ERP
Enterprise Resource Planning
ERP refers to business software that manages core processes such as finance, procurement, inventory and production on a single shared data foundation.
ERP: Not to be confused with
ERP is NOT a single-purpose application such as pure accounting software or a CRM system. The key difference is the shared data foundation: an ERP connects several functional areas through the same master data, while single-purpose applications each cover only one slice and keep separate data that has to be reconciled manually.
The term ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning and describes software that grew out of material requirements planning (MRP, later MRP II) in the 1970s and 1980s into company-wide systems (Source 1). The core idea is a single shared data foundation: an order captured in sales automatically triggers a warehouse posting, a production order and an invoice, without moving data manually between separate systems.
In the Swiss market, the range spans from enterprise ERP such as SAP S/4HANA to solutions built for smaller companies. Which size fits depends on headcount, industry and process depth, see the systems overview and the industry pages. On the operating side, two models are available: cloud ERP and on-premise ERP.