The best software for small businesses is software designed to
help them to run their operations better, cut costs and replace
paper processes. The
most popular software packages include accounts, office
productivity, email and communications, but nowadays, most business
activities can be improved through
desktop or web-based applications.
What is the point of business software?
The business software that is most likely to benefit your firm
will generally help you to increase or measure your productivity;
save time or money, and make your staff or processes more
efficient.
Should I go for desktop or web-based applications?
With the growth in
adoption of the web and mobile computing, the scope of business
software has expanded considerably.
Desktop software tends to offer richer functionality than
web-based tools because it can draw on the operating system and
storage more easily. However, browser-based applications often
carry a lower cost or can be used for free in some cases and staff
can access them wherever there is an internet connection.
With the growth of
Software as a Service (SaaS), or on-demand applications,
everything from office productivity to
customer relationship management (CRM) can be accessed via the
web.
What can accounting software offer?
Few businesses
can do without finance and accounting software, which can often
automate activities such as billing, invoices and payroll.
Accounting software provides a way of recording and measuring
sales, costs and profits. It can also be used to automatically
generate invoices and formal business correspondence.
Some accounting software allows you to carry out analysis on
your figures, to see trends and patterns in your business’
performance.
Worth noting is that if you plan to use your accounting package
to submit statutory accounts, it needs to meet the relevant legal
requirements.
What sorts of office software is available?
The majority of
businesses use Microsoft Office for their
office productivity applications, and are familiar with tools
such as
Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
But suites other than Microsoft are also worth considering, such
as OpenOffice.org, or
Sun’s StarOffice.
These are compatible with
Microsoft’s applications and also carry a free or low-cost
price tag.
How about communication and collaboration?
Groupware and
collaboration is another level of office productivity software,
and can help employees to work together by
sharing information.
Although not suitable for all businesses, this type of software
has its merits and can facilitate teamwork, and increase business
process efficiencies.
These tools can help to facilitate electronic communications, so
staff can send messages, files, data, or documents more easily, and
even send and share voice files.
The sorts of functions that the software can bring are online
conferencing, electronic faxing, interactive voice mail, wikis, web
publishing and revision control of documents.
Groupware and collaboration software can also help teams to
share information in a more interactive way, for example, via
internet or intranet forums, also known as message boards or
discussion boards.
They can also communicate using
online chat, instant messaging and video conferencing.
What other sorts of things can collaboration tools offer?
Groupware and collaboration software has also given rise to a
whole host of network-centric applications. These are termed
collaborative management tools and they can help a business to
manage group activities.
Although small businesses can benefit from these functions, we
are now entering the realms of the medium sized or larger
business.
Groupware and collaboration software can offer shared electronic
calendars; project management systems; workflow systems; knowledge
management; extranet systems to collect, manage and share project
information;
social networking software; and online spreadsheets.
What sorts of software applications do larger SMEs use?
When it comes to other sorts of business software, designed for
the larger or more ambitious businesses, the sky is the limit.
The meatier business tools that tend to be favoured by larger
businesses include CRM, for recording customer information and
finding out trends in buying habits; and sales force automation,
which helpful for organising and managing sales teams and
leads.
Business may also choose to use human resources software;
business intelligence and dashboard tools; database management
systems; and
enterprise resource planning and
supply chain management tools.
However, these may not be for everyone and can add cost and
complexity to small businesses’ IT systems.