What is Enterprise Level Software? 8 Examples to Inspire Your Next Project

In this article, we draw on our years of experience building enterprise applications to explain what they are and provide you with 8 examples to inspire your next project.

Table of contents

• What is enterprise level software?

• 8 Enterprise level software examples

• Make your own enterprise level software with NaNLABS

• Turn your enterprise application software inspiration into a reality

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What is enterprise level software?

Enterprise level software (also known as enterprise application software—EAS) is a type of software meant to meet the needs of a large organization rather than individuals.

Larger scale businesses are complex operations, with high numbers of employees and customers sharing data, performing transactions, and following procedures. They therefore need software that can cater to this demand and streamline operations. 

What is enterprise software used for? 

Enterprise software is used to make the everyday operations of an enterprise level organization run smoothly and facilitate growth. It does this with features such as:

• Automation tools to reduce repetitive manual tasks.

• Third-party integrations to streamline work between multiple apps.

• Scalable databases that can handle large amounts of user data.

• Single sign-on authentications that give users a simple way to access the software.

• Advanced security to keep a larger amount of company and client data safe.

• High availability infrastructure using resilience mechanisms to guarantee platform up-time more than 99% of the time. 

• Data analytics to make sense of all the information you’re gathering.

• Live chat functionality to improve internal communication and customer support.

• Data consolidation so everything your team or customers need to know is in one place.

• Payment processing to keep gateway payments secure and reduce commissions.

There are many off-the-shelf solutions out there but, to get all the features that make sense for your business, consider custom enterprise software development to make your own bespoke solution.

SaaS vs. enterprise software: How is it different?

With Software as a Service (SaaS), you rent the software with a subscription rather than buy it outright. Enterprise software is software designed for complex business needs and can be bought outright, created on spec, or rented with a subscription. 

SaaS is a sales model, enterprise software is a type of software. So, enterprise software can be sold as SaaS or not, but SaaS can be any type of software, not necessarily enterprise software. 

8 Enterprise level software examples

There are lots of types of enterprise software out there. Below we break down eight of the most common, with a specific example for each.

1. Business Intelligence (BI)

Business intelligence software is a type of application that retrieves, analyzes, transforms, and reports data to increase business intelligence. 

The applications typically read data that has been previously stored in a data warehouse or data mart. The goal is to increase productivity and efficiency in a complex enterprise environment.

BI software focuses on:

• Enhancing collaboration

• Data analytics

• Infrastructure with self-service capabilities

• Information governance

• Data visualization

• Integration of different data sources

Microsoft Power BI

Power BI is a business intelligence tool for creating interactive dashboards and reports using multiple data sources. It extracts helpful business insights from visualizations for robust decision-making.

Key features include:

• Interactive data visualizations. Build interactive data visualizations with drill-down, tooltips, highlighting, and filtering features.

• Data preparation. To gauge trends and patterns, by organizing unstructured data into interpretable datasets.

• Data source connectivity. Integrate multiple on-premises and cloud-based data sources for ease of access.

• Data governance. Protect data from malicious access by centralizing data governance, security, and management.

• Natural language processing. Discover useful answers to data-related questions through conversational language.

Rating on Gartner.com: 4.4/5

2. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

CRM software, as the name suggests, is a tool designed to help your organization manage and strengthen its customer relationships. 

The software builds better relationships with customers by providing a complete overview of all customer interactions, tracking your sales, organizing sales opportunities, and facilitating collaboration between different teams.

Common CRM features include:

• Workflow automation

• Customizable features and appearance

• Third-party integrations to email or accounting apps

• Lead management

• Real-time data reports

• Customer service tools

Salesforce

Salesforce is the CRM industry leader, and for good reason. It offers a comprehensive suite of customer relationship tools, numerous integrations, and loads of customization options. 

It allows sales teams to construct intelligent tasks management systems and its centralized contact and sales information offers a “single source of truth” for data.

It also helps you to manage:

• Contact data 

• Quote tracking

• Sales leads

• Reports

Rating on Gartner.com: 4.4/5

3. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a type of software that businesses use to manage day-to-day business operations such as:

• Project management

• Accounting

• Procurement

• Supply chain operations

• Risk management and compliance

ERPs often include enterprise performance management, an application that helps to plan, predict, budget, and report on an organization’s financial outcomes.

The main benefits of ERP software are:

• Improved accuracy and productivity

• Increased efficiency

• Improved reporting

• Increased collaboration

Oracle NetSuite

Oracle NetSuite is a SaaS cloud ERP with in-built business analytics to organize and analyze all crucial business processes. It’s a highly customizable solution designed to support growth as you can easily add functionality and resources for business scalability.

Functionality highlights include:

• A broad amount of ERP features that suit most business types

• Hierarchical dashboards that are easy to navigate

• Extensive drill-down capabilities from several system views

• Simplified reporting

• Customizable process workflows

Rating on Gartner.com: 4.1/5

4. Project management

Project management (or enterprise project management—EPM) software helps your organization plan, track and manage project schedules. It allows you to correctly distribute resources, work together across departments, and provide an overview of the project's overall progress.

