ERP is a cross-functional enterprise system driven by an integrated suite of software modules that supports the basic internal business process of a company.

For example, ERP software for a manufacturing company will typically process the data from and track the status of sales, inventory, shipping, and invoicing, as well as forecast raw material and human resource requirements.

ERP gives a company an integrated real-time view of its core business processes, such as production, order processing, and inventory management, tied together by the ERP application s/w and a common database maintained by a database management system.

The ERP is the main system, interfaced or assisted by other systems in the organization.

The ERP is the main system, interfaced or assisted by other systems in the organization:

A typically ERP solution has the following modules:

· Business forecasting, planning and control (business).

· Sales, distribution, invoicing (sales).

· Production, planning and control (production).

· Materials management (Materials).

· Finance and accounting (finance).

· Personal management (Personnel).

ERP Basic Features:

· Separation of the program code and the data area.

· Screen based flow control.

· Application logic.

· Transaction flow control.

· Common service functions.

· Central table system.

· Action messages.

· Enterprise modeling: structure/policy/rules/guidelines

Benefits and challenges of ERP:

§ Quality and Efficiency.

§ Decreased costs.

§ Decision supports.

§ Enterprise agility.

The major ERP software companies have developed modular, web –enabled software suites that integrate ERP, CRM, SCM, procurement, decision support, enterprise portals, and other business applications and functions. The goal of these software suites is to enable companies to run most of their business processes using one web-enabled system of integrated software and databases, instead of a variety of separate e-business applications.