Vertical enterprises are different companies offering a similar service. Dentists surgeries, physiotherapist practices, software vendor, law companies and architects are examples of vertical enterprises - while there are many different companies in these different niches they all provide essentially the same service to their customers.
Vertical enterprise software is often available for these different types of business. For example, there is a wide range of physiotherapy clinic software packages suitable for private physiotherapy practices. Often this vertical enterprise software handles the specialised aspects of running the particular type of business. Physiotherapy clinical software has modules for note taking, viewing case histories and printing out of patient exercise plans. Sometimes vertical enterprise software can also handle the more general aspects of business, such as accounting and finance. In the case of physiotherapy practices, a number of the commercial offerings in this vertical market also offer physiotherapy patient billing modules.
Vertical enterprise software is available for a wide range of different business sectors from Aromatherapy to Zoos.
Back around the era of the dot com boom, Vertical Enterprise Portals (Vortals?) were popular for a while. They were designed to be websites that catered for an audience interested in a specific business niche. Many of the original vertical enteprise portals are still around, although many collapsed after the dot com crash.
Advantages of Vertical Enterprise Software
The great thing about vertical enterprise software is that the software can save hours of time by automating the specific business processes that have to be performed in a certain type of business. In the case of physiotherapy clinic software the commercial offerings available are specifically designed to assist with the interactions between the patient and the healthcare professional.
Many vertical enterprise solutions are designed with the help of experienced professionals who have extensive experience of working in that industry.
In some sectors the vertical enterprise software becomes so widely used it is often adopted as an unofficial industry standard. This can make it easier to find staff who will be familiar with using your computer software. Sectors where there are industry standards include bookkeeping and accountancy, where Sage and QuickBooks are the most widely used accounts packages.