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Unit 2: Information Systems in the Enterprise

including Enterprise resource planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Notes
Supply Chain Management (SCM). Enterprise systems are built on, though do not include,
software platforms such as SAP’s NetWeaver and Oracle’s Fusion and, usually, a relational
database. In addition, 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, it is often convenient to exclude them from the definition of ES.
ES is a special class of enterprise application software (namely packaged enterprise application
software), which, in turn, is a type of enterprise software. Here, the adjective “enterprise” is used
to connote “enterprise class” software, i.e., software designed for use in large organizations.
Clearly, under the preceding definition, ES is also a special class of application software (namely
packaged enterprise application software).

Figure 2.4: Enterprise Systems

Computer-based systems built using ES are types of Enterprise Information System, or
Management Information System, which, in turn, are types of information system (IS). The
distinction between ES and IS is that “ES” refers to software, whereas an IS is a social system that
uses IT, i.e., an IS includes people—often in an organizational setting—as well as IT.

2.4.1 Benefits of Enterprise Systems

The various benefits of enterprise systems are:
 Firm Structure and Organization: One Organization: Companies can use enterprise
systems to support organizational structures that were not previously possible or to
create a more disciplined organizational culture.
 Management: Firm wide Knowledge-based Management Process: In addition to automating
many essential business transactions, such as taking orders, paying suppliers, or changing
employee benefit status, enterprise systems can also improve management reporting and
decision making.
 Technology: Unified Platform: Enterprise systems promise to provide firms with a single,
unified, and all-encompassing information system technology platform and environment.
Enterprise systems promise to create a single, integrated repository that gathers data on
all the key business processes.
 Business: More Efficient Operations and Customer-driven Business Process: Enterprise
systems can help create the foundation for a customer-driven or demand organization. By

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