Integrated Business Systems – the Key to Enhanced Corporate Performance in the Mid-market

Increasing competitive pressures on mid-market businesses is leading to a more strategic approach to investment in business systems.

There is a growing realisation that a piecemeal, ‘needs must’ approach to implementing business software offers limited, if any, value to the business, and more often than not serves to hinder success and growth.

In an increasingly competitive global marketplace, mid-market companies require the same tools of their larger rivals to compete and survive.  The functionality afforded by many of the niche products and bespoke systems patched together in the past often does not match up to that employed by larger competitors using more sophisticated, integrated enterprise software.

It goes without saying that industry-specific functionality is a pre-requisite for mid-market companies, but they also need systems that handle the more general, but no less important functions, key to today’s successful businesses, such as Financials, Supply Chain Management, Asset Management and Human Capital Management.

Mid-market companies are no less ambitious for growth than their larger counterparts and experience the same cost control pressures.  Their business systems must, therefore, be scalable and also capable of delivering high levels of automation and leaner processes.  Similarly, the systems of mid-market firms operating on a global basis have to be able to handle country specifics in terms of local legal and financial reporting requirements.

Mid-market firms are beginning to think far more seriously about their systems, taking a more strategic approach and wanting to realise the potential benefits of integration, scalability and adaptability.