Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): An Integrated Software System

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is an integrated software system. ERP projects are a subclass of software projects often accompanied by large-scale organizational changes. ERP attempts to integrate all departments and functions across a company onto a single computer system that can serve all the particular needs of those different departments. That is a tall order, building a single software program that serves the needs of people in finance and it answers the needs of the people in human resources and in the warehouse. Each of those departments typically has its own computer system optimized for the particular ways that the department does its work. ERP combines them all together into single, integrated software

The Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP software can aid in the control of many business activities, like sales, marketing, delivery, billing, production, inventory management, quality management, and human resource management. The ERP is an industry-driven concepts and systems, and is universally accepted by the industry as a practical solution to achieve integrated enterprise information systems (Young B. Moon, 2007).

ERP packages are integrated software packages that support these ERP concepts. In the beginning, they were targeted at the manufacturing industry, and consisted mainly of functions for planning and managing core businesses such as sales management, production management, accounting and financial affairs, etc. However, in recent years, adaptation not only to the manufacturing industry, but also to diverse types of industry, has become possible and the expansion of implementation and use has been progressing on a global

Different languages, currencies, accounting standards and so on can be covered in one system, and functions that comprehensively manage multiple locations of a company can be packaged and implemented automatically. To cope with company globalization and system unification, this flexibility is essential, and one can say that it has major advantages, not simply for development and maintenance, but also in terms of management.

Another advantage of an ERP package is its better analysis capability. By enabling the comprehensive and unified management of related business and its data, it becomes possible to fully utilize many types of decision support systems and simulation functions. Furthermore, since it becomes possible to carry out, flexibly and in real time, the filing and analysis of data from a variety of dimensions, one is able to give the decision makers the information they want; thus enabling them to make better and more informed