INTEGRATED SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS
In the present
competitive business age everybody wish to choose a system that suits his
business processes. Integrated systems are the systems that help in integrating
key business and management functions. They provide a high-level view of all
the activities that are going on in the business. In the earlier days, data
used to be collected from different nodes and then compiled in the form of a
summary report. All these processes were too time consuming. Presently the software
does this compilation or integration work. There are many packages that
integrate the activities of different business divisions and thus allow the
businesses to devote more time on productive things. However there are
different needs of different business and one should be careful in deciding
about software that would be useful to him. Any company looks for these
packages to integrate its corporate functions like finance, manufacturing
and human resources. This is a critical activity. As a budding manager you
should be able to understand the system requirement of your company. You should
be able to define the information flow, information requirements and information
usage so that you gain competitive edge.
Literal meaning of “Integration”
is combination or amalgamation. In terms of computer terminology, “Integration”
is a broad term for any software that serves to join together or act as a
go-between between two separate and usually already existing applications. Integrated software applications for
business gives you the ability to integrate the diverse information sources
pertaining to your business into a single framework. This integrated
information can then be shared by applications such as Customer Relationship Management
(CRM), Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Business Process Re-engineering (BPR)
systems.
