Mastering Enterprise Mobile App Development: A Comprehensive Guide

Table of Contents

A3Logics 08 Apr 2024

Table of Contents

Technology has changed everything. It is prompting businesses to ask themselves: what exactly are their priorities when it comes to staying ahead of competition? Do they seek profit, growth or satisfaction? As technology trends such as AI, cybersecurity, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and more continue to emerge, the market can quickly become unmanageable! It becomes hard keeping pace with all their demands!

 

Businesses of all kinds desire to gain competitive edge, increase corporate efficiency and seize revenue-generating opportunities; with emerging trends becoming a greater obstacle. To combat this situation, they require tailored solutions tailored specifically for their organizations.


As businesses compete to grab their slice of the pie, organizations need to arm themselves with enterprise mobile app development strategies. This not only meets unexpected goals like earning extra hours of work but will help keep them ahead of their rivals!


Statista reported that, by 2020, global enterprise software sales reached 243 billion U.S. dollars; its growth is anticipated to accelerate quickly over time with estimates projecting it will hit 334 billion USD by 2025. With such remarkable numbers at hand, any company not taking steps toward joining this technological revolution risks losing out. It is the only way when it comes to increasing profitability. Are you ready for it?


Read this post to gain insights into the difficulties you’ll experience, your reasons for going forward in spite of them, things to keep in mind before beginning and the enterprise mobile application development services or procedures you must utilize. 


What Makes Enterprise Mobile Application Development Different?

Enterprise mobile app development differs from commercial app creation by catering specifically to a company’s business requirements.


Commercial apps are usually created to increase sales and profits for companies, while simultaneously improving customer experiences. Their goal should be a seamless operation that maximizes efficiency with limited customer interactions. Whereas enterprise applications support multiple users simultaneously. When multiple users use commercial apps at the same time, they tend to be considerably more costly than enterprise ones. This may incur increased operating expenses over time.


One key difference between enterprise apps and commercial ones is that an enterprise app will typically be tailored specifically for your company. While commercial ones target a larger target market.


Enterprise mobile app development differs significantly from commercial ones in another respect. Their more adaptable nature enables them to easily meet ever-evolving business requirements. Commercial ones typically need updating every year or two, depending on frequency.


Enterprise Mobile Application Development: A Detailed Overview

Enterprise mobile app development refers to the practice of creating software applications for large organizations. This is done using both Web development services and Mobile development technologies. It is customized specifically to their unique requirements and specific business goals. Enterprise developers strive for this process to produce enterprise apps which balance scalability with speed. Enterprise companies need flexibility for meeting customers’ ever-evolving demands for updated apps that keep pace with change over time.


Large organizations face the additional difficulty of overseeing all internal and external processes. While at the same time cutting operational expenses. Another compelling argument in favour of employing enterprise mobile apps in addition to improving customer experiences.


Today we would like to explore the advantages of mobile app development for modern enterprises. This may prove especially important if your organization needs Legacy Systems Modernization. Custom mobile apps may provide just what your organization requires technologically. Furthermore, we wish to examine enterprise mobile app development services as well as companies providing them.


Enterprise Mobile Applications: Its Different Types

Mobile enterprise apps are specifically developed to meet specific business requirements, making them among the most sought-after apps on the market. Common examples of enterprise mobile applications are:

 

Apps Targeting Clients

Apps targeting client experience enhance customer service by offering easy access to information, ordering and support. Examples being mobile banking apps, retail store apps or food ordering and delivery apps.

 

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Apps

These apps streamline business processes like finance, procurement, human resources management and supply chain synchronization for greater productivity. Examples of ERP apps include accounting apps and inventory tracking apps.

 

Financial Management Apps

Financial management apps provide services designed to manage various aspects of finances such as accounting, budgeting and payroll functions. For instance expense tracking applications and tax preparation apps.

 

Supply Chain Management (SCM) Apps

These apps help oversee all stages of supply chain processes from procurement through delivery, such as logistics management apps or warehouse management apps.

 

CRM Apps

CRM apps help manage customer relationships and enhance engagement by automating salesforce deployment, offering customer support portals or sales force automation apps as examples.

 

Field Service Apps

These applications are specifically tailored to increase field service employee efficiency by giving real-time access to customer data, schedules and service histories – such as inspection apps or maintenance scheduling apps.

