what is enterprise resource planning erp 
enterprise resource planning erp is a platform companies use to manage and integrate the essential parts of their businesses many erp software applications are critical to companies because they help them implement resource planning by integrating all the processes needed to run their companies with a single system an erp software system can also integrate planning purchasing inventory sales marketing finance human resources and more investopedia joules garciaunderstanding enterprise resource planning erp you can think of an enterprise resource planning system as the glue that binds together the different computer systems for a large organization without an erp application each department would have its system optimized for its specific tasks with erp software each department still has its system but all of the systems can be accessed through one application with one interface erp applications also allow the different departments to communicate and share information more easily with the rest of the company it collects information about the activity and state of different divisions making this information available to other parts where it can be used productively erp applications can help a corporation become more self aware by linking information about production finance distribution and human resources together because it connects different technologies used by each part of a business an erp application can eliminate costly duplicates and incompatible technology the process often integrates accounts payable stock control systems order monitoring systems and customer databases into one system 