Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is business management software—usually a suite of integrated applications—that a company can use to store and manage data from every stage of business, including:
Product planning, cost and development
Manufacturing
Marketing and sales
Inventory management
Shipping and payment
ERP provides an integrated real-time view of core business processes, using common databases maintained by a database management system. ERP systems track business resources—cash, raw materials, production capacity—and the status of business commitments: orders, purchase orders, and payroll. The applications that make up the system share data across the various departments (manufacturing, purchasing, sales, accounting, etc.) that entered the data. ERP facilitates information flow between all business functions, and manages connections to outside stakeholders.[1]
Enterprise system software is a multi-billion dollar industry that produces components that support a variety of business functions. IT investments have become the largest category of capital expenditure in United States-based businesses over the past decade. Though early ERP systems focused on large enterprises, smaller enterprises increasingly use ERP systems.[2]
Organizations consider the ERP system a vital organizational tool because it integrates varied organizational systems and facilitates error-free transactions and production. However, ERP system development is different from traditional systems development.[3] ERP systems run on a variety of computer hardware and network configurations, typically using a database as an information repository.[4]

Components[edit]

Transactional database
Management portal/dashboard
Business intelligence system
Customizable reporting
Simple resource planning - Who Is Doing What and When?
Analysing the product
External access via technology