 

Collaboration Apps

These applications improve communication and collaboration among employees, departments, and partners by streamlining project management tasks, team collaboration practices, file-sharing apps or file hosting services. Examples may include project management apps that help employees collaborate more closely together or sharing documents between teams or departments.


Enterprise Mobile App: Must-Have Features

If you plan to develop mobile enterprise apps, then it would be advantageous if you familiarize yourself with all the required features of such an application. There are some specifics which distinguish it from regular Play Market applications and could make the difference when building.


User Roles: Your organization requires an effective permission system that manages each user’s access. Google Docs offers standard roles like Owner, Editor and Viewer while enterprise applications may involve more complex permission management solutions; in some instances individual access might even be best.


Security: Companies and corporations prioritize cybersecurity measures as the slightest data leak can create serious ramifications for them and their operations. Enterprise-grade software must include two-step authentication, data encryption, role management capabilities and other safeguards. One such standard is OWASP’s secure coding principles (SCPs).


Third-Party Integrations: While mobile application development services allow you to craft any software application you desire. Creating every feature from scratch may take too much time and money. Therefore, your enterprise app should offer integrations with industry tools. So as to increase work efficiency while keeping its status as the single source of truth for its industry.


Cloud Storage: Enterprise-grade companies frequently invest in app development that includes cloud storage. This feature makes for fast and seamless data access; by placing information securely in the cloud, all members will feel its positive effect in their work experience.


Messaging: Integrating messaging features into your enterprise solution is highly advantageous, making work much simpler. All team members can be quickly listed within one app and files stored on cloud storage can be sent immediately for instantaneous sharing; all relevant work-related data remains at your fingertips at all times.


Data Sharing: Mobile software must facilitate easy data sharing from text documentation to gigabyte files, making the entire business experience seamless and reliable. Unfortunately, many applications impose strict limitations that make data exchange cumbersome or impossible; your enterprise solution should either increase or remove these restrictions to facilitate effortless exchange and ensure an exceptional working experience for its employees.


Push Notifications: Modern companies frequently employ remote workers who don’t adhere to an 8am-6pm shift without breaks; as a result, people may often be away from their workplace without accessing PC versions of apps platforms for notifications of important happenings or incidents. A mobile solution would keep workers informed whenever something significant takes place at work.


Offline Mode : Unfortunately, no one is immune from power outages or Internet disruption. Drawing upon Ukrainian developers’ expertise, enabling offline access to critical data allows people to continue working efficiently under any condition – an invaluable way of improving work efficiency and comfort.

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Aspects To Keep In Mind While Looking For Enterprise Mobile App Development Platform

Wikipedia defines MEAP (Mobile Enterprise Application Platform) as a set of products and services which support mobile app development. Selecting an MEAP as the starting point to creating software tailored precisely for your business requirements; here are a few tips and considerations when searching for one.


Intuitive Development

As soon as possible, MEAP should put you in control of the development process. Of course, some time and technical knowledge may be needed in order to understand what’s happening. But that shouldn’t be too challenging. When setting goals using an intuitive MEAP platform, make sure your solution helps meet them quickly while having real use cases within your industry can also prove beneficial.


Real-Time Updates

A must feature is having real-time status updates about custom mobile app development services. No one wants any unexpected surprises and to waste both their time and money without knowing where their project stands.


Easy Integration

Wikipedia defines MEAP (Mobile Enterprise Application Platform) as a set of products and services which support mobile app development. Selecting an MEAP as the starting point to creating software tailored precisely for your business requirements; here are a few tips and considerations when searching for one.


Real-Time Updates

A must feature is having real-time status updates about development processes – no one wants any unexpected surprises and to waste both their time and money without knowing where their project stands.


