Learn in the textbookInformation Systems That Integrate Management Resources (CRM, SCM, ERP, Knowledge Management)
DefinitionERP (enterprise resource planning) is the concept and system for handling information from a company's core business operations (基幹業務) in one place, so that people, goods, money, and information are used optimally across the whole company.
ExplanationCore business operations are the everyday work that underpins a company's activities. Data that each department used to keep in its own system is gathered into a shared database, so an entry made in one department shows up at once in the others' figures and the whole company reads the business from the same numbers. Ready-made integrated business software that does this is called an ERP package (ERPパッケージ).
AnalogyLike combining the household budget, the family calendar, and the fridge inventory list into one notebook, so everyone looks at the same page when deciding what to buy and how to spend.
Memory hookE stands for Enterprise. It deals with the resources of the whole company, not of one department.