White Paper: Ten Strategies While Choosing a Mid-Market ERP Solution

By Jayashree Adkoli

TMCnet Contributor

 

Many midsized companies are giving high priority for enterprise resource planning “or ERP” systems. This is due to the fact that many big-name vendors are hawking on ERP solutions and many companies such as Oracle Corp., Microsoft, SAP (News - Alert), and more are now barreling down on smaller companies, which are considering an ERP move.

In order to make this new market dynamic work to their advantage, midsized companies are focusing more on utilizing new realities of the midmarket ERP sector. This is the main reason why midsized companies are giving high priority for ERP systems.

Additionally, ERP systems that generally encompasses integrated computer-based system facilitates in managing a company’s internal and external resources, such as tangible assets, financial resources, materials, and human resources, thereby consolidating all business operations into a uniform and enterprise wide system environment. So, finding a well-suited ERP system is very important, especially for midsized companies.

 

Focus Research, recently released a new white paper entitled “10 Strategies for Choosing a Midmarket ERP Solution,” which not only guides customers on how to roll-out solutions quickly, but also provides customers with strategies that will help them while shopping for a midsized ERP solution. The white paper will also provide tips for getting the best ERP deals.

 

The ten strategies for choosing a midmarket ERP solution provided by Focus Research include:

 

1. Customers should get a richer set of features and better industry-specific solutions from all ERP vendors serving the midmarket, according to Andrew Robinson, managing consultant with PA Consulting Group (News - Alert), a firm that regularly advises on adoption of ERP applications.

2. Customers should not settle for second best, whether the solution is offered by one of the software giants that are scouting the midmarket or run with one of the classic vendors dominating this space. Solutions should be manageable in terms of cost and functionality and must be well suited for the smaller, midsized company.

3. For example, the solution should pack basic CRM and ERP functionality along with supply-chain management functions and presence technology — all of which can be accessed via Microsoft (News - Alert)Outlook, Excel or other packages.

4. Due to the fact that budgets in the SMB market are not designed for long and onerous implementations, customers should go with the solution that can not only roll-out quickly, but will also be flexible as knowledge and need dictate. The solution should enable the customer to phase in financials, human resources and manufacturing-specific applications.

5. SMBs can forego traditional means of buying and installing ERP solutions and can adopt SaaS (News - Alert)(software as a service) models for more functionality. Look for an ERP solution that can truly integrate with back-office business processes with the front-end customer-management and sales data offered by CRM. But, true integration of ERP and CRM is hard to find and can be difficult and expensive to implement. However, few companies such as Glovia Services offers fully integrated ERP-CRM solution targeted at the smaller market.

6. Infuse enterprise search capabilities, like Enterprise Application Search (EAS) tool, into standard ERP offerings.

7. Opt for open-source solutions, because these software do not have up-front fees. Even though, customers can expect charges attached to specific functions and service contracts, piggybacking on open-source solutions can drive down the cost of an ERP solution in long term.

8. Be sensitive to the unique needs of a specific vertical and specialize in those verticals. Robinson, PA Consulting Group, said “Many of the midmarket packages have a focus within a sector, for example process manufacturing, or an industry, such as medical devices. This is part of their heritage, and for the most part, many vendors continue to be strong in this regard.”

9. Maintain stringent management policies to maximize ERP performance.

10. Multi-tasking pays. Nowadays, ERP systems can be seeped into other areas such as CRM, business intelligence, workflow, document management, human resource, supply-chain management, project accounting, and more.

Ultimately, midsized companies can craft a solid deal and can get the system at an attractive price when giant software vendors are eyeing the ERP market and traditional players are hustling to hang on to market share. For detailed strategies please read the white paper.