Enterprise Mobile App Development: Advantages That Comes Along

Mobile enterprise applications have grown increasingly popular as more businesses realize its power to enhance business operations. The demand for mobile app development companies in USA is increasing with every passing day. There are numerous advantages associated with enterprise apps on mobile technology; among these:

 

  1. Enterprise mobile applications provide enterprises with a platform to automate repetitive and time-consuming manual tasks like data entry or report generation. Improving productivity while decreasing errors, freeing up time to focus on strategic initiatives or long-term goals.
  2. Companies can streamline their supply chains with real-time information regarding inventory levels, order statuses and delivery schedules to help optimize order fulfillment processes and reduce delays or errors in fulfillment processes.
  3. HR Professionals can make onboarding new employees simpler by giving newcomers easy access to vital company and training material. This will enable newcomers to quickly adjust and become productive quickly.
  4. Enterprise mobile application development companies can make data collection, storage and analysis simpler by offering a centralized platform. That collects, stores and analyses the relevant information needed for better decision-making based on accurate reports. That provide up-to-date details of data collected by companies.
  5. Apps help businesses reduce paperwork by automating tasks and offering digital forms and documents which can be filled out and signed electronically. Eliminating paper waste while optimizing efficiency and saving businesses both money and resources.
  6. Businesses across industries can enhance the customer experience by offering instantaneous product information, straightforward ordering processes and prompt support services. Which in turn builds stronger relationships and increases loyalty with their clients.
  7. Enterprise mobile apps can enhance communication among employees, departments, and customers. Helping companies collaborate more efficiently while quickly resolving any issues and providing superior service.
  8. Enterprise mobile applications can boost responsiveness by offering real-time alerts and notifications. That allow employees to quickly address customer inquiries or issues quickly. Thus improving customer satisfaction while decreasing downtime costs for companies.

 

All you need is the support of the best custom mobile app development company to make the most out of the above advantages. If you are thinking why you need this application, then below we have it sorted.


The Need For Enterprise Mobile Application For Your Company

Now you should understand the value an enterprise mobile solution can bring to your company’s operations, let us explore and comprehend its advantages and potential. Let’s examine and discover their benefits!


Process Automation

For optimal business efficiency, mobile apps provide a quick way to automate and enhance processes within an organization. Apps designed specifically to manage workflow can help make operations run more efficiently for any given business.


Employee Onboarding

Onboarding new hires into your company can be daunting and time consuming. an enterprise mobile solution provides a great way to seamlessly track all related data without wasteful manual checks or forms being filled out manually.


Customer Engagement

Do you want to ensure the best customer experiences possible for your consumers? A mobile app can make this possible by giving users access to exclusive content as well as providing them with access to a business directory.


Transaction Control

Your e-commerce payment system requires a mobile application for tracking, managing, and recording transactions. Such software collects transactional data while offering valuable insight and providing reminders regarding payment deadlines. In keeping with your goals, this app could even include various payment methods you can manage from within its dashboard interface.


Data Management

Our app can also assist in overseeing business data, improving security and streamlining workflow. Depending on its deployment, various techniques like encryption or tokenization could be utilized to secure information.


Employee Monitoring

With an enterprise app, you can bring together your entire team on one, always-available platform – no longer limited by physical location! Teamwork no longer has to happen within office walls alone! Using software helps track employee progress while receiving updates and feedback as well as sending announcements out, sharing files and moving files between teams for easier team collaboration and greater output and teamwork.


Communication 

Mobile enterprise apps offer another method for improving customer communication. Push notifications allow you to notify your client base as soon as a specific service will be offered, making the whole experience smoother for customers and businesses alike.

These are a few benefits of enterprise mobile application development. Perhaps you are curious as to what exactly goes into building specific enterprise web apps?


Developing Enterprise Mobile Applications: Challenges That Comes Along

Platform Fragmentation: Maintaining compatibility across mobile operating systems like iOS and Android as well as various device models is often challenging when dealing with different operating systems (like iOS versus Android ) as well as devices from various manufacturers. To keep performance consistent across platforms can prove quite a task! Let’s check out the challenges in mobile app development that you must have an eye on:


Integrate Backend Systems: Enterprise mobile applications must typically connect with backend systems, databases and APIs; assuring smooth integration, data synchronization and real-time updates is often complex when dealing with legacy systems.


Security and Data Protection: Enterprise mobile applications often access confidential data, making security of paramount importance. Implementing stringent measures against threats like data breaches and unapproved access is imperative to keeping sensitive information protected and private.


App Distribution and Updates: Installing and maintaining enterprise apps across a diverse user base can be complex. Effective deployment and maintenance strategies must be utilized for effective app distribution, version control updates, seamless adoption in an organization and seamless adoption within it.


