Consider a mid-sized logistics company in Istanbul: five years ago, management made a significant investment in an integrated enterprise software package. Today, most employees use only two or three screens of that system. The remaining modules sit idle, along with a large portion of the licence fee paid to acquire them. This scenario is familiar to many Turkish SMEs. Now a new development adds a sharper question to this picture: can the small, focused applications loading onto smartphones fundamentally disrupt how companies think about enterprise software?
Apple’s App Store and the Android Market that followed it established an ecosystem logic unlike anything seen before in software distribution. Whatever the need, however specific, there is a small application built for it — downloadable in minutes, adopted within days. Compared to the months-long installation and training cycles of large enterprise packages, the contrast is striking. In the corporate world, this model raises a direct question: can companies move away from a single monolithic system and toward a connected set of small, specialised applications?
The answer is not yet clear, but the direction is readable. In more advanced markets, some software vendors have already begun experimenting with the concept of a ‘business application marketplace.’ Core accounting, invoice tracking, and inventory management are offered as separate modules; a company buys only what it needs and pays nothing for what it does not use. From a total cost of ownership (TCO) perspective, this is a compelling proposition for SMEs. Traditional ERP licensing charges for the entire package regardless of which modules are actually used; a focused application model can tie cost directly to usage.
Looking at the reality of Turkish SMEs makes this argument more concrete. Firms running separate accounting software, separate inventory tools, and separate order management systems are still the majority. These companies already operate in a fragmented way — but the pieces do not talk to each other, data is transferred manually, and reporting lags behind operations. The application ecosystem model, if it reaches the enterprise space, could allow these pieces to work on a shared data layer. Each application handles its own function, but all data converges in a single pool — a far more functional arrangement than today’s fragmented reality.
The practical benefit goes beyond cost. Speed and flexibility enter the picture too. Adding a new module to a large ERP typically requires consulting hours, customisation fees, and a testing cycle. In a focused application model, when a new need arises a company can add a new tool to its existing ecosystem quickly. A textile firm can use one application for export documentation; a construction company can use a different tool for site tracking — both sharing the same underlying data infrastructure. The ROI calculation becomes meaningful here: as flexibility increases and payment for unused features decreases, the return on investment accelerates.
There is, however, a significant counterargument that managers should not overlook. The ecosystem model demands that its parts work in harmony. As the number of applications grows, so does the integration challenge. Getting applications from different vendors to operate on a shared data structure remains a serious engineering problem with today’s infrastructure. The greatest strength of large integrated packages is precisely this coherence — accounting, inventory, and procurement modules share the same database, so the risk of inconsistency is low. In a fragmented application model, maintaining that consistency is technically possible but becomes an operational responsibility that must be actively managed.
For an SME manager at a decision point, a practical framework might look like this: how standardised are the company’s processes, and how much do they deviate toward the specific? A firm with straightforward operations — issue invoices, manage stock, report — will find the focused application model an increasingly strong alternative. By contrast, companies with deeply interlocked processes such as production planning, cost accounting, and supply chain management will still find that the data consistency of an integrated system is a critical advantage. The full migration of application ecosystem logic into enterprise software will take time; but the direction now seems unmistakable. Managers who ask this question today will be better positioned when the answer becomes unavoidable.
This article was originally written in Turkish by Gökhan MERCANOĞLU on February 15, 2010 and has been automatically translated into English and other languages using machine translation.