Daily Biz Solutions

Small business owners can benefit from using various types of computer software to keep up with administrative and operations tasks. Using appropriate software applications can help make sure that things go smoothly, providing entrepreneurs a way to maximize the efficiency of their day-to-day business operations.

• Accounting Software: Keeping up with accounting records, including invoices, receipt of payment, payables, payroll, taxes and more is something that many small business owners find to be challenging and stressful. These tasks are inherent to any business enterprise. Even if you use a professional to process payroll and handle your tax filings, it’s to your best interest to use an accounting software program to ensure that you are organizing the necessary information properly and keeping records in an appropriate manner.

• Distribution Software: If your company ships products to customers, it’s essential to have a good distribution software program. This type of application will provide you with a way to keep track of your inventory, as well as serve as an all-in-one shipping management system. This type of program will allow you to be certain of what products you have available to sell, as well as keep up with what has shipped and to whom, and to track delivery, including monitoring shipping progress and verifying receipt.

These aren’t the only types of software applications that you might need, but they’re two of the most important.

If you own or manage a small business, be sure that you are providing your staff with access to software applications that make it possible for them to perform their jobs efficiently and effectively. Small businesses can benefit from many different types of software programs. Options that most businesses find to be beneficial include:

Productivity Suite – A productivity suite like Microsoft Office or Open Office is something that every small business can benefit from having. These suites typically include several applications, including a word processor, spreadsheet program, presentation application, schedule and contact manager and more.

Book keeping Software – It’s hard to maintain effective financial records if you don’t have a good book keeping software program. This type of software not only allows you to keep up with your finances for tax reporting purposes, it also allows you to effectively track payables, receivables, bank account balances and more. This type of software is critical to maintaining sound accounting practices and financial records.

Customer Relationship Management – This type of software, often referred to as CRM, is designed specifically to allow small businesses to keep up with customer activity. These types of programs allow you to track customer contact information, manage projects, keep an ongoing record of interactions with prospects and customers and more.

These are only a few examples of the many types of software applications that can be beneficial for use when running a small business.

If you run a business, you’ll want to all you can to make sure you’re not spending too much on essential and non-essential services. This includes the annual outlay on IT services including servers. Many businesses need servers as they’re seen as being a secure place to both store and share massive files, but they can be expensive to own and operate, as they constantly use electricity. Many servers cost several thousands to run each year, leaving people to contemplate other alternative means of file sharing, such as online file sharing which is offered by companies like Egnyte.

You might think of it as being far-fetched, but it’s possible that your business could store important files in a secure location online, and thanks to the likes of Egnyte, that dream has become reality. By using ‘cloud’ technology, you can store and share important documents on the web and access them as and when you like on any device with an internet connection.

Using online file storage can help your company to become more efficient in a variety of ways. In doing so, it makes it easier for employees to work from home, as they can access the cloud as and when they need to from their laptop or PC. Meanwhile, the technology allows you to analyse, amend and organise the files in the cloud with ease and no fuss whatsoever. Files stored and shared on the cloud can also be accessed much more quickly than on a server, especially if outside of office hours.

Aside from being easy to use and time-saving, cloud technology is also much, much cheaper than owning and running a server. Servers can be heavy and bulky, and take up a lot of space, which can be used for other important things. The cost of using cloud technology is never more than a few hundred pounds, dollars or euros annually, while it doesn’t use up any extra electricity, so the money saved from not owning a server can be much greater than your realised.

How does your company operate?

Many companies run themselves in a rather inefficient manner when it comes to technology. In companies like this, every department is an island unto itself. Each has its own separate applications and technology, including both databases and front-end applications. For example, the sales department will use a totally different application and database than the accounting and billing departments while the manufacturing and business intelligence groups’ software packages will speak two completely different languages. This is true despite the fact that many of these departments’ systems should ideally be interrelated and rely on each other. This is an inefficient way to run things, costing time, effort and money. More efficient companies understand that the way to do things right is to unify operations with ERP.

What is ERP?

