Enterprise software, or enterprise application software, is computer software used by organizations rather than individual users. Common types of enterprise software include contact centre software, business intelligence, enterprise communication, inventory management, marketing tools, online payments, and enterprise resource planning. Organizations use enterprise software to run, scale, and optimize their day-to-day operations and processes, as well as build their own unique applications.
Why is enterprise software important?
Enterprise software is central to day-to-day business functions and mission-critical operations in many organizations. The following are some examples of how organizations use enterprise software solutions:
Scale resources
Organizations use enterprise software to scale operations and direct resources to functions that need them. They can scale up or down as necessary, keeping costs and resources under control, and budgets in check. For example, you can use Amazon Chime SDK to add scalable communications capabilities like video, voice, and text to your existing enterprise applications.
Improve organizational efficiency
Enterprise application software introduces automation in areas such as HR, payroll, marketing, and data entry, freeing up employees to focus on tasks that add more value to the enterprise. It delivers a standard set of collaboration tools and workflow solutions that reduce interdepartmental silos.
Enhance employee productivity
Technologies and tools such as process automation, project management software, artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics, and machine learning (ML) make collaboration between teams easier and deliver actionable insights. Teams can communicate with each other wherever they are. This helps employees complete their day-to-day tasks more efficiently.
Increase customer satisfaction
Enterprise software solutions such as customer relationship management, marketing automation, and contact center software have made it possible for organizations to develop a detailed understanding of their clients and their needs. By bringing together and centralizing customer data, enterprises can deliver a personalized service experience that meets customer demands.
What are some use cases of enterprise software solutions?
A number of the world’s leading enterprises integrate enterprise software into their operations. We give some common use cases below.
Customer service
Organizations use enterprise software to deliver efficient customer service and improve customer engagement. For example, financial software leader Intuit used Amazon Connect to build an omnichannel cloud contact center that unifies multiple customer communication channels such as voice, chat, messaging, and web. Intuit can thus deliver efficient service to more than 16.5 million customers who contact them annually with financial queries. All agents have a consistent view of customer data so they can deliver support efficiently.
Communication
Enterprise application software improves both internal and external communication through automation, data management, and optimum use of network resources. For example, streaming giant Netflix swapped its in-house email solution for Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES), to solve communication challenges such as:
- Optimizing email service for each Internet Service Provider
- Reducing the overhead of running dedicated email servers
- Scaling globally for wider customer reach
Sales and marketing
Enterprise level software can reduce silos between sales and marketing, so companies respond faster to the first contact new customers make. For example, technology services provider World Wide Technologies achieves sales efficiency by responding to initial customer requests with a quote management application powered by Amazon Honeycode.
Operation support
Enterprise software can reduce operational inefficiencies and save organizations thousands of dollars in expenses. For example, Domino’s is using AWS enterprise software solutions to improve service delivery. With more than 70% of the organization’s sales coming from online orders, Domino’s used Amazon SageMaker to build machine learning (ML) models that could accurately predict which pizza the customer would order next. The solution reduced pickup and delivery times and boosted customer satisfaction scores.
What are the types of enterprise software?
There are several different types and brands of enterprise software available. The software can be grouped into several broad categories. We give some examples below.
Enterprise resource planning
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software helps organizations to manage their various business processes, including sales, HR, supply chain, project management, and payroll from within a single centralized system. Organizations use ERP software to:
- Centrally manage organizational data from different sources
- Automate tasks and simplify business processes
- Deliver operational efficiency and boost profitability
Customer relationship management
Enterprises use customer relationship management (CRM) and contact center software to:
- Better manage customer relationships
- Develop insights into customer needs through data
- Deliver better experiences to existing customers
- Make informed decisions about new prospects
With information about existing and potential clients in one place, businesses can personalize their communications and build deeper relationships. They can also bring together data from different departments to build out their sales pipelines and make financial forecasts.
Business intelligence
Business intelligence is enterprise application software that brings together data held in multiple sources—the cloud, on-premises data centers, and spreadsheets—for analysis and reporting. Everyone within an organization gets a consistent view of the data through interactive dashboards. Business intelligence software also highlights patterns and trends so that teams can:
- Gain valuable insights into business processes
- Make strategic decisions with confidence
- Avoid time-consuming manual analysis
Supply chain management
Today’s supply chains are highly complex global networks of manufacturers, suppliers, logistics, and retailers that work together to deliver goods and services. Every organization requires efficient digital infrastructure to co-ordinate and manage supply chain tasks such as:
- Goods tracking
- Production updates
- Supplier invoicing
- Supplier auditing
Effective supply chain management tools, such as Amazon Managed Blockchain and Amazon Forecast, give organizations complete visibility over their supply chains to improve forecasting, reduce inventory costs, and improve capacity utilization.
Human resource management
Enterprise application software for human resource (HR) management is typically made up of tools to oversee and control HR functions like:
- Recruitment and training
- Annual leave management
- Payroll
- Talent retention and engagement
By bringing together all of the functions that a modern enterprise HR department has to oversee, organizations can work more efficiently and deliver greater value to the enterprise.
