Information System Software

The comparison between general application software and function-specific application software

Application software is a software designed to help us accomplish work and tasks on the computer. There are two primary forms application software for business which are custom software and COTs software. Custom software is a software application that developed within an organization for use and owned by that organization. Commercial Off-the-shelf (COTs) is a software developed with the intention of selling the software in multiple copies.

General purpose application software is a program that perform common information processing jobs for end users. Its also call productivity packages. For example, word processing and spreadsheet. The most widely used productivity packages are bundled together as software suites. The advantage is the cost less than buying individual packages. All have similar GUI, thus can work well together. Other advantages are many functions with lower price, uses less disk space and frequently pre-installed on microcomputers. The disadvantages are all features not used and take a lot of disk space. Integrated packages combine the functions of several programs into one package such as Microsoft Works and AppleWorks. On the other hand, it is limited functionality. Function-Specific Application Software is thousands of these packages support specific applications of end users. Examples are customer relationship management, supply chain management and Web-enabled electronic commerce.

General purpose application software packages are generally tools that provide specific capabilities, but not in support of a apecific purpose. For example, a spreadsheet program is a general purpose application. It does spreadsheets, but those could be spreadsheets that you use to balance your checkbook, or manage your fantasy football league while special purpose application software is more limited in what it will do, but it usually goes that one thing much better than a general purpose program. For example, Turbo Tax (a tab preparation package)is a special purpose application.Sure, it adds and subtracts numberes like a spreadsheet, but you can't use it to track your fantasy football league.It does one thing-prepare tax returns.