[2] The term enterprise software is used in industry, and business research publications, but is not common in computer science.

The term was widely popularized in the early 1990s by major software vendors in conjunction with licensing deals with the show Star Trek [3] In academic literature no coherent definition can be found.

The computer historian Martin Campbell-Kelly contemplated in 2003 that the growth of the corporate software industry is not well understood.

These EAS software components and modules can interoperate, so that cross-functional or inter-organizational enterprise systems can be built up.

From a hardware perspective, enterprise systems are the servers, storage and associated software that large businesses use as the foundation for their IT infrastructure.

Cynthia Rettig, an American businesswoman, has argued that "the concept of a single monolithic system [has] failed for many companies".