Application categories: An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is best classified as which type of database application?

Introduction / Context:
ERP systems support organization-wide processes (finance, procurement, manufacturing, HR). Their database workloads reveal the appropriate application category.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• ERP serves many departments and users concurrently.
• Workload is transactional (OLTP) with strong consistency and access control.
• Examples: SAP, Oracle E-Business Suite, Microsoft Dynamics.

Concept / Approach:
ERP systems must handle many simultaneous sessions, complex business logic, and mission-critical transactions. Thus, they are quintessential multiuser database applications, even if analytics components exist alongside.

Step-by-Step Solution:

Verification / Alternative check:
Vendor sizing guides and reference architectures emphasize multiuser scalability, session management, and locking/concurrency features.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Single-user: Incompatible with organization-wide deployments.
E-commerce: Different domain focus (retail sales).
Data mining: Analytical/OLAP; ERP is primarily OLTP.

Common Pitfalls:
Conflating the presence of reporting/analytics inside ERP with its primary transactional nature.

Final Answer:
multiuser database application