Enterprise Resource Planning is a concept that involves the unification of all business technology into a streamlined, efficient model. An ERP solution will promote effective, efficient use of technology and data by implementing a similar front end and a common back end across all organizations and departments of a business. Users will benefit from a common, familiar set of applications on the desktop while accessing shared databases for easier access and sharing. For example, the fulfillment department will share their order information with the warehouse staff. The warehouse will then pass the same data on to the procurement team. In a case like this, inventory will be efficiently moved and replenished far easier than before. This is but one example of how a robust ERP product and advanced ERP consulting, like JD Edwards consulting from Syntax, can implement a superior level of efficiency.

What are the key areas covered by an ERP implementation?

An ERP solution is made up of “modules” that cover all key departments. As mentioned, these modules’ data is commonly accessed by all departments and unified to streamline sharing. While modules vary, the basics are accounting, human resources, sales support, manufacturing, project management, supply chain and data warehousing. Each of these areas is important and each has their own set of particular demands and disparate ways that they will integrate with all or some of the other departments. Seeing how complex this list of modules is, it’s easy to see how ERP will help a large enterprise. While this is true, what about small businesses? Can companies that aren’t enterprise-level also benefit from Enterprise Resource Planning?

ERP and Small Businesses

A common misconception about ERP is that it’s strictly for large businesses. The belief is that it doesn’t scale and that it’s just not small enough or affordable enough for companies that aren’t absolutely huge. The truth is an increasing number of firms that sell ERP products and offer ERP consulting services are targeting smaller and mid-sized companies. These firms’ ERP solutions are scaled to meet the demands of these smaller businesses. These ERP solutions firms offer a range of ERP products that are geared to meet both the interdepartmental needs and the budgetary demands of companies that might be global in their long-range goals but local in their current needs. Offerings like SAP or JD Edwards Enterprise One, for example, can be implemented quickly and affordably, with modules customized to suit exactly what is needed.

ERP Alternatives?

Despite the emergence of smaller-scale ERP implementations, some companies are still not ready to make the jump to a complete on-site ERP solution. This is especially true for highly-specialized businesses like food service or specialized manufacturing industries that may not have the need for every feature of a more robust ERP product. It’s also the case for companies who may not want to spend the funds required for all the hardware, software, infrastructure and support for an on-site ERP solution. For these companies, software as a service (SAAS) ERP products may be the way to go.

In the SAAS model, ERP solutions providers leverage cloud-based solutions to provide ERP as an on-demand service based in the cloud. Like with all Software as a Service offerings, SAAS ERP allows the client to forgo the costly expenses associated with total ERP infrastructure ownership. Instead, they can use ERP services as needed in an online subscription model. This provides services at a fraction of the cost of a traditional ERP solution as customers pay in a subscription model on an as-needed basis, finally making ERP widely available to the masses.

Running a business is no business of yours, is it? On the contrary, if you want your business to succeed, you need to get with the times and buy in to several new major paradigms running the marketplace. The Internet has changed everything, and businesses must now factor in how to adopt their current financial models with new realities. The following three industries must now be considered when adjusting your business model:

• Cloud services—What’s a way to reduce your energy bill, increase your options for collaborative projects and communications, and be environmentally friendly all at once? Cloud services. Cloud services currently account for a large percentage of Internet services and for good reason: they can significantly reduce your overhead costs while allowing your employees to communicate and collaborate on projects remotely.
• E-commerce—The ability to move merchandise online and easily manage retail logistics has become one of the hallmarks of the Internet. But e-commerce has more to do with simply allowing for online sales. E-commerce is the nothing less than the future of the economy. Configure your online presence so that you can sell your products and services predominately online. The majority of consumers now prefer to buy over the web. If you’re running a small business, you might as well get on board now, or you could find yourself with a heavily depleted customer base.
• Social media—Social media allows you to connect with entirely new markets overnight. If your business does not have a significant presence on Facebook or Twitter you’re missing out on incredibly powerful ways to leverage your brand and reach new customers. Newer social media networks like Pinterest and Instagram offer even more options for reaching niche markets.

Running a business is difficult. You have to think about a variety of issues, including employee retention, technology upgrades, and energy efficiency. Adopting cloud services, e-commerce, and social media into your business operations should dramatically improve your sales revenue and brand identity.