Digitising an enterprise is a core approach to designing effective and efficient solutions to business problems. The key idea for digitising the enterprise is systems and systems thinking. A system is an integrated set of elements that accomplish defined objectives. A digitised enterprise is not the same as a digital enterprise. The digitised enterprise is one that extensively uses digitised processes to solve business problems. A digital enterprise is a web based enterprise. A web based enterprise can also be considered as one that has been completely digitised.

System thinking has driven the understanding of business for many years. At the core of systems thinking is creating a boundary around a number of components of something and then understanding how the components influence and relate to each other. There is no better example of systems than the structure of a typical business. Adding the feedback idea to systems we get a dynamic and adaptive view of a business, a key need in responding to changes in the environment around the business.

The approach towards management information systems (MIS) has evolved over time. MIS started with the view that groups of actions and their related enablers (documents, skills, procedures, policies) could be linked together and be semi-automated by computers. Today, MIS encompasses the view of the entire enterprise as a collection of interacting automated and manual information systems.