Enterprise Software, (Enterprise Application Software). It is a summary term for all enterprise software, i.e., for such applications, which are used to support the functioning of the organization / enterprise. Thus allowing the management of resources of the organization, offer and sell services and products to customers, buy from suppliers and the overall functioning of the organization. Enterprise software is an integral part of the organization’s information system.
Most enterprise applications are divided into the following areas:
- ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)
- APS (Advanced Planning & Scheduling)
- HRM (Human Resource Management)
- CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
- ECM (Enterprise Content Management)
- Financial and accounting systems
- Systems for processing payments
- Systems for asset management
- IT Systems Management
- BPM (Business Process Management)
- EAM (Enterprise Asset Management)
- Managerial information systems, Business Intelligence
- DBMS (Database Management System)
Enterprise Application Software in practice: Organizations can build their enterprise applications for their needs either by their own development (in-house development), buy ready-made solutions from manufacturers on the market or use a mixed model. Development or adjustment of the finished solution is used in practice if the organization has very specific requirements for the operation. Conversely they buy ready-made solutions for areas that are de-facto standard (e.g. accounting systems, human resources management systems, etc.). On the market nowadays, there is a wide range of universal and industry solutions. There are partial solutions (focusing on only one area) and solutions covering almost all business functions (e.g. SAP).
Implementation of enterprise application software is very expensive and time consuming. Similarly, the traffic is very expensive and organizations should know the costs and benefits of their operation. To do this, they can use one of the methods of calculation of return or costs - e.g. CBA or TCO). The typical situation in most organizations is that they use multiple solutions from multiple vendors. The clear trend in recent years is a significant increase of enterprise software ability to integrate, which is mainly due to the advent of web services and standardization of interfaces between applications. The trend of architecture design of these applications using SOA contributed to it.
Enterprise application software is very complex and demanding and organizations usually require specialists (e.g. IT analyst, Application admin, Testers, Database specialists, etc.) - which are either owned or outsourced from specialized companies. Another trend in recent years is also the purchase of enterprise application software in form of services (see SaaS, XaaS) - thanks to this the companies focus on their core business and leave to hired specialists the concern for enterprise application software. This method is obviously not suitable for all types of business applications and for all organizations.
Large organizations cannot do without an information system architect and without the system integrator who help to design and maintain complex systems in accordance with the needs of the organization and efficient operation.