Enterprise Software

Enterprise Software (aka Enterprise Application Software (EAS)) is a term used to describe applications and technologies that companies use in order to support their operational and strategic initiatives by focusing on the whole organization rather than single user. Such software can be found in large industries, governments, retailers, hospitals, and departments such as sales, marketing, customer service and finance, among others. Enterprise Software requires interdisciplinary methods and processes to manage large data scales – numerous solutions on the market provide just that. For example, an enterprise software application focused on human resources will have numerous HR features that will enable professionals to access one single solution and generate information simultaneously.

Enterprise Software Characteristics
Enterprise application software (EAS) is aimed at solving the needs of big organizations, whether they’re Fortune 500 companies or large charities. Besides the sheer scale (and often, outdated design), such tools have a number of defining characteristics that make them different from your typical B2C app:

• High performance. An enterprise application should handle the stress of the entire organization using it every day.
• Fully owned by the company, no need to share the app with thousands of other users, which helps with lightning-fast queries.
• High customization – likely created specifically to match your business processes.
• High scalability and extensibility. The system grows together with your business.
• Large number of integrations – multiple systems working together to perform a variety of tasks.
• Data Portability. You can extract the data stored in the system for other purposes.
• High security and robustness. Enterprise software systems are typically equipped with several layers of security (e.g. two-factor authentication, multiple user roles, and encryption).

Types of Enterprise Software
Enterprise software can be categorized by business function. Each type of enterprise application can be considered a "system" due to the integration with a firm's business processes. Categories of enterprise software may overlap due to this systemic interpretation. For example, IBM's Business Intelligence platform (Cognos), integrates with a predictive analytics platform (SPSS) and can obtain records from its database packages (Infosphere, DB2). Blurred lines between package functions make delimitation difficult, and in many ways larger software companies define these somewhat arbitrary categories. Nevertheless, certain industry standard product categories have emerged, and these are shown below:

• Business Intelligence (BI)
• Business Process Management (BPM)
• Content Management System (CMS)
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Database Management System (DBMS) - such as Master Data Management (MDM) and Data Warehousing (DW, DWH or EDW)
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) - which is a broad category covering: Accounting, Human Resource, Corporate performance and governance, Customer Services, Sales, Procurement, Production, Distribution
• Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
• Human Resource Management (HRM)
• Knowledge Management (KM)
• Low-code Development Platforms (LCDP)
• Product Data Management (PDM)
• Product Information Management (PIM)
• Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
• Supply Chain Management (SCM)
• Software Configuration Management (SCM) - such as Version Control System (VCS)
• Networking and Information Security
  • Intrusion Detection Prevention (IDS) - and by extension Intrusion Prevention System (IPS)
  • Software Defined Networking (SDN) - including SD-WAN
  • Security Information Event Management (SIEM) - which can combine Security Information Management (SIM) and Security Event Management (SEM)
• Others that don't fit into well-known standard categories, Backup software, Billing Management, Accounting software

Enterprise Software Development
Enterprise Software Development aims to improve efficiency, productivity, and business functionality. Martin Fowler, a prominent developer and British speaker, considers that enterprise apps, one of the results of software development for companies, are referred to the view, manipulation, and storage of large amounts of complex data generally, which lead to support and automation of business processes of the organization. In the same way, these enterprise apps serve a large number of users who are usually connected through a computer network.

Enterprise Software Development has the following characteristics

source: CoBuildLab

• Performance: The performance of an app or enterprise software must be implicit. This type of software needs to work very well because they will be vital parts on processes within an organization, and often involve economic processes. Companies are like clocks. If something does not work well, the integral component of the organization will be affected. Precision and quality cannot postpone them. In addition to this, this type of software is usually very demanding. This software is used by many people simultaneously, and by different kinds of devices, ranging from desktop mobiles and sometimes can even be industrial. This high demand makes prevailing an excellent performance of the app or the software.
• Scalability: Scalability is a quality of any software product. A product that is not scalable will sink an be out of the market in a matter of time. Scalability determines the growth and advancement of the software, in functionality, in features, and any aspect deemed necessary. This growth, of course, should not affect the performance of the software.
• Security: Security is also another critical topic in enterprise software development, normally the most important. It is a subject that requires investment, specialists, and depth analysis. And we are not only talking about the security of computers, servers, and code. We are talking about cybersecurity for the employees or people who use it, for the information it handles, but also security for all the devices that make up this network. Attacks by cyber-criminals are increasingly harmful and not only compromise information but also infrastructure. If it is a medium or large organization, this topic is of special care and therefore tops the list of particularities of the Enterprise Software Development.
• Cost: If you already have a company, you know that money and time matters a lot. That's why this topic is also dealt with a lot of particularities in software development processes for companies. When we talk about costs we mean to have a thorough planning and absolute control of all the monetary factor from phase 1 of the project, the initial investment, up to the maintenance costs after the soft launch of the MVP and the full launch of the product. If it is an organization that already exists, cost controls are much more rigorous because there are many existing items, and a small imbalance can have severe consequences for the development of the company. And there is also the issue of return on investment, which we will discuss in the following point.
• Fast ROI: The control of expenses in the development of business software is rigorous, and this includes an expectation of ROI or return on investment and the time in which it will have. This factor is a priority, and it is possible to measure it with indicators such as productivity, efficiency, and the impact of this on the overall budget. In the development of software for business, the return on investment cannot be long term, should be estimated its start in the short or medium term, and once it happens should be documented to calculate also the profits of the development. You must always earn something for the organization because otherwise, it would not make sense to do so.
• Interconnectivity: Multiple enterprise software systems may sometimes be used simultaneously. They may even work through interconnected networks and also usually interact with other tools, devices and software. If this fact is not respected in a development project for a company, it can be very harmful to the internal processes of the organization. Whish is wht EAS must integrated with the established workflow or improve it'
• Robustness: This is related to security, interconnectivity, and in definition, is the strength and support that characterizes a system or software for business. It must not only be developed with robust, proven, reliable, and secure technology but also must comply with minimum security standards; it must be compatible, versionable, easy to access and manage for authorized persons, it must have a record of the activities and processes it carries out and several qualities that make it a robust software.
• Customization: These tools are designed for a business environment and meet the needs of departments, teams, or employees of a company and are usually customizable.
• Storage: The issue of storage is critical. It is supposed to be considered with a lot of detail in enterprise software development. Not only because one works with large amounts of information, but also because this information must be stored in the best way possible so it may be accessed easily whetherr by audit, to measure productivity, see where it can be improved, business intelligence, etc.