User Experience (UX) Design: Balance between functionality and user engagement can be an uphill struggle, yet meeting user expectations, providing consistent UX across devices, and optimizing usability for mobile workflows requires thoughtful design and testing.


Enterprise Mobile App Development Process

At first glance, mobile app development may seem complex — yet with the assistance of an established enterprise mobile app development company as your partner and following these three simple steps we will show how effective custom approaches can exceed even your loftiest expectations and deliver exactly the software solution your business requires to thrive. Let’s break it down step-by-step.

 

Establishing Business Objectives

At first, it’s essential to identify what problem this software needs to solve and gain clarity around its purpose – be it an employee messenger service or supply chain management app; understanding its main features will pave the way forward.

 

Budget Calculations

We will address budget calculation later, but at minimum it is important that you locate some enterprise app development firms with proven expertise in your industry, request estimates from them, and then make your choice.

 

Create Technical Specifications

Software development services must offer clients a detailed technical specification outlining tech stack, platforms, wireframes and roadmap as well as any additional technical needs or specifications.

 

Consider Platforms

Here you must select at least two platforms – Android and IOS -and assign at least two teams per platform for development purposes.

 

Wireframe Design

A wireframe serves as the prototype of your app and ensures you’re moving in the appropriate direction, saving both time and money by helping guide development decisions. You should create one early on so as not to waste resources during development.

 

UI/UX Design

Once your wireframe is complete, the next step should be U/I design. This step is vitally important – its success in your workplace depends on its appearance and user interface design! Making life easy for users who may struggle accepting unfamiliar concepts!

 

Product Development

This stage is often considered the most complex and demanding in business app development projects; here is where your development company truly shines! With so many complexities inherent to product creation processes it would be impossible to list all their nuances; but SPD Technology offers their product development expertise so read further into this article for insight from us on this point!

 

Testing

Testing should happen both during development, and once your product has been released for public consumption. At that point, Quality Assurance teams take over. Involve your employees as part of this testing process if at all possible — end-users know exactly what their app needs!

 

Maintenance and Support

Once an app has been released, that doesn’t mean its work is over — in fact, that means making it better! Solicit as much feedback from users to detect any bugs which arise and provide timely updates.

 

To get the best out of the above mentioned approach, you must consider connecting with the top iOS and Android app development companies. They understand and accordingly deliver the service.

 

Enterprise Mobile Application: How To Make It Secure?

Here is some guidance regarding enterprise app security:


Critique development framework

Explore newer software and platforms as legacy systems may expose data protection risks. If data security is of paramount concern for you, avoid legacy systems as much as possible.


Keep security issues in mind early

Before embarking on enterprise app development, a security checklist should be created as part of its planning stage. You should take all measures possible to anticipate potential security threats during and post launch.


Strong user authentication

Two-factor and multi-factor authentication should be an essential security component of enterprise mobile application development, particularly if using technologies like OpenID Connect protocol and OAuth 2.0 authorization framework.


Adhere to encryption

Establishing a gateway for an initial security audit is also key as this makes it harder for hackers to gain entry to your organization and steal sensitive company data.

Connecting with the top Android and iOS app development companies can help you have your app secure. They make sure that the best steps are in execution to implement the best security.


Developing Enterprise Mobile App: Adapting The Latest Trends

Companies need to embrace innovation in today’s rapidly morphing digital environment in order to remain ahead of more forward-thinking competitors and stay current. Building an enterprise mobile app today necessitates an alternative to conventional methods.


Below are several key considerations to take while investing in mobile enterprise application development approach:


Agile Development Methodology

This involves iterative development cycles, frequent testing cycles and collaboration between development and business teams in an iterative fashion to produce small incremental steps of app development, while taking feedback from users and stakeholders into account throughout. DevOps/CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) deployment tools are crucial components to efficient enterprise mobile development. Planning and tracking everything to manage current processes more effectively while fixing issues early before failed deployment attempts take place. With DevOps and CI/CD capabilities app development teams can quickly produce features and updates more quickly while increasing quality and reliability simultaneously.


