Supply chain management is essentially the optimisation of material flows and associated information flows involved with an organisation's operations. To manage these flows, e-business applications are essential to bring such benefits as noted in 'Internet retailing' in 2010 which reported that the average rates of return to a high street retailer could be as high as 10%. What did the same source report as the average rate of return for UK e-commerce sites?

Enterprise systems are pieces of software that senior management figures can use to monitor their business' performance. Businesses can then more easily monitor their own productive efficiency, brand exposure and costs, before creating data-driven solutions to progress towards their financial goals.

3 common types of Enterprise Systems are:

Customer Relationship Management
Enterprise Resource Planning
Supply Chain Management Systems