Your business will get a high return on its IT investments when it purchases the best software for your employees to communicate more clearly, process information more efficiently and perform various tasks more effectively. While you may need to build some applications in-house, many standard applications purchased from vendors do more than enough for the job.
The better your selection of business software, the easier it will be to improve communication, encourage productivity and manage heavy workloads. Software can also help your business leverage its myriad resources, while pinpointing those areas that need the most improvement. Although high-end software is expensive, in the long run, streamlining business processes and using effective tracking software to measure statistical data will reduce your overhead expenses and overtime costs.
Given the numerous benefits of using the right technology to improve your business, here are three types of software that could serve your business well:
1. Marketing Automation Software
In a sense, every business is a marketing business. Unless your business knows how to market its products and services superbly, it’ll lose market share to those that have figured out the best ways to generate leads, increase conversions and win customer loyalty. However, since many marketing-related tasks like email marketing or social media posting are repetitive, they can be done more efficiently with marketing automation tools.
When human beings perform tedious tasks over a long stretch of time, the quality and quantity of the work diminishes; however, marketing automation consistently evaluates and generates leads. In addition, this software works well with other marketing and sales software, like CRM. Consequently, a marketing department that uses marketing automation, as well as other tools, can run promotions on multiple online channels, monitor the progress of campaigns and provide the sales team with highly qualified leads based on metrics that track a prospect’s online behavior.
2. Accounting Software
While bookkeeping and accounting require some interpretation and analysis, the bulk of the work consists of mechanically recording and reporting on financial transactions. Software is excellent for detailed tracking, and it also provides faster reporting. Reports with tables and charts are particularly useful, as they make it far easier for your accountants to evaluate the fiscal data.
Usually, the larger a company, the more complex its transactions, because a sizable amount of data has to be collected from diverse departments. This situation of increasing complexity often requires a firm to develop its own customized solutions. However, customization is rarely necessary for small to mid-sized businesses, which can derive enormous benefits from off-the-shelf accounting software.
Many of the tasks managed easily by software today used to be time-consuming, labor-intensive tasks in the past. Everything had to be done by hand, and transaction journals were voluminous. The idea of timely reporting was rarely practical.
Accounting software reduces the time, labor and cost of keeping track of your money, so that you can make smarter financial decisions.
3. Human Resource Software
Almost every business wants to retain their top-performing employees, and many new employees have high hopes of enhancing their career. Human resource software supports managers’ efforts to engage staff, boost productivity and raise potential.
The software provides features to improve the following human resource tasks:
· Recruiting
· Onboarding
· Workforce management
· Time scheduling and management
· Payroll solutions
· Strategic human capital management
Although human capital management (HCM), human resources information systems (HRIS) and human resource management systems (HRMS) sound different, they all refer to human resource software that uses cloud computing, databases and applications to effectively manage the workforce.
How to Choose the Best Business Software
Since there so many versions of business software for any particular business procedure, each offering slightly different features, how do you decide the best one for your business? First, review what your company needs, and second, when you’re doing your research, get everyone who will be using the software on board. There’s no point in buying a feature-rich product — say, one of the best accounting software available — only to discover that your accountants and bookkeepers find it overwhelming and are only interested in a fraction of the features.
