A call center or call centre (see spelling differences) is a centralized office used for the purpose of receiving and transmitting a large volume of requests by telephone. A call center is operated by a company to administer incoming product support or information inquiries from consumers. Outgoing calls for telemarketing, clientele, and debt collection are also made. In addition to a call center, collective handling of letters, faxes, and e-mails at one location is known as a contact center. A call center is often operated through an extensive open workspace for call center agents, with work stations that include a computer for each agent, a telephone set/headset connected to a telecom switch, and one or more supervisor stations. It can be independently operated or networked with additional centers, often linked to a corporate computer network, including mainframes, microcomputers and LANs. Increasingly, the voice and data pathways into the center are linked through a set of new technologies called computer telephony integration (CTI). Most major businesses use call centers to interact with their customers. Examples include utility companies, mail order catalogue firms, and customer support for computer hardware and software. Some businesses even service internal functions through call centers. Examples of this include help desks and sales support.

A merchant account is a specialized bank account issued by a merchant processing bank that allows a business to accept credit cards such as Visa and Mastercard, debit cards, gift cards and other forms of payment cards. This acceptance is also known as payment processing, credit card processing or merchant card processing. Today a majority of credit card transactions are sent electronically to merchant processing bank for authorization, capture and deposit. The method of processing credit cards will vary by industry. In all circumstances either the entire magnetic strip is read by a swipe through a credit card terminal/reader or the credit card information is manually keyed in to a credit card terminal, a computer or website.

Customer Relations Management (CRM) Software or Sales Force Automation (SFA) Software or Contact and Customer Manager Software is used by virtually any type of business to track sales prospects, opportunities, customers, support cases, employees, job applicants, and many other types of people-interaction-management needs. Customer relationship management (CRM) is the practice of intelligently finding, marketing to, selling to, and servicing customers. CRM is a broadly used term that covers concepts used by companies and public institutions to manage their relationships with customers and stakeholders. Technologies that support this business purpose include the capture, storage and analysis of customer, vendor, partner, and internal process information. Functions that support this business purpose include Sales, Marketing and Customer Service, Training, Professional Development, Performance Management, Human Resource Development and Compensation.

A help desk is an information and assistance resource that troubleshoots problems with computers and similar products. Corporations often provide help desk support to their customers via a toll-free number, website and/or e-mail. There are also in-house help desks geared toward providing the same kind of help for employees only. Some schools offer classes in which they perform similar tasks as a help desk. It is often referred to as the "hell desk" by those who work there. In the Information Technology Infrastructure Library, within companies adhering to ISO/IEC 20000 or seeking to implement IT Service Management best practice, a Help Desk may offer a wider range of user centric services and be part of a larger Service Desk.

Logistics is the art of managing the supply chain and science of managing and controlling the flow of goods, information and other resources like energy and people between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet customers' requirements. It involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging. The operating responsibility of logistics is the geographical repositioning of raw materials, work in process and finished inventories where required at the lowest cost possible. Logistics and Supply Chain services are provided by a wide range of 3rd party suppliers.

Marketing Automation has a focus on lead generation with targeted marketing programs to drive awareness and interest in a company's products and/or services and nurture leads from first interest through to sale. Commonly used in business-to-business(B2B), business-to-government(B2G), or longer sales cycle business-to-consumer(B2C) sales cycles, Marketing Automation involves multiple areas of marketing and is really the marriage of email marketing technology coupled with a structured sales process as delineated by a CRM program.

Point of sale or point of service (POS or PoS) can mean a retail shop, a checkout counter in a shop, or the location where a transaction occurs. More specifically, the point of sale often refers to the hardware and software used for checkouts -- the equivalent of an electronic cash register. Point of sale systems are used in supermarkets, restaurants, hotels, stadiums, and casinos, as well as almost any type of retail establishment. POS Point of Sale Software is used by a wide variety of industries and business owners to manage daily customer, employee, and inventory activity. Some examples of these point of sale activities include: real-time tracking of customer purchases, returns/credits, employee activity, inventory, orders, and more. Enterprise versions of POS Software, or multiple stores, can be networked together or operated independently of eachother. A POS Software system can vary in size from a stand-alone computer, to thousands of linked workstations.

Procurement software is business software that helps to automate the purchasing function of organizations. Activities including raising and approving purchase orders, selecting and ordering the product or service, receiving and matching the invoice and order, and paying the bill is handled electronically, enabling the procurement department to see everything that is ordered, ensure that nothing can be ordered without correct approvals, and lets them get the best value by combining several orders for the same type of good or even getting suppliers to bid for the business. Suppliers of this software include SAP for very large companies, CODA for large and mid-market organisations, and Sage for small businesses.

Scheduling Software helps to automate the process of creating and maintaining a schedule. Such software will usually track the scheduling of resources related to operational business activities, procedures and processes. Resources will include materials to purchase, machines and workcenters to schedule, and labor required to run business. In addition, other parameters such as machine maintenance time, personnel vacation time, sick time, etc., should be considered during scheduling. As a database of schedules are accumulated over time, it may analyze past activity and prepare data for reporting. Scheduling software can also help in making strategic decisions to lower costs and improve performance. This software may be a part of an ERP package or stand-alone.

Supply chain management (SCM) is the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the operations of the supply chain as efficiently as possible. Supply Chain Management spans all movement and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and finished goods from point-of-origin to point-of-consumption. Supply chain management software (SCMS) is a business term which refers to a range of software tools or modules used in executing supply chain transactions, managing supplier relationships and controlling associated business processes. While functionality in such systems can often be broad – it commonly includes: Customer requirement processing Purchase order processing Inventory management Goods receipt and Warehouse management Supplier Management/Sourcing A requirement of many SCMS often includes forecasting. Such tools often attempt to balance the disparity between supply and demand by improving business processes and using algorithms and consumption analysis to better plan future needs[1]. SCMS also often includeS integration technology that allows organizations to trade electronically with supply chain partners.