An enterprise is a terminology in the business world used to define a specific project or enterprise undertaken for monetary profit. It’s often used in association with the term “venture”, as in “venture capital”. However, generally, by convention, it denotes the entire business entity is undertaken and thus typically includes the company conducting the enterprise, the people who direct it, and the products and services it brings to the market.

There are many kinds of enterprise, each of which is designed for particular purposes. For instance, a producer of machinery used to manufacture widgets might have an enterprise software system specifically developed for that purpose. On the other hand, a computer hardware manufacturer might have a specialized computer application written to function as the heart of its business infrastructure. Similarly, an engineering design firm may use the term enterprise software to refer to its complete range of engineering software applications. Many software applications are developed for the purpose of supplying software to a single customer, either a business or a government entity, whereas the word enterprise often refers to software that a company develops and markets for itself.

Enterprise software systems have grown from a single application, usually an information system, to a full range of related applications that integrate themselves into the larger enterprise. Each software application has a goal in mind – to make the process of doing business more efficient by automating processes and reducing costs. Enterprise software can be used by any level of an organization from the CEO down to the lowest employee. The applications make up an enterprise system that not only coordinates all the internal resources of an organization, but also serves as the information system that makes it possible to interact with external third parties. In essence, an enterprise system is nothing less than a complete web browser, including a database, an application software package (such as Lotus Domino or Microsoft SQL Server), web server, mail server, CRM database, and a host of supporting applications.