Enterprise resource planning (ERP) coordinates the overall external and internal information management of an organization, including the organization's finances / accounting , manufacturing , sales and service , customer relationship management, etc. The ERP system performs these tasks automatically through an integrated software application . Its main purpose is to facilitate the flow of information across all business activities within the organization and to coordinate communication with its external stakeholders. ERP systems can run on a variety of hardware and network configurations. It usually controls a database as a repository of information.