One other big change in the ERP mood of clients since last fall, she says, is that nowadays more of them are discussing interest in ERP Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), which hadn't been such a big attention-getter in the past. "It's something that they're maybe not actively considering, but they are at least looking at it."

That means that vendors who offer old-world, on-premises ERP are paying more attention, Martens says. "The impact of SaaS on on-premises vendors has forced them to look again at the economics of the times" and consider whether they need to include a SaaS ERP product to be competitive in the marketplace.

"Look at SAP and the Rapid Deployment Solutions that they're offering now at fixed prices with certain features" that are being eyed and adopted by some customers, she says. "Vendors are doing this because they hear back from customers about some of the economies of the SaaS model. They want to offer some kind of a counter balance and they want to be able to accommodate some of the arguments that the SaaS vendors have - such as being able to scale up more quickly and more easily know your costs going in."

SaaS ERP offerings still won't be for every enterprise, she says, because the level of built-in customization doesn't yet approach the deeper capabilities of on-premised ERP suites. Despite that shortcoming, though, it's an intriguing option for more enterprise customers who might want to have a hybrid ERP system with a mix of on-premises and SaaS options. "I think in general the pendulum is swinging to the customers having more choice," Martens says. "That can be used by customers at the negotiating table. Why should they pay a certain amount of money for software licensing and maintenance when they can also get it at lower price using SaaS? It seems to give customers more of a bargaining chip."

Despite the glimmer of new energy in the ERP marketplace lately, there are still questions. One ongoing key issue, according to the Forrester study, is the continuing consolidation of players in the ERP segment.