12/10/2015
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is business management software—typically a suite of integrated applications—that a company can use to collect, store, manage and interpret data from many business activities, including:
Product planning, cost
Manufacturing or service delivery
Marketing and sales
Inventory management
Shipping and payment
ERP provides an integrated view of core business processes, often in real-time, using common databases maintained by a database management system. ERP systems track business resources—cash, raw materials, production capacity—and the status of business commitments: orders, purchase orders, and payroll. The applications that make up the system share data across the various departments (manufacturing, purchasing, sales, accounting, etc.) that provide the data.[1] ERP facilitates information flow between all business functions, and manages connections to outside stakeholders.[2]
Enterprise system software is a multi-billion dollar industry that produces components that support a variety of business functions. IT investments have become the largest category of capital expenditure in United States-based businesses over the past decade. Though early ERP systems focused on large enterprises, smaller enterprises increasingly use ERP systems.[3]
The ERP system is considered a vital organizational tool[by whom?] because it integrates varied organizational systems and facilitates error-free transactions and production. However, ERP system development is different from traditional system development.[4] ERP systems run on a variety of computer hardware and network configurations, typically using a database as an information repository.[5]