User-Centered Design (UCD)

UCD is an essential aspect of mobile enterprise app development. This process includes conducting user research to ascertain user needs and preferences, creating personas to guide the design process, building wireframes/prototypes of an app design to test for usability before conducting user testing/iteration to refine it further. Ultimately, its ultimate aim should be ensuring an app that’s simple yet engaging for target audiences; with UCD focused around their needs this can result in higher adoption/engagement which ultimately increases adoption/engagement rates over time resulting in increased adoption/engagement rates overall resulting in increased adoption/engagement over time.


Analytics And Monitoring

Analytics and performance monitoring help enterprises better understand how users engage with an app, identify areas for improvement, as well as track key performance metrics like user engagement rates, retention levels and conversion rates.


Cloud-Based Development

Cloud-based development refers to using cloud infrastructure and services for development, deployment and administration of your app. Choosing an ideal provider would depend upon what requirements exist in terms of development services for your particular app needs. Apps should be developed with scalability and high availability in mind, including security and data privacy measures to safeguard user data. Leveraging cloud development techniques enables app makers to take full advantage of cloud computing’s benefits such as scalability, flexibility, cost-efficiency. Cloud infrastructures provide enterprise mobile apps with a scalable and secure foundation on which to operate. Accessing resources quickly ensures their application remains up-to-date with user needs while remaining responsive to them.


Enterprise Mobile Apps Development: Costing

Clutch articles frequently reference an average market price for custom apps at less than $240,000; however, in practice the costs can usually surpass this figure significantly – an app with multiple functions can even reach as high as $330k, according to online app cost calculators. But you don’t need that kind of cash in order to take part; even simple apps with basic features could cost just $22-34k to develop. Price will depend heavily upon your needs, but keep in mind that pricing also impacts functionality of an app. By doing your homework first and being aware of exactly what features and functions your application does not need before engaging a development team, you could save thousands in development fees while preventing yourself from purchasing features you simply do not require at any price point.


If you need enterprise mobile application development services, no need to start from scratch with an in-house IT department. Top enterprise mobile app development companies provide top-tier enterprise mobile application development. Outsourcing or outstaffing may be best approaches; pricing varies greatly across regions based on true expertise costs and prices may fluctuate according to location.


United States of America and Canada area developers typically charge between $21 to $254 an hour – something which might be debated, yet is undeniable due to high pricing! Is North America home to some of the greatest developers available on earth? Perhaps, though it cannot be denied that its costs remain prohibitively expensive!


South America fares slightly cheaper with hourly fees reaching just $125; these start from $24 per hour.


United Kingdom and Australian market rates tend to range between $39 to $173 an hour, respectively.


India and Indonesia may offer the lowest costs when it comes to enterprise app developers; an experienced enterprise app developer might cost about $35 an hour in these countries.


Eastern Europe boasts an excellent track record when it comes to software development services, offering assistance at anywhere between $25 to $115 an hour.


Mobile App Development for Enterprise: Steps To Follow

When creating enterprise mobile applications, a typical software development lifecycle should be followed. Although its general steps remain constant across products, its details such as features and technologies will vary between projects. Below are the steps that can help you make your mobile app successful as per consulting experts:


Planning and Research

First and foremost, you need to have an accurate picture of what your expectations for the solution are in order to identify its features. Defining must-have and nice-to-have functions helps balance out development efforts by prioritizing development around those most essential.


Conduct surveys amongst your employees in order to gather ideas of what might be needed most within your company, along with deep research or brainstorming sessions, so as to gain some perspective of your needs as a business. Take the following into consideration before beginning:

 

  1. Why do you require a mobile app? 
  2. What goals will be met through its creation? 
  3. Who will utilize this software application and which features should it include?


Once you’ve answered these questions and established at least an outline plan for development, the next steps can begin.


Technical Assessment

Theoretical information may help, but that alone won’t suffice. Your enterprise likely already has in-place backend systems which won’t change anytime soon due to costs and requirements – for this reason you should ascertain whether your proposed mobile app fits within this current framework of resources available to it.

Failing to address infrastructure costs could result in significant increases to required costs and require much higher infrastructure investments than anticipated. You could use cloud infrastructure from third party providers; however, this might not always be reliable or manage your resources optimally.


Prototyping

At this stage, enterprise mobile app developers and designers collaborate closely on creating wireframes and prototypes of your software application, to help visualize its structure as well as develop an MVP to test out features.


