia and Latin America are being major targets of big ERP vendors. ERP in developed countries ERP systems have been widely used by panies in developed countries. Organizations in manufacturing, service, and energy industries adopt ERP to: ? automate the deployment and management of material, finance and human resources。 Third, SCM software is making inroads. Organizations are pursuing support for the whole supply chain beyond what ERP can provide. ERP in developing countries ERP software vendors are experiencing global expansion. Asia/Pacific and Latin American countries are taking the lead. The AsiaPacific ERP market accounts for 9 percent of revenues, and Latin America for 3 percent. Economic expansion, especially in Asian countries, is the major reason. Second, fierce petition and pressures from Western corporations force firms in developing countries to vigorously pursue information technology. However, ERP is in its early stages in developing countries. Inadequate IT infrastructure, governmental policies, small size of panies, lack of IT/ERP experience, and low IT maturity seriously affect the adoption decision. China, India are selected as representative countries for ERP discussion. China China has achieved impressive economic growth in recent years. It is undergoing a technological change with huge IT investments in both public and private sectors. However, there are only a handful of panies using ERP systems. International vendors play a primary role. There are a few local software packages that are low cost but are primarily accounting and financial applications. For example, Yongyou1 software is widely utilized, but it focuses on accounting functions and is not a real ERP system. There are no local professional ERP vendors. Major international vendors have opened their business in major cities. Some vendors access the market via their delegated international panies such as IBM, Compaq, Andersen, and Price Waterhouse Coopers. Infrastructure is a major problem. Telemunications, though significant improvements have been made in recent years, is good only in major cities. The telephone density, although increasing, is still quite low. Inter service is expensive, not to mention ISDN, ATM and other broadband services. The government is finding it necessary to allow petition and profit making organizations (even foreign panies) to raise the telephone density to its target of eight per 100. Low IT maturity of China’s industries is also a major problem. Enterprises lack a longterm MIS strategy, and I