Which ERP solution best fits your unique business situation? If you're a midmarket company, that's not always an easy answer.

Even if you are not in growth mode, enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools are necessary, whether you're just looking for basic features such as accounting, customer relationship management (CRM), finance, and HR, or need a full suite of add-on modules for your company. But, budgets being what they are, the key is to choose and install an ERP software suite, to understand it, and to expand the software as knowledge and needs dictate.

ERP is also a shifting category. Many midmarket vendors are now injecting enterprise search capabilities into standard ERP offerings. ERP is now seeping into lots of new areas such as business intelligence, analytics, document management, supply-chain management, and project accounting.

Based on questions and discussions with more than 100 companies, analyst group Focus recently published a report and a comparison guide discussing the top issues for midmarket companies that are considering the ERP route. Key decision drivers in the survey included ease of use, management, and integration with other solutions, such as those for CRM and supply chain management (SCM).

"Users want ERP solutions that deliver maximum, sustainable, and credibly demonstrable business value, and see this value coming from achievement of a '360-degree view' of customers, partners, prospects, business-critical resources and the interactions among these elements," says Michael Dortch, director of research at Focus.

Dortch adds that, whether your company decides to go with a solution offered up by one of the software giants scouting the midmarket or run with one of the classic vendors dominating this space, don't fall for a solution that amounts to a skinnier version of the original.

"Midmarket and even smaller businesses are looking closely at on-demand CRM and ERP solutions as alternative paths toward those business benefits. And vendors from SAP AG (NYSE/Frankfurt: SAP) to Zoho are jumping through multiple hoops trying to deliver effective responses to this growing user demand."

Here are five tips for leveraging those decisions, according to Focus:

1) Think outside the (shrink-wrapped) box. Many companies are foregoing traditional means of buying and installing ERP solutions as IT executives discover the power of SaaS. In this way, manufacturers pick and choose the modules needed for their unique business operations.

2) Exercise your individuality. For midmarket ERP customers, it will be very important for vendors to be knowledgeable and sensitive to the unique needs of a specific vertical, according to PA Consulting Group's Andrew Robinson. "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."

3) Be open-minded. Consider a look at ERP vendors now pushing open-source solutions that make use of Linux operating systems and other open-source software. Although 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. OpenBlueLab and Apache OFBiz are among organizations developing open-source ERP and CRM applications.

4) Keep it clean. Regardless of the specific solution that a company eventually settles on, IT executives will want to maintain stringent management policies to maximize ERP performance. To do this, many systems prevent a lot of free text fields. Instead, experts suggest you must select from a choice of predetermined answer options. ERP systems that use a variety of solutions include SaaS and packages from Oracle Corp. (Nasdaq: ORCL) and NetSuite Inc.

5) Multitask. In the end, the single biggest imperative is to realize that ERP -- in markets large, medium, and small -- is emerging as a springboard for other applications. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by hooking into other applications, think of your investment as a major move to incorporate a plethora of functions that can boost the effectiveness of internal systems and your company as a whole.

After all, with the giant software vendors eyeing this market and traditional players hustling to hang on to market share, your business is in great position to craft a solid deal to get the system you want at an attractive price.

— Michael Singer, Senior Editor at Internet Evolution. is focused on executive (Executive Clan) and midmarket (Midmarket Clan) issues.