Today, research shows that small and midsize businesses are primarily driven by operating cost pressures, perceived as the biggest challenge—and state that the greatest impediment to their strategies is insufficient funding. (For more information, see ERP in Small and Midsize Business: The 2004 Benchmark Report on Aberdeen.com). But they are also concerned about customer growth and retention—getting and keeping a loyal customer base. In addition, these smaller companies state worry about the potential for commoditization of their products or services.

SMBs reported their key challenges; let's look at what links to ERP solutions today:

• Insufficient funding for corporate strategies and initiatives

• Lack of clearly defined corporate vision and goals

• Ineffective communication of corporate strategies and initiatives

• Metrics that do not sufficiently incent employees to support/achieve corporate goals

• Inability to accurately determine and plan for customer demand

Funding aside, issues of goal definition and its communication throughout the organization speak to improvements in employee relationship management (ERM), which can be assisted through technology such as portals and employee self-service solutions.

Further, issues of goal-based incentive propagation can be mitigated through employee incentive management (EIM), improved talent acquisition solutions through e-recruiting, and demand management through electronic demand and forecasting solutions. The middle market has been slower than the large enterprise at adopting such solutions; yet, now they are articulating their need—all areas touched on by ERP