A Value Chain is a high-level model of how businesses receive (suppliers - SCM) raw materials as input, they add a value (production - ERP) to the raw materials through various processes, and they sell (sales & marketing - CRM) finished products or services to customers. In other terms, a Value-Chain also consists of a sum of activities which are gathered around Business Processes. The processes are designed across the organizations as well as for a manufacturing enterprise or for a service company as one system, made up of subsystems each. The activities of the Value Chain which are carried out determines costs and affects profits.

An activity is an unit of work that can be planned and where we can identify the beginning, the end, the resources, the costs and the tangible result. A process is a continuation of activities connected between them by flows of information and/or matters which they treat.
From one or more entries (inputs) the process transforms a series of activities into a expected result (output) representing an added value for the customer. In addition to that, the processes make acquisition and consumption of resources, money, labour, materials, equipment, buildings, land, administration and management.

From the Information System point of view, more and more of processes are supported by computing solutions. Here after the 3 main IT business solution areas, met in the market :