Project management software should include:

• Project portfolio management

• Internal project, team, and user calendars

• Instant messaging

• Granular user permissions

• Heavy-duty file sharing

• Customizable dashboards

Monday.com

Monday.com connects and manages every part of your enterprise’s portfolio, and has useful collaboration and reporting tools that enhance its functionality to save you time. It also has a robust project reporting dashboard that collects information from multiple boards, allowing you to track project progress easily from one spot.

Other noteworthy features are:

• Time tracking

• Data insights

• WorkflowAutomations

• Expense Tracking

• Instant in-app notifications

Rating on Gartner.com: 4.5/5

5. Content Management Systems (CMS)

A content management system (CMS) is software that allows users to make, publish and store digital content. CMSs are typically used by businesses to manage and store documents and database records or for publishing website content like blog posts.

Benefits include:

• User-friendly interface, requiring very little tech knowledge

• Instantly update content without a middleman

• Improved collaboration and content sharing

• The ability to access content on the go

• Custom user privileges to certain sections of your website

• Automated content publication

HubSpot CMS Hub

HubSpot CMS Hub is a tool for marketers and developers to provide a customized and safe experience for customers. Developers can grapple with the code to customize the site, and non-tech users can create pages using a drag-and-drop editor. 

Other notable features include:

• A variety of website themes

• SEO recommendations to help you rank higher on Google

• Adaptive web page testing

• Contact attribution to see where your leads and sales come from

• 24/7 cybersecurity and tech support

Rating on Gartner.com: 4.4/5

6. Supply chain management (SCM)

Supply Chain Management (SCM) software manages and visualizes the movement of goods from one end of the supply line to the other. It provides an easier way to organize and implement business processes and procedures such as:

• Procurement

• Product lifecycle management

• Supply chain planning

• Logistics

• Order management

SAP SCM

SAP SCM is an SCM system built with the latest technologies including AI, machine learning, and advanced analytics. It facilitates sales forecasting, supply and financial planning, inventory optimization, and asset management. It’s particularly popular with multinational, large-scale companies due to its real-time supply and demand monitoring, and delivery tracking.

To make your supply chain run smoother it includes:

• Integrated business planning

• Transport management

• Warehouse and yard management

• Dashboards for status monitoring

• Asset management, collaboration, prediction, and optimization

• Product quality compliance

Rating on Gartner.com: 4.3/5

7. Marketing automation

A marketing automation system streamlines and enhances marketing efforts using technology. With one automation platform, you can manage all aspects of a campaign from the same place, such as email and social media marketing, mobile messaging, and advertising.

This helps businesses to:

• Free up time to focus on long-term goals

• Get a complete picture of the behavior of potential customers

• Customize follow-up communications

• Prioritize leads

• Launch broader marketing campaigns

• Improve marketing ROI

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign is an integrated email marketing, marketing automation, and CRM solution. It's one of the most comprehensive solutions on the market due to its flexible marketing automation features, including automated workflows that can become drip campaigns.

Top features include:

• Automated welcome emails

• Engagement score analytics

• Automatic reminders with triggers

• Automation map

• Dynamic content

Rating on Gartner.com: 4.5/5

8. Feedback surveys

Online survey software enables organizations to create surveys, quizzes, polls, and other web forms for market research and feedback. A survey software product provides businesses with insight into participants' opinions about projects, events, and customer service.

All feedback survey software lets you create and customize survey questions, but more advanced features include:

• Intelligent survey logic that allows users to skip certain parts of the survey, based on previous replies.

• Randomization of your questions, so that users are not tempted to choose the first option simply based on its placement.

• Piping technology allows you to insert answers from previous questions into other questions.

• Question morphing options allow you to switch from multiple answer questions to other styles without having to start from scratch.

SurveyMonkey

SurveyMonkey is a popular customer feedback tool that allows you to create both long and short surveys at different customer touchpoints. Using existing survey templates, you can measure feedback across all CX metrics and create website surveys with the feedback widget.

Popular features include:

• 15 different types of survey questions

• Customizable templates and multilingual surveys

• Filterable survey reports based on type of response

• Online polling

• Customizable branding

Rating on Gartner.com: 4.5/5

Make your own enterprise level software with NaNLABS

These SaaS enterprise software examples are all popular solutions that help streamline your business functions. But what if they’re missing essential features of your value proposition or offer functionality you’re paying for but never use? 

If you need an application that is specific to your business needs your best bet is custom enterprise application development. But developing your own software is a big undertaking that you might not have the internal expertise or bandwidth to achieve.

Get in touch with NaNLABS to find out about our consultancy services or augmenting your team. We’ve got the tools and the know-how to guide you through

 Agile software development, having previously worked on enterprise applications in the following sectors:

• Cyber security

• Marketing automation

• Cyber Insurance

• Finance and accounting

Turn your enterprise application software inspiration into a reality

Now you know the different types of enterprise level software out there,  it’s time to work out which is the right one for your growing business:

• Business Intelligence (BI)

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

• Project management

• Content Management Systems (CMS)

• Supply chain management (SCM)

• Marketing automation

• Feedback surveys

You could go for an out-of-the-box solution but there’s no guarantee that it’ll be exactly what your organization needs.  Instead, we suggest using these examples as a jumping-off point to create your own custom-made solution with a nearshore development team like NaNLABS—who can help turn your bright idea into reality.

Ready to build your own custom software with a team that cares about you and your processes? We’re not code monkeys, we care about you. 

Get in touch. We don't byte