UI/UX Design

User interface and experience design (UI/UX design) is paramount when developing software products for employees, as this stage determines their usability and overall impression of your software solution. Therefore, conducting user research studies with multiple approaches must take place as quickly as possible to reach the market.


Development Procedure

Development is one of the longest stages, as it involves setting up databases, APIs, servers and other components necessary for running backend functions of an application. At this point, software engineers also implement all required features. Test them to ensure optimal operation, and generally create the complete version of your app.

Startup app development services tend to work similarly. Following the SDLC but with an emphasis on speed in order to provide ready-made applications as quickly as possible in order to cut costs and speed-up delivery times for cost savings purposes. On the other hand, enterprise solutions often take their time before being finished up quickly.


Quality Assurance

Your QA engineers typically test software at various development stages to identify bugs and errors for you to receive an optimally functioning solution. They may also assess usability, performance and user-friendliness during their inspections.


Deployment

Once it has been tested for flawlessness, an enterprise mobile app should be deployed for use throughout a company. All servers must then be activated so employees can begin trying out this piece of software in their work environments. In many instances this includes uploading it directly onto Play Market or App Store for easy employee access. Though some companies might provide the app via FTP servers instead.


Maintenance and Updates

Your software and infrastructure cannot work by themselves. They require continual monitoring and updates in order to operate optimally and meet expanding customer demand. As such, working alongside a development team to maintain your technological solution should remain an important priority.


Mobile Enterprise Application Launch: Steps To Follow

All possible aspects must be taken into consideration to guarantee its success during the time of launch.


Below are a few aspects you may wish to keep in mind for success:


Assess Your Development Resources: Evaluate what expertise is currently available within your team or network and whether partnering with an established firm such as EPAM Startups & SMBs might be required.


Development Goals : Before undertaking mobile app development, you need to establish the goals behind its creation. Not having clear intentions makes building apps less necessary than expected and reduces any chance of unnecessary spending or wasted effort in this endeavor.


KPI: To measure success effectively it’s necessary to identify which results would constitute success and have them quantified with both qualitative and quantitative measures. A KPI needs to be easily measurable so as to gather both qualitative and quantitative information on results of success.


Team Collaboration : It is necessary for enterprises’ IT departments to collaborate closely with software vendors when discussing requirements and making decisions regarding software purchases. So ensuring an effective communication channel between both is of utmost importance.


Development software for enterprises and large companies without taking these aspects into account is simply impossible. Once planning begins, however, many other factors come to light that need consideration. Which is why brainstorming on this subject with all those responsible should be an essential step before beginning development.

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Final Thoughts

An enterprise app can help your organization remain ahead of competitors, reduce expenses, and boost profitability. Although creating such software presents some unique challenges. Its results provide ample rewards that more than justify these endeavors – especially with proper preparations in place to make this journey less bumpy!


More importantly, working with the appropriate custom enterprise mobile app development team is key to creating a stress-free and successful journey. Ready to explore your options? Our team of specialists stands ready and can be reached here.


FAQs


What are the primary advantages of enterprise mobile app development for growing companies?

An enterprise mobile app can give growing businesses an advantage by providing advantages like:

  • Efficient Finance and Account Handling Simplifying Data Management 
  • Precise Goal Monitoring 
  • Simplified Supply Chain Management 
  • Hassle-free Human Resource Administration


How much does it cost to develop a mobile enterprise app?

According to Cleveroad, the average cost to develop a mobile enterprise app typically ranges between $31k. for simple apps. Up to $520,000 for more complex ones with advanced features and functions. An exact figure depends upon its purpose as an enterprise app development project and what features and types are necessary.


What are the latest trends in  enterprise mobile app development services? 

Here are the current enterprise mobile app development platform trends:

  1. Developing security as code (DevSecOps); 
  2. AI-augmented software development; 
  3. Software process automation for process efficiencies and intelligent business applications (such as blockchain -based business apps).
  4. IoT platforms utilising Big Data and predictive analysis; 


Which mobile enterprise development framework would you suggest using? 

We currently recommend below development frameworks as ideal options:

React Native, Java Flutter and Xamarin


What types of enterprise applications exist? 

Enterprise apps come in various varieties including:

  • Finance management applications encompassing HR management, 
  • Project management and CRM; 
  • Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).