Be sure, even 3-5 company enough if they're SAP customers... ;)

>I explored that possibility also. Currently, my main customers have lots of ERPs, from SAP to JD Edwards to Oracle and so on. I may develop the SAP module for companies in the massive goods market, but I'll first should chek the target SAP niche. More than 5 companies will be good, I think.
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>Thanks for your input.
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>>>Thanks for your input. Actually my staff handles some of those requests, but my customers don't have a clear migration path. Their business is to buy in bulk from the factory, lets say cigarretes. Then they send salesmen to its sales territory and get orders, then they dispatch the orders. What will happen in the following years is that the factories will set up wharehouses and get orders from phone/internet to dispatch themselves, saving about 15% of profit margin. So my very base of customers might dissapear in the coming years. The factories, of course, are using SAP or something like that to manage this.
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>>>I have about 3-5 years to find something different, but I need to.
>>>
>>>
>>>Regards
>>>
>>>>>Hello all.
>>>>>
>>>>>I have a big problem. We are in a niche market, our vertical application is software for massive sales. You have 100-200 salespeople who visit customers and returns with orders to be batch proccesed and dispatched the next day. So far so good, we are THE SPECIALISTS in that niche and now we get good cash on it. The problem? The market doesn't grow. It's hard to export to other countries (It took us 2 years to get our first big customer and we need to have a support staff on site, big costs). Also, developed countries usually have solved this problem having the customers ordering via phone/internet, so the sales people doesn't work the way the system works. Also, there are market leaders already.
>>>>>
>>>>>I think in 3-5 years our target market will decrease. As you can see, we now have cash but can't reinvest in our core business because the target market is too small. I'd like to invest into development of another fast growing niche market application who can support my company in the future. Any ideas?
>>>>>
>>>>>TIA
>>>>
>>>>You say your target market is going to decrease - perhaps because of changes in your customer base or in the technologies that are available to them for purchasing. Perhaps you should focus on ways you can benefit specifically from those changes or even guide them. For example if web will increase - or there will be an increasing demand for computer infrastructure to support that you might want to have a clear transition path for your customers that involves continuing to get whatever technology or services they will need from your company. Give the customers of your successful business a way of continuing to stay with you.