How enterprise applications can help in scaling up business in 2022?
Updated: Jul 5, 2022
An Enterprise application (EA) is large software that organizations use to manage businesses and their related operations, including staff, sales, product sales, and logistics. The article explains the most common EAs, the benefits, and EAs that are becoming popular.
Depending upon the industry and the purpose, EAs are designed to help manage, supply-chain, inventory, sale-purchase, accounting, finances, HR and back office activities. Primary purpose of EA software is to make the management easy and increase operational efficiency.
What is an enterprise application ?
An Enterprise applications (EA) is large software that organizations use to manage businesses and its related operations, including staff, sales, product sales and logistics. Depending upon the industry and the purpose, EAs are designed to help manage, supply-chain, inventory, sale-purchase, accounting, finances, HR and back office activities. Primary purpose of EA software is to make the management easy and increase operational efficiency.
Banking and insurance industry, educational institutes, large enterprises, businesses having vast sales purchase activity extensively uses EAs. In fact, any type of commercial establishment having multiple point-of-sale spread across geographic locations like super stores, automotive industry, and aviation industries need custom Enterprise Application more than anyone else to manage business and back office activity.
EA's are complex, scalable, component-based, distributed, and mission-critical. EA software is an array of programs that include shared business applications and software for modelling organizational structures that have been designed to offer incredible functionality.
The types of Enterprise Apps
Enterprise apps are designed to assist companies in supporting many different departments within their companies. If a method or a process in an organization is widely employed across all business branches or departments,, there's a high possibility that an enterprise application is in place or could be developed to facilitate the process. A brief list of the most commonly used types of enterprise apps include:
Automated billing systems
Business intelligence
Customer support and call center
Content management
CRM systems or Customer Relationship Management marketing systems that use email
Enterprise application integration (EAI)
Enterprise resource planning (ERP)
Enterprise search
HR management
Marketing automation
Strategies for collaboration and messaging
Payment processing
Tools for project management
Some of these applications could include cloud support and cloud computing, in which most or all of the supporting infrastructure is located in the Cloud. Some may also have on-premise systems and a hybrid model using both.
It's important to distinguish between off-the-shelf and custom-built software. Sometimes, you'll find an existing program to fit your business's needs. However, if the options you have aren't the right fit, then you'll need to create an entirely custom application.
Most common enterprise software?
In this section, we'll briefly discuss some of the most well-known software instances for the enterprise. Because the purpose of this kind of software is designed to assist large companies' operations, the majority of items listed on this list should not come as a surprise; let's take a look.
HR Management
Large corporations will have a large number of employees and an HR department that will manage hiring's, promotions, firings, vacations, retirements, PTO, and other similar matters.
Depending on where the company is located depending on the location, it could be subject to complicated labor laws. If it fails to adhere to such rules, it could have severe legal and financial consequences. Therefore, having software that assists the HR professional is essential for all businesses.
Payroll Management
All organizations employ employees. They must have the correct amount of money at the appropriate moment. If they don't, the company could be liable for specific financial and legal penalties as mentioned above.
This is why we gave the subject of payroll its own entity instead of integrating it in HR management. Although they're closely related, payroll management could require a different group of experts, specifically accountants. Accounting software, or an accounting module of more extensive enterprise software--will have terms that HR professionals may not know.
Customer Support
Hopefully, the company will have many customers that will always have issues and require assistance to resolve these issues. This is why most businesses have a customer support center that can respond to customer requests via phone or email, or live chat. Software that facilitates an automated customer support system is essential in two significant ways. The first and most obvious is that it permits customer support employees to perform their work by assisting customers.
However, the most subtle way that software can aid in providing customer support is through the collection of data that can enhance the customer support process. By keeping track of indicators like the time taken to resolve a problem, the amount of time spent on each issue, or the number of incidents logged daily, organizations can have an accurate picture of their performance on the front of customer support and hopefully apply that information to great use.
Email Marketing Systems
To succeed and survive in this competitive world, businesses have to constantly acquire new customers and maintain reasonable, lasting relations with existing ones. Few tools can be as effective to achieve this goal as email, as it's the most used communication method in the business world.
But, it would help if you didn't begin mass mailing people with libraries from any programming language. Apart from the danger of being branded as spam, such personal strategies could result in headaches in compliance with laws that aim to protect users' information like GDPR. The proper implementation of a marketing method via email is the best option to be protected from the risks mentioned above and access the features that will allow you to control your customer's preferences.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Then, last but not least, we have what's possibly the most significant and most "enterprise" out of the various enterprise software that is the multibillion-dollar industry we refer to as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software.
More than just a kind of software, ERP is a process. Its purpose is the integrated management of the primary operations of a company. Many companies utilize the latest technology to manage such a procedure, so ERP systems can be helpful.
With the help of ERP software, companies can gain a comprehensive view of their key processes. This way, they can keep track of their resources and the progress of business events, in the sense that ERP incorporates all the items previously mentioned in the list plus more. It allows sharing information between departments of an organization and external users.
In the past, it was primarily large companies that embraced ERP solutions. Recently, smaller businesses and even start-ups have begun using ERP systems too.
Key benefits of enterprise applications?
The advantages of enterprise application integration are numerous.
Improved sharing and managing information
EAI improves interoperability among different departments within an organization. For the automobile manufacturing industry within the US, Interoperability issues can cause up to $1 billion losses. A flexible enterprise application software solution allows access to all data obtained by business applications, completely removing duties related to data processing.
