Technologies supporting business processes

Enterprise resource planning (ERP)

ERP is a business application that allows integration of business processes and business application
tools into one whole. ERP is a tool that helps any business organise and manage its records, finances,
resources, human capital, marketing, inventory, purchasing, vendors resources and other aspects
of a business in a seamless and workflow manner.

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems

These are systems, which are knowledge and experience based, are designed towards capturing the
knowledge and wisdom of experts and hold them electronically. The knowledge is then used to
make expert decisions, given certain facts obtained through questions and answers. They can
accept, understand and convey information in the form of written or spoken human languages,
and visual images.

Customer relationship management (CRM)

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a technology for managing all the company's
relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers. A CRM system helps
companies to stay connected to customers, streamline processes, and improve profitability and the
wealth of the business promoters.

Online transaction processing (OLTP)

OLTP is a class of software program capable of supporting transaction-oriented applications on the

web. In computing, a transaction is a sequence of discrete information or data designated for a
particular purpose and endpoint.

Centralised and decentralised processing

Processing performed in one computer or in a cluster of coupled computers in a single location.as

against processing carried out by different computers and at very different locations. Centralised
processing is in contrast to the first computers in the 1950s, which were stand-alone with all input
and output devices in the same room. Essentially, the emergence of computer networks in its
variants of LAN, MAN and WAN, facilitates the decentralised processing activities. By the 1990s,
"client/server" architecture replaced terminal access. Client PCs communicated with network
servers via the local network, rather than terminals hardwired to a central machine. Although there
are still hardwired terminals in use, the common technology today is the local area network (LAN).

Distributed processing (DP)

Distributed processing is a term used to describe a setup in which multiple individual central
processing units (CPUs) work on the same programs, functions or systems to provide more capability
for a computer or other device.

Warehouse management

Warehouse management entails the techniques and processes associated with day- to-day
operations of a warehouse. These include, but are not limited to, receiving goods and organising
warehouse space, scheduling labour, managing inventory and fulfilling orders.
Enterprise content management (ECM)

This is a group of defined processes, techniques and tools used by businesses to effectively obtain,
organise, store and deliver critical information to their employees, business stakeholders and
customers. It focus on digitally managing a company's information in a centralised repository and
using the digital content to support business processes and help achieve organisational objectives.

Supply chain management (SCM)

Supply chain management (SCM) is associated with the management of the flow of goods and
services, which includes all processes that convert raw materials into finished products. This entails
the active streamlining of a business's supply-side activities to maximise customer value and gain
a competitive advantage in the marketplace. The key element of a distributed processing is
collaborative tasking, where a number of terminals engage collectively in a particular task in the host
computer to boost the CPU power

Real-time processing (RTP)

RTP connotes that transaction processing and the result of processing occur almost
instantaneously. The processing is done as data is inputted, so it needs a continuous stream of input
data to provide a continuous output. Business examples of real-time data processing systems are
bank ATMs, traffic control systems and modern computer systems such as the PC and mobile
devices.

Blockchain technology (BT)

A blockchain is a digital ledger created to capture transactions conducted among various parties in a
network.

BT is also a shared database relying on the strength of two key infrastructures peer -to-peer (P2P)
network, giving it the feature of participatory and openness, and a public key infrastructure (PKI),
giving it the feature of security and trust. (Ezeilo, G. U. 2017).

Whenever any of the participant sends a value to another, all the other nodes in the network
communicate with one another, using a pre-determined mechanism to check that the new
transaction is valid.

Data warehouse

A data warehouse is a type of data management system that is designed to enable and support
business intelligence (BI) activities, especially analytics. Data warehouses are solely intended to
perform queries and analysis and often contain large amounts of historical data. The data within a
data warehouse is usually derived from a wide range of sources such as application log files and
transaction applications.

A data warehouse centralizes and consolidates large amounts of data from multiple sources.