ERP package is used in many companies worldwide. The full form of ERP is Enterprise Resources Planning. Previously companies used to do MRP i.e. Material Resource Planning. ERP is the up gradation of the same. The need for ERP arose due to lack of proper / common database available for all the functions in an organization.

For example, customer records as per sales department may be showing a different balance /address in comparison to the records maintained by the accounts department. Stock balance and value as per Stores department could vary vis-à-vis the values as recorded by the accounts department. Also typically data / records of various departments were maintained on different formats or on different platforms. Certain departments of a company could be working in a computerized environment and that too on different packages / operating systems like Unix /oracle.