What You Will Learn

• What the value of an e-mail system is, what the different e-mail options are, and how to manage one
• What enterprise resource planning (ERP) is
• What groupware is and how to determine if you need it

Introduction

Simply put, an enterprise application is an application that is so widely used throughout the organization that it touches almost every aspect of the company's operation. E-mail is one example, and enterprise resource planning is another. Enterprise applications are very valuable but can be very complex pieces of software. For small companies, enterprise applications are very useful, easy to implement, and generally not particularly difficult to administer. For large companies, however, with hundreds and thousands of users, the value of connecting all these computers and their functions is enormous, but so are the tasks of implementing and administering the software. This chapter discusses the value of various enterprise applications and provides some management tips.

12.1 E-mail: What Is the Value of an E-mail System?

It is a measure of the speed of change of the business world in general, and the computer industry in particular, that not even 10 years ago, e-mail was considered an optional function. An e-mail address on a business card was viewed as understandable, perhaps, but not required. Now, every company has e-mail, and it is considered as required as a telephone.

We discuss the mechanics of managing an e-mail system later in this chapter. First, let's take a quick overview of the value of...