There's been a shift over the years towards end user workflow-based visual programming and report generation (something many traditional ERP systems left to too

There's been a shift over the years towards end user workflow-based visual programming and report generation (something many traditional ERP systems left to tools like Crystal Reports). There are limitations to what can be accomplished in that sort of end user programming (wouldn't enjoy integrating with an arbitrary third party service, for example). However this tends to run parallel to the regular scripting and COM/CORBA/DLL interfaces. I must admit that the system I've worked with most recently doesn't offer any sort of end user programming or report generation, and I miss this badly. Those facilities, while basic, really lessen the burden on software engineers and allow us to focus on the more difficult tasks which deliver the most business value. I'm working in-house (not consulting) so would much rather see our end users creating their own reports than have to, for example, put a new supplier integration module on hold in order to have a developer pull together a critical sales report. In many deployments, I've seen not only business analysts take advantage of a simple programmable environment but also departmental power users. It's not uncommon in some larger organisations to find sales staff writing their own reports or finance professionals scripting integration with spreadsheets (yes, spreadsheets and ERP systems usually do co-exist really comfortably!). This usually depends on sensible RBAC and a well designed schema, to keep users from making damaging mistakes. So to answer your question (I think) - most good ERP software will offer a balance between end user programming/reporting and integration features aimed at full time developers.