Top enterprise software companies

Every enterprise needs tools to control and monitor their activities and progress toward success. These tools must collect, analyze, and present understandable and actionable data to decision-makers. The tools also allow for more efficient and effective communication and collaboration between departments within the enterprise. To be agile and proactive, organizations must turn to providers of such tools — enterprise software companies.

An enterprise software company is one that offers an “integrated platform approach with functional modules that target the specific business entities,” says Maryanne Steidinger, head of marketing at Webalo Inc. These products are referred to as enterprise application software (EAS) and can cover all kinds of business needs, such as sales, HR, and finance operations.

Bruce Hogan, CEO of SoftwarePundit, adds that enterprise software companies sell their products to large organizations and tailor their products to fit the needs of each customer. It’s important to note that this type of software is meant for satisfying the needs of a business, rather than an individual. “The model is business to business (B2B) as opposed to business to consumer (B2C),” says Colin Ma, technical architect at Study Prep Lounge.

Common features of top enterprise software companies

Experts in the industry agree that enterprise software companies often have the following characteristics:

• Strong product portfolios
• A high level of innovation in the software industry
• Large pools of loyal customers
• Well-established partners
• The ability to meet customers’ constantly changing demands

The top 4 enterprise software companies

Based on the above factors, the following are the four top software enterprise companies that meet and exceed those standards within the industry:

1. SAP

SAP is a self-described market leader in enterprise application software, as 77 percent of all transaction revenue runs through SAP systems. The German-based software company delivers enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to help businesses run more efficiently.

SAP has more than 240,000 customers, 18,000+ partners, and over 240 million cloud-based users and counting.

2. Oracle

Oracle, another top software enterprise company, emphasizes innovation. With the mission of helping people see data in new ways, Oracle sells data management systems. Hogan says the enterprise is noted for “furthering cutting-edge technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), drones, and augmented reality through its Innovation Lab.”

As of October 2019, the software giant had more than 430,000 customers and 20,000 partners.

3. Salesforce

According to Hogan, “Salesforce was a pioneer of the on-demand software model.” The massive enterprise specializes in customer relationship management (CRM), providing an advanced, integrated platform.

Any business that does sales “needs to have a good CRM process to be successful,” says Ma, “and Salesforce is very effective in helping companies stay on top of their CRM process.” More than 150,000 companies currently use the Salesforce platform.

4. Microsoft

Perhaps not all that surprising, Microsoft is one of the biggest enterprise software companies in the world. In fact, it was the first software company to reach $1 billion in revenue, and it continues to develop new technology, from cloud services to computer hardware. More than 135 million people or organizations used Microsoft Office 365 in 2018 alone.

Hogan notes that “Microsoft has successfully grown its cloud offering, Azure, into the world’s second-largest cloud infrastructure platform behind Amazon.”

SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, and Microsoft are among the leaders in the industry, but there are many other prominent enterprise software companies in the market. As enterprises become more dependent on machine learning and artificial intelligence to make decisions, software  companies will provide the automation they increasingly require.

For more information on this topic, review our in-depth guide to enterprises.