Correct Answer - Option 3 : Enterprise Resource Planning
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
- It is an important area, which has completely revolutionized the business environment.
- Many organizations and business systems have re-engineered the processes and have gone to adopting ERP.
- Other organizations are preparing themselves for adopting ERP. It has been estimated that businesses around the world have been spending almost $ 10 billion per year on ERP systems.
- ERP aims to integrate business processes through the support of an integrated computer information system.
- ERP is a software architecture that facilitates the flow of information among different functions of an enterprise.
- It encompasses a broad set of activities supported by the multi-module application software that helps a manufacturing or other business firm to manage its business activities, like product planning, purchasing, inventory, management vendor/customer service, and order tracking. Finance, Human Resource Development (HRD), Logistics and Manufacturing, and Supply-Chain are some of the commonly available application modules with most of the vendors. ERP uses a client/server environment, supported by modern Graphic User Interface (GUI) technology.
- The core of the entire ERP system is the integration of commonly designed applications and consolidating all business operations into a uniform system environment.
ERP has the following main features :
(a) It is a software architecture, which integrates all the functions of the business.
(b) Seamless integration without apparent change in the decision and support system across different modules (or function) is achieved by ERP through :
- a common database,
- instant sharing of information which is common and simultaneous, and
- one-time entry (at one place) for the entire enterprise to get up-dated
- It has extremely powerful, user-friendly “graphic-user-interface” (GUI) technology.
- It is supported by client-server architecture for communication at different levels of the system.
- It creates a uniform system environment.
Therefore, from the above explanation, ERP is an acronym for Enterprise Resource Planning.
