Enterprise software is software intended to solve an enterprise problem (rather than a departmental problem) and often written using an Enterprise Software Architecture. Due to the cost of building what is often proprietary software, only large organizations attempt to build such software that models the entire business enterprise and is the core IT system of governing the enterprise and the core of business communications within the enterprise.

As many business enterprises have similar departments and systems, enterprise software is often available as a suite of programs that have attached development tools to modify the common programs for the specific enterprise. Generally, these development tools are complex programming tools that require specialist capabilities. Thus, one often sees in job advertisements that a programmer is required to have specific knowledge of a particular set of tools, such as ". . . must be an SAP developer" etc.

Enterprise-level application

Enterprise level software is software which provides business logic support functionality for an organization, typically in commercial organizations, which aims to improve the organization's productivity and efficiency.

Services provided by enterprise software are typically business-oriented tools such as online shopping and online payment processing, interactive product catalogue, automated billing systems, security, content management, etc.

Characteristics of enterprise software are performance, scalability, and robustness. Enterprise software typically has interfaces to other enterprise software ( for example LDAP to directory services) and is centrally managed ( a single admin page for example).

Types of enterprise software

Enterprise software is often designed and implemented by an Information Technology (IT) group within an organization. It may also be purchased from an independent software developer, that often installs and maintains the software for their customers. Another model is based on a concept called on-demand software, or Software as a Service. The on-demand model is made possible through the widespread distribution of broadband access to the Internet. Software as a Service vendors maintain enterprise software on servers within their own data center and then provide access to the software to their customers via the Internet.

Enterprise software is often categorized by the business function that it automates - such as accounting software or sales force automation software. For example, there are enterprise systems devised for the health care industry, or for manufacturing enterprises.

Application software

Enterprise application software is application software that performs business functions such as accounting, production scheduling, customer information management, bank account maintenance, etc. It is frequently hosted on servers and simultaneously provides services to a large number of users, typically over a computer network. This is in contrast to the more common single-user software applications which run on a user's own local computer and serve only one user at a time.