Codestone

SAP enterprise resource planning solutions can facilitate the business processes of small and medium-sized enterprises in niche industries, it has been claimed.

Organisations choosing to delay their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems due to the current economic climate will be disadvantaged in the long run, it has been claimed.

Director of advisory services at the National Computing Centre (NCC) Michael Dean said that businesses that take this approach may find themselves in a difficult position once the economy begins to recover.

He said: "Over time they will be less competitive and when market conditions improve they will have a higher hurdle to jump."

His comments come as a recent survey by the body revealed that while 29 per cent of companies are not going to experience any cutbacks in their ERP systems, 24 per cent have put programmes on hold.

The NCC research also showed that six per cent of firms are looking to increase their expenditure on ERP technology.