Enterprise Application?
Enterprise application describes applications (or software) that a business uses to do ifts work. When the word enterprise is combined with application, it usually refers to a software platform that is too large and too complex for individual or small business use. 
WHAT DOES AN ENTERPRISE APPLICATION DO?
Enterprise applications are crucial for organizations to optimize their operations, improve efficiency, and enhance decision-making. They enable integration across departments, streamline processes, and provide a comprehensive view of business activities, helping organizations stay competitive in today’s fast-paced and data-driven business environment.
Enterprise applications are designed to be integral parts of an organization’s information system. As such, they generally handle a much broader and deeper range of functions and scales more than a smaller application. Rather than focusing on individual users or small teams, an enterprise application can serve entire teams and business divisions, interdepartmental needs, and even entire customer segments.
KEY BENEFIT OF ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS?
Enterprise applications play a crucial role in making business operations more efficient and productive. By centralizing data and administrative controls, EAs integrate data and operations across teams and departments and provide reporting and business intelligence to make better decisions.
EAs are highly customizable to help meet specific business needs, and without them, large enterprises might have difficulty organizing business processes or meeting regulatory requirements.
Characteristics of enterprise application software
Enterprise application software can be broken down into two categories:
- Software that visualizes, manipulates, and stores a large amount of complex data. One thing to note here is that while data warehouses or data analytics software are enterprise solutions, they do not come under the EAS umbrella and are considered separate software.
- Software that helps in business processes, ranging from business support to automation.
Selecting the right EAS solution
Enterprise Application Software has become a core component of a successful enterprise. However, selecting the right EAS solution can be a daunting process with a myriad of EAS solutions available for different enterprise requirements.
SaaS offers enterprises more freedom when it comes to selecting the ideal EAS solution that meets their specific requirements without incurring significant upfront investments.
TYPES OF ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS
Key types of enterprise applications and their purposes include:
Email Marketing Software
Email marketing software automates email campaign creation, delivery, and tracking. It is often integrated with a customer relationship management (CRM) platform to track contacts’ interactions and conversions with those email campaigns.
Marketing Automation
Marketing automation involves the stimulation of interest in products and services through sharing relevant articles, videos, social media posts, e-books, podcasts, and other media or serving up advertisements. It is often implemented through an integrated content management system (CMS), email marketing platform, social media platform, and other marketing tools.
Content Management Systems
A CMS is used to create, edit, store, and publish digital content such as web pages, blog posts, downloadable digital assets, and images. It often supports workflows, content organization, user and role-based administration, security, and more.
Customer Relationship Management
CRM applications track and manage communications through the web, email, telephone, mobile apps, chat, social media, and corporate marketing materials.
Project Management Software
Project management software involves the application of processes, tools, and knowledge to organize a company’s resources to complete projects. Software tools designed specifically for organizing and tracking task completion, time, labor, costs, and other project resources and objectives may be used in the process of project management.
Supply Chain Management (SCM)
SCM centrally manages the flow of goods and services throughout the production cycle from raw materials to finished goods. It tracks and suggests improvements for the transportation and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, finished goods, and order fulfillment. As such, SCM is often less risky and more cost-effective, timely, sustainable, and resilient.
Business Continuity Planning
BCP is the preparation and testing of measures that protect business operations and also provide the means for the recovery of technologies in the event of any loss, damage or failure of facilities.
Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
EAI unites the databases and workflows of enterprise applications, so information use is consistent, and data changes are reflected throughout the organization.
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
EAM manages the organization’s physical assets throughout the assets’ lifecycles. Applications and processes are used to optimize, implement, and track the maintenance activities for assets in relationship to their associated tools, materials, skills, information, and priorities.
Enterprise Resource Planning
ERP is business process management software that allows an organization to use a system of integrated applications to manage the business and automate many back-office functions related to technology, services and human resources.
Low-code/No-code Development
These provide a development environment wherein software can be designed through a graphical user interface (GUI). Wholly functional applications can be created with little or no coding skills, making application development possible without coding expertise and therefore less expensive and more convenient.
Product Data Management (PDM)
PDM manages the production and publication of product data and process-related information in a single, centralized system. PDM is known in software engineering as version control and should not be confused with product information management (PIM).
Product Information Management (PIM)
PIM collects, manages, and enriches the information of products and the relevant digital assets required to market and sell them through multiple distribution channels. PIM serves as a single, centralized platform that governs information across teams to improve collaboration, efficiency, and consistency.
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
PLM involves the handling of products as they move through the various stages of their lifecycle, including design, engineering, manufacture, marketing, service, and disposal. PLM integrates various business systems and their data, processes, and inputs to help companies with decision-making regarding pricing, promotion, and cost-effectiveness.
Business Intelligence (BI)
BI helps businesses make more data-driven decisions by combining data mining, data tools, data infrastructure, data visualization, reporting, dashboard development, and predictive analytics. BI helps gather and enhance big data from across an organization and its customers in a central location, present it in a manner useful to decision makers, and provide predictions and suggestions to optimize operations.
Human Resources Management (HR or HRM)
Human resources management, also known as human capital management (HCM), assists with the management of human capital such as employee recruitment, hiring, deployment, training and development; performance appraisal; and pay and employee-benefits systems and design. HRM helps optimize the use of labor, reduce risk, and maximize return on investment (ROI).
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity applications protect computer systems and networks from malicious attacks that result in the disclosure, theft, or damage of electronic data, hardware, and software. Common approaches include intrusion detection systems and intrusion prevention prevention systems (IDS and IPS), software-defined networking (SDN), and security information and event management (SIEM).
IDS monitors systems or networks for malicious activity and policy violation. IPS is an IDS that can additionally attempt to prevent cybersecurity incidents through reporting, blocking, or dropping the activity.
SDN centralizes network control, routes data through a single firewall, and allows the selective blocking of malicious traffic, all of which make IDS and IPS data capture and countermeasures more effective.
SIEM is the combination of security information management (SIM) and security event management (SEM). It aids in threat investigation by providing real-time collection of data from various sources across an organization, normalizing and aggregating the data, analyzing it to detect threats, and pinpointing security breaches.
IT Services Management (ITSM)
ITSM supports the implementation and management of an organization’s IT services. Functions include the deployment and support of EAs; architecting storage, networking, and cloud resources; and managing helpdesk support and troubleshooting procedures.
ITSM improves the quality of customer and employee experience and customer service by optimizing the design, creation, delivery, operation, and control of IT services provided internally and to customers.
Forms Automation
Enterprise forms automation is a company-wide system of document management that organizes, distributes, completes, processes, and digitizes a variety of essential paper-based business documents. These include forms, contracts, surveys, applications, and more.
Forms automation plays a vital role in decreasing costs and increasing data organization, consistency, accuracy, accessibility, analysis, and other benefits of a paperless office.
Salesforce Automation Systems (SFA)
Also known as salesforce management systems, SFA is an information system that automates repetitive data entry and sales and administrative tasks. SFA often combines CRM and marketing information and automation systems to boost Salesforce productivity; increase sales and marketing efficiency; uncover revenue opportunities; and integrate sales, marketing, and customer service.
Business Process Management (BPM)
BPM improves business processes, efficiency, and bottom-line profitability by monitoring, discovering, analyzing, modeling, managing, improving, and automating day-to-day workflows and other aspects of business operations.