Nucleus Research recently polled business owners from small, medium, and large businesses and asked them what their most critical business issues were. The two main responses from were competitive pressures and the need to control costs. And that's what ERP software aims to do -- control costs. In this article, I will give you an ERP software review, to help you find out if there's something out there that will help you control your costs to become more competitive in the marketplace.

First let us define ERP software -- it is enterprise resourcing planning software that is supposed to help you better manager resources, planning and operational control. The idea here is to integrate all of your departments -- from manufacturing, logistics, inventory, accounting and customer service -- all into one cross functional system.

So, is it possible to actually do this with ERP software? Reviews are mixed. First of all, it depends upon the type of software that you choose. You have customizable options, and you have your standard, out of the box options. Generally, something that you get that is not modified will be severely limited, and not allow for adaptation.

However, customizable options can be quite expensive, especially if you do not know what you're doing or what your goals are with your enterprise resource planning. Let's look at a few different types of ERP software.

Compiere ERP Software. Reviewing the software, one will find that it is best aimed for a small or medium-sized company, especially in the business-to-business or service industry. It is an open-source software, which allows it to be easily modified to fit the company using it. Also, it is extremely easy to integrate into the business.

GNU Enterprise is also another open-source ERP software solution. Though perhaps it is not as flexible as the Compiere, it has a more wide range of industries that it can be best used for.

Microsoft has a few different types of ERP software as well. Microsoft dynamics is one of the most popular. It is on the leading edge of the technological aspects of ERP software, and is highly customizable. However, the drawback here is that you need to be a bit technologically savvy to integrate these customizations into your business.

In conclusion, I have given you some basic ERP software reviews to help you better familiarize yourself with the options that exist.