EAS versus SaaS
Enterprise software is often explained in contrast to software-as-a-service (SaaS). Several characteristics are important in evaluating which is right for enterprise needs:

• Ability to customize the software
• Database query and reporting
• Functionality
• Cash flow and pricing

SaaS is a popular option for users that need to take care of a very specific purpose. In this software model, users typically rent the software, never owning it. SaaS is often hosted in the cloud, requiring users be connected to the internet to use the software and access the data. (Because of this SaaS can also be known as cloud applications.) But, cloud hosting also means that users can access the software widely, from computers, tablets, and sometimes even smartphones. Popular examples of SaaS include Slack, Salesforce.com, Dropbox, and Zendesk.

While SaaS can provide quick, universal access to software that offers specific actions, its drawbacks may include lack of customization and database maneuvering. The inability to customize this software means it often cannot be specific enough to large-scale, enterprise-wide missions. SaaS offerings are available to many enterprises, and sometimes individual users, so its inherent ability to create queries and reports can be limited. When software is querying or reporting on its data, it must scan the entire database – but when so many users are accessing a cloud-based database, the process can be slow and overloaded. There SaaS often may limit types of querying and reporting available to its users.

In contrast, databases in enterprise application software are meant only for the single enterprise, so other groups aren’t sharing a database and draining its processing capabilities.

In terms of customization, EAS is typically owned outright, giving users much more ability to customize it. Enterprises often have in-house developers and programmers tweak or overhaul the software to make it match enterprise needs. It’s also always malleable – if a new enterprise problem comes up, programmers can implement a new solution within the existing software.

Enterprise application software is typically hosted on physical servers. The software then relies on a computer network to connect to its many users. Some parts of the software may also rely on intranet and occasionally internet connections. Because enterprise software installs directly on organizational servers, the connection is generally more private and secure.

Taking Enterprise Software to the Next Level
The word “enterprise”—and therefore “enterprise software”—has acquired somewhat of a pejorative connotation over the years. People would often perceive enterprises as being slow, bureaucratic, and stagnant. Enterprise software, by extension, was often considered bloated, slow, ugly, and hard to use, especially when compared to the trendy apps published by the hottest startups.

But things have changed. Nowadays, enterprise customers expect their software to be as good as consumer software. How would you go about that? How do you take your enterprise software process up and notch and delight customers?

The answer lies in the process. If enterprise software is to be as good as the best consumer applications available, it has to embrace modern development techniques and tools. This involves leveraging automation to the fullest extent, creating automated testing and release management strategies, and embracing DevOps and Agile.

But all of that is still not enough. A decisive step toward improving your enterprise software process is achieving Value Stream Management (VSM), i.e., getting complete visibility of your software delivery process.

Market Scenario for Enterprise Sofware
Major giants like IBM Corporation, Oracle Corporation and Microsoft Corporation are the market leaders in the enterprise software market and are investing into enterprise software market due to increasing demand from various industry verticals like healthcare, BFSI, manufacturing, IT & telecommunication among others. Increasing need for real time computing of applications is one major factor fueling the growth of enterprise software market. IBM Corporation has partnered with Salesforce in order to integrate their artificial intelligence platforms to deliver enhanced customer service experience. Salesforce’s in-house artificial intelligence technology called Einstein and IBM’s cognitive computing technology Watson will work together with this partnership.

North America region holds the largest market share of global enterprise software market followed by Europe and Asia Pacific regions. The growth is North America region is mainly dominated by U.S. and Canada and is attributed to the increasing demand for cloud computing applications and in the region. The region also has a well-established infrastructure which allows implementation of advanced technologies.

Enterprise software market has been segmented on the basis of type, organization size and vertical. The type segment is further bifurcated into enterprise resource planning (ERP), business intelligence (BI), supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM), web conferencing collaboration and others. Out of which, enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management sub segments hold a significant market share owing to its growing number of applications and are also expected to dominate the market share of enterprise software market during the forecast period.

Major factor driving the growth of enterprise software market is the growing trend of big data analytics and analytics and cloud computing. Increasing demand for business intelligence and analytics is another major factor driving the growth of enterprise software market. Increasing adoption of database management systems is another factor driving the growth of enterprise software market.

The Global Enterprise Software Market is expected to grow at approx. USD 634 Billion by 2023, at 8% of CAGR between 2017 and 2023.

source: Market Research Future

The regional analysis of enterprise software market is being studied for regions such as Asia Pacific, North America, Europe and Rest of the World. It has been observed that North America is estimated to account for the largest share of the market, whereas Asia-Pacific is projected to grow at the fastest rate during the forecast period. The major growth in enterprise software market in North America is attributed to technical advancements and increasing demand for business analytics and intelligence applications across various industry verticals in that region.

References