Article Source ComputerWorld
June 25, 2009, 3:08 am

 

The back office for any company requires many different layers of software. Essentials like e-mail and a basic Web site are relatively simple commodities to run. The hardest job is delivering the kind of software that acts as the spinal cord for the business, that cares for all of the most essential details, big and small, that keep the customers paying the invoices and ensure the bank accounts hold enough money to make the payroll.

These systems go by names like customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP), but they're really just a carefully crafted collection of database tables with a set of routines that keep the employees from messing up the information. They are usually so essential to a business that the database administrators can puff up their chests and make credible statements like, "Our company is really just a big database with a sales force and a warehouse that do its bidding." They're not far from the truth...

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