Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), as defined by Computerworld, is "a set of applications that automate finance and human resources departments and help manufacturers handle jobs such as order processing and production scheduling."In more detail an "ERP system manages functions and activities as different as the bills of materials, order entry, purchasing, accounts payable, human resources, and inventory control, [finance] a few of the 60 modules available. As needed, ERP is also able to share the data from these processes with other corporate software systems."The fundamental basis for ERP is the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. Traditional application systems are built around specific functions and could result in an organization having various department applications or point products. In some cases management will get data from various sources and have to put it together to get an overall picture of the business. This kind of patchwork system is very inefficient, especially in the dynamic business world of today. For instance, an organization may use one vendor’s software for financials and another vendor software for accounts payable. The two applications may hold redundant information and in some instances may not interface. The goal of ERP applications is to stop treating transactions separately as stand alone activities, rather treat them as inter-linked processes that make up the business. This is achieved by developing modular applications, which address business processes rather than segmented functions. The modules share data standards and can interface with modules from the same ERP application, and even with modules from other vendor software.