Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are exclusively designed to allow all staff throughout an organization to view a common set of data. ERP systems benefit organizations because they eliminate movement across applications. In doing so, ERP systems have provided an alternative method for overcoming the functional barriers that have typically reserved the free flow of information in past enterprises.

ERP systems are commonly very large, and have a complete set of user functionality. ERP systems utilize an organizations central database such that all personnel internal to an organization are reading the same data. An ERP system has many modules, and covers the complete range of all business applications in such areas as finance, accounting, sales, material management, and human resources.

ERP systems are client-server systems built on relational database, they are packaged software that must be purchased and installed, and they need the business processes of the organization to be changed to accommodate the processes that the new software needs.

 

Source: Trites, Gerald, Boritz, J. Efrim, and Pugsley, David. eBusiness: A Canadian Perspective for a Networked World. Second Edition, Pearson Prentice Hall. Toronto, 2006.