Automatization of workflow
For instance, you could use CRM customer data to initiate the email campaign and make reports to evaluate its effectiveness. The EAI platform enhances the efficiency of business processes and improves the transparency of financial flows.
The flexibility of IT infrastructure
Software integration enables organizations to build IT facilities with ease and adapt quickly to customers' changing demands. Regarding communication within the company, some issues are encountered as employees who are as tech-savvy as other employees are required to perform technical tasks. They are faced with difficulties in managing the structure that is IT-dependent.
In larger organizations, it is possible to encounter situations where it becomes difficult for managers to oversee the IT structures within the company in which they are unable to utilize the latest technologies effectively. EAI assists in overcoming these obstacles and speeds up the business process by using greater functionality to link data and capabilities of a variety of applications into a simple interface.
New opportunities are created
One of the significant benefits for the organization of EAI has been that it helps managers be aware of how to respond to any new opportunities faster than they could previously. Enterprise applications help businesses deal with market shifts and reputation management concerns, problems with disruption to the supply chain, and many more, all through an interface.
Enhancing efficiency
EAI helps enterprises simplify their communication, reducing the amount of time and effort needed and improving their functionality. It also provides better control and ultimately increases the effectiveness of the company. It allows the company to recognize and respond to emerging opportunities. It helps companies deal with the changing market trends and their management of reputation issues, issues associated with disruptions in the supply chain, and so on from a single interface.
If done correctly, EAI allows organizations to reap the benefits of their investment. Enterprise Application is attaining acceptance across the world by organizations. It's not just advantageous to use EAI to enhance organizational proficiency and for an increase in the performance of individuals through numerous features, including employees' reports and rewards.
EAI can provide several advantages to transportation and logistics firms and network providers, banks, and retail companies. But, enterprise application software and integration processes require experience in using security and programming protocols. The reality is that 66% of companies have only a fifth of their data off-site. This suggests that there is significant doubt about the Cloud and EAI solutions.
Examples of enterprise applications for 2022
There are many various enterprise applications available for you to select from. Here are a few of them, the most well-known:
Salesforce- It is a customer relationship management platform that connects sales, marketing commerce, service, and sales teams.
Microsoft Office 365 -Cloud for productivity includes the standard Microsoft Office apps like Word and Excel and applications for managing device security, device management, and many others.
SAP Concur – An application that connects expense, travel, and vendor invoices helping businesses and individuals track their spending from end to end.
Slack- It is a messaging system that allows people to collaborate more effectively in a secure setting.
Jira- It is a work management tool that gathers requirements and test cases and monitors bugs and issues.
ADP Human Capital Management Solutions- This app integrates payroll, HR tax tracking, time tracking, and benefits administration.
Amazon Web Services- Global cloud-based services created to help businesses reduce IT expenses, speed up and grow.
HubSpot- It is a marketing automation tool that allows you to design targeted marketing campaigns that connect your customers via the internet, mobile, online ads, as well as email.
Cisco Meraki- This app enables the unified management of a device network from one central dashboard, including deployment, security of services, and troubleshooting.
Confluence- It is a collaboration Wiki tool that allows team collaboration and knowledge sharing.
Technological trends of 2022
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Latest technology experts predict AI as a significant factor in the coming year. AI will be used more frequently in enterprise applications this year to improve efficiency and allow for better workload management and prescriptive analytics. The integration of AI into enterprise applications will enable organizations of any size to deal with data. As companies strive to be more data-driven, AI can be beneficial to add.
5G networks
5G is the next generation of wireless connectivity to grids and promises internet users features like faster connectivity, lower latency, and more excellent reliability. If 5G becomes the next major trend in mobile technology, it will have a wide range of implications. Employees will no longer be tied to a specific location. Mobile apps will grow more effectively. Technologies like IoT, AR, and VR are expected to explode. Because of the rapid downloading speeds, cloud-based services will increase even faster.
Cloud computing
Phil Sierra, the founder of Nuadox, founder Nuadox as well as market research, spoke in Twitter chat, "I really believe that this year will see the dawn of cloud computing, with the adoption rate increasing and opening up new markets and industries." Additionally, IDG found that 9 out of 10 businesses will have a portion of their infrastructure or applications in the Cloud by the end of 2019. The remaining are expected to follow by 2021.
Enterprise applications enable businesses to anticipate the future and ease any issues that might arise on the way. Nowadays, enterprise applications are crucial for scaling a business of any size and in every industry. With advantages such as more business insights, better collaboration, higher efficiency, and more minor risk enterprise applications are essential for any company looking to be successful in the current market.
Conclusion
Enterprise applications should be seen not as a fancy software instead as an integral part of the digital transformation. Obviously, not every form of integration for enterprise applications has to be implemented by every business. It should address an issue that the company faces. One of the primary advantages of enterprise software is that they improve the effectiveness of the business. It's due to better information workflow, less complicated IT infrastructure processing automatization, storage of data, and the standardization of processes. Other advantages include increased productivity of employees, increased transparency, and competitive advantages. Enterprise applications can integrate the work performed by diverse departments like sales, HR, supply chain management, and other areas. Because it's a technology closely connected to modern trends, it's essential to bring enterprise-level applications for the company as soon as possible.