Pressures to reduce costs outweigh all other business drivers impacting Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) in 2008. While ERP is generally viewed as a necessary infrastructure, it is also a strategic weapon in streamlining and automating business processes - while providing visibility to those processes throughout the enterprise. This report explores feedback provided by over 1200 manufacturers, and aims to serve as a roadmap to those in the manufacturing community that desire to reduce costs, improve accuracy of inventory and schedules, and develop customer responsiveness through successful ERP implementations.