TABLE OF CONTENTS Mobile enterprise applications refer to a set of corporate applications that assist employee in performing business practice in many aspects, including fast data integration and decision making, real-time communication, and close control over goods and services. Mobile enterprise applications present a tremendous opportunity for enterprise application designers to take advantage of mobile computing in business operations. The goal of general enterprise applications is to enable business process automation in various scenarios. Table 7.10 outlines widely used enterprise applications in the corporate world. Note that all enterprise applications must support both back-office (within the corporate site) and front-office operations (at field sites or customer sites).
| Enterprise Application | Description | Mobile |
|---|---|---|
| Enterprise resource planning (ERP) | A highly customizable suite of applications for electronic processing of business operations; also referred to as an e-business package | ERP mobile client can be used to access a mobile web portal. |
| Customer relationship management (CRM) | A software solution that manages a customer database in association with sales, marketing, and product development information | CRM mobile client is used to access the CRM portal. |
| Supply-chain management (SCM) | A software solution that automates manufacturing, shipping, delivery, and purchasing of goods and services within and between companies | SCM can utilize RFID-based pallet and product tracking. |
| Collaboration | A set of communication tools that enables a variety of person-to-person communications and group collaboration methods, such as e-mail, group calendar and scheduler, enterprise instant messaging, voice over IP, and video conferencing | Collaboration includes mobile IM,... |
