"While software prices have dropped 50 percent since 2001 and will continue to be very competitive, but the real cost is ease of use, not the upfront fee; that is why we have a number of PeopleSoft customers on SQL Server moving to Microsoft."

Restricted by legacy accounting software, water garden supplier Waterwerks settled on the Oracle e-business suite with the company's CIO Ben Stewart claiming its previous software was holding the company back.

The rapid expansion of the firm, he said, was restricted by software, which was expensive to upgrade and unable to adapt to each new business need.

"We couldn't keep pace with the speed at which the business was growing because our software was inflexible and limited our ability to integrate systems," Stewart said.

Last month, Extensity (formerly Geac which underwent a name change following its takeover earlier this year by Golden Gate Capital) announced plans to acquire Systems Union, which has customer sites in 194 countries. System Union comprises SunSystems, MIS, Vision, Pegasus, RedTechnology, ncSoft and Foundation Systems.