An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is a fully integrated business management system covering functional areas of an enterprise like Logistics, Production, Finance, Accounting and Human Resources. It organizes and integrates operation process and information flows to make optimum use of resources such as men, material, money and machine. ERP is a global, tightly integrated closed loop business solution package and is multifaceted. Simply stated, ERP provides one database, one application and one user interface for the entire enterprise. This helps in planning, monitoring and controlling the entire business.
Enterprise resource planning is a cross-functional enterprise system that integrates and automates many of the internal business processes of a company, particularly those within the manufacturing, logistics, distribution, accounting, finance, and human resource functions of the business. In the ERP system a data is required to be entered only once in the system; the data flows to other
modules automatically. Thus, ERP serves as the vital backbone information system of the enterprise, helping a company achieve the efficiency, agility, and responsiveness required to succeed in a dynamic business environment. ERP software typically consists of integrated modules that give a company a real-time cross-functional view of its core business processes, such as production, order processing, and sales, and its resources, such as cash, raw materials, production capacity, and people. However, properly implementing ERP systems is a difficult and costly process. Continuing developments in ERP software, including Web-enabled modules and e- business software suites, have made ERP more flexible and user-friendly, as well as extending it outward to a company‘s business partners.