Enterprise software

Enterprise software, also known as enterprise application software (EAS), is computer software used to satisfy the needs of an organization rather than individual users. Such organizations include businesses, schools, interest-based user groups, clubs, charities, and governments. Enterprise software is an integral part of a (computer-based) information system; a collection of such software is called an enterprise system.

Services provided by enterprise software are typically business-oriented tools, such as online shopping, and online payment processing, interactive product catalogue, automated billing systems, security, Business Process Management, enterprise content management, IT Service Management, customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, business intelligence, project management, collaboration, human resource management, manufacturing, occupational health and safety, enterprise application integration, and enterprise forms automation.

As enterprises have similar departments and systems in common, enterprise software is often available as a suite of customizable programs. Generally, the complexity of these tools requires specialist capabilities and specific knowledge. Enterprise computing is the information technology (IT) tools that businesses use for efficient production operations and back-office support. These IT tools cover database management, customer relationship management, supply chain management, business process management and so on.

Definitions

Enterprise software is a collection of computer programs that have common business applications, tools for modelling how the entire organization works, and development tools for building applications unique to the organization.[1] The software is intended to solve an enterprise-wide problem, rather than a departmental problem. Enterprise level software aims to improve the enterprise's productivity and efficiency by providing business logic support functionality.

According to Martin Fowler, "Enterprise applications are about the display, manipulation, and storage of large amounts of often complex data and the support or automation of business processes with that data."[2]

Although there is no single, widely accepted list of enterprise software characteristics,[3] they generally include performance, scalability, and robustness. Furthermore, enterprise software typically has interfaces to other enterprise software (for example LDAP to directory services) and is centrally managed (a single admin page, for example).[4]

Enterprise application software performs business functions such as order processing, procurement, production scheduling, customer information management, energy management, and accounting. It is typically hosted on servers and provides simultaneous services to many users, typically over a computer network. This is in contrast to a single-user application that is executed on a user's personal computer and serves only one user at a time.

Enterprise system
Enterprise system
image describing what an enterprise system is
Typesoftware package

Enterprise systems (ES) are large-scale enterprise software packages that support business processes, information flows, reporting, and data analytics in complex organizations. While ES are generally packaged enterprise application software (PEAS) systems they can also be bespoke, custom developed systems created to support a specific organization's needs.

Types of enterprise systems include:

Although data warehousing or business intelligence systems are enterprise-wide packaged application software often sold by ES vendors, since they do not directly support execution of business processes, they are often excluded from the term.

Enterprise systems are built on software platforms, such as SAP's NetWeaver and Oracle's Fusion, and databases.

From a hardware perspective, enterprise systems are the servers, storage and associated software that large businesses use as the foundation for their IT infrastructure. These systems are designed to manage large volumes of critical data. These systems are typically designed to provide high levels of transaction performance and data security.[5]

Types

Enterprise software can be categorized by business function. Each type of enterprise application can be considered a "system" due to the integration with a firm's business processes.[6] Categories of enterprise software may overlap due to this systemic interpretation. For example, IBM's Business Intelligence platform (Cognos), integrates with a predictive analytics platform (SPSS) and can obtain records from its database packages (Infosphere, DB2). Blurred lines between package functions make delimitation difficult, and in many ways larger software companies define these somewhat arbitrary categories.[7] Nevertheless, certain industry standard product categories have emerged, and these are shown below :

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See also

References
  1. Management Information Systems Glossary of Terms
  2. Martin Fowler, "Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture" (2002). Addison Wesley.
  3. What is Enterprise Software?
  4. Gartner Group: IT Glossary - enterprise application software
  5. "MES Relationship with Other Enterprise Systems". statii. Retrieved 10 May 2016.
  6. "What is enterprise application? - A Word Definition From the Webopedia Computer Dictionary". Webopedia.com. Retrieved 2013-06-16.
  7. "Integrate InfoSphere Warehouse data mining with IBM Cognos reporting, Part 1: Overview of InfoSphere Warehouse and Cognos integration architecture". Ibm.com. 2008-10-30. Retrieved 2013-06-16.
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