How to choose software for your business?

Every business needs software to grow and develop. The right solution will help streamline processes within the company, reduce errors and increase efficiency. In this article, we will look at what to consider when choosing software for business automation.

Business software is a set of programmes and services that help a company make a profit. Software can include different types of information products, depending on the tasks of a particular business. For example, for one company it is important to automate customer relations and document flow, while for others it is important to streamline logistics and warehouse accounting.

A business is created primarily to make a profit. Therefore, any business software should, in one way or another, contribute to increasing the company’s revenue. If a programme has no impact on the company’s profits, it cannot be classified as business software.

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How can software be used to increase profits?

Increase turnover while keeping costs unchanged. Here we will discuss the automation of key business processes: various CRM systems and ERP programmes. As a result of the competent implementation of CRM, the productivity of marketing and sales departments increases significantly, customer requests and enquiries are not lost, and communication with customers and product promotion are reduced to the manager pressing a couple of buttons. As a result of the implementation of business automation software, the company’s revenues grow while costs remain unchanged.

Reduce costs while maintaining turnover. The most striking example here is helpdesk systems, the implementation of which allows you to work more effectively with customers and partners, automate the processes of processing applications, creating document packages, etc. As a result of creating software for business, fewer employees can successfully cope with the same amount of work as before. And even with an increase in sales, there will be no need to create additional jobs.

Ready-made solutions or development from scratch?

Undoubtedly, nowadays there is a huge selection of software for business processes based on ready-made solutions. They are cheaper, and their acquisition takes significantly less time than developing software from scratch. However, there are a number of significant drawbacks:

Paid licensing

In ready-made solutions, all new features and users are regulated by licences, and their price varies from ‘easy’ to ‘cheaper to develop your own!’

Paid subscriptions

Most ready-made business automation software, in addition to licences, is regulated by paid subscriptions. They can be monthly or annual, but in total, with long-term use, they end up being more expensive than a custom system.

Limited functionality

The functionality of ready-made solutions varies, but it never 100% matches the customer’s wishes: either there is a lot of unnecessary functionality, or there is a lack of important functions. Most often, they allow you to implement your own functionality, but we have already mentioned the price of licences.

Dependence on the supplier

If in the past such dependence meant stable cooperation, nowadays it can turn into a disaster at any moment, such as a ban on use or a decrease in performance.

Low performance

You can never guess what the performance of the finished business management software will be, how satisfied you will be with its speed, and whether it will work reliably and stably or whether you should expect technical problems every week.

Key points for choosing software for your business

Before ordering software for your business, you need to prepare and study the information. To do this, you can take the following steps:

Analyse the company’s needs

Identify processes that can be improved, determine vulnerabilities and shortcomings. Identify the main functions that the software should perform for business processes and what results you want to achieve. Here is a list of the most common tasks that software can solve:

• Document management. The system helps to register, store and process working documents.
• Accounting. Programmes allow you to track income and expenses, control salaries and taxes.
• Human resources management. Business process software stores employee documents, keeps track of time off and sick leave, and reminds you of upcoming holidays.
• Customer service. Applications record and process requests, forward them to specialists, or provide automatic responses.
• Analytics. Systems allow you to generate reports and identify patterns based on data that is recorded automatically.
• Logistics and warehouse accounting. Programmes help you accurately track the quantity of goods at branches and warehouses, as well as shipment and receipt dates.