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Despite the compelling business case for software and a host of readily available solutions, unfortunately small businesses are not leveraging software applications to the extent they should.
Why is this? Over the past 2 years, we’ve spoke with a large number of business owners and we keep hearing the same reasons. Put simply, small business owners are busy – they simply don’t have the time or resources to properly investigate new software for their business. Many also find IT to be intimidating, and may lack the expertise and knowledge to make sense of the possibilities.
The end result is that far too many small businesses do one or more of the following:
Keep using inefficient manual processes, work-around methods, and legacy systems,
Defer or postpone their plans to review their business processes & software
Make a risky leap of faith decision from a referral, brief Google search or prior experience
Reinvent the wheel with a custom-built solution at 5+ times the cost of buying off-the-shelf
Despite the compelling business case for software and a host of readily available solutions, unfortunately it is clear that small businesses are not leveraging software applications to the extent they should.
Why is this? Over the past 2 years, we’ve spoke with a large number of business owners and we keep hearing the same reasons. Put simply, small business owners are busy – they just don’t have the time or resources to properly investigate new software for their business. Many also find IT to be intimidating, and may lack the expertise and knowledge to make sense of the possibilities.
The end result is that far too many small businesses fall victim to one or more of the following pitfalls:
- Keep using inefficient manual processes, work-around methods, and legacy systems,
- Defer or postpone their plans to review their business processes & software
- Make a risky leap of faith decision based on a friend’s referral, brief Google search or limited prior experience
- Reinvent the wheel with a custom-built solution at 5+ times the cost (and often with less functionality) compared to buying an off-the-shelf platform
What has been your experience? Have you seen these pitfalls up close? Are there others you would add to the list?
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Note: Helping SMBs avoid these pitfalls is what motivated us to start Software Shortlist in the first place. If you’d like some assistance in choosing software for your business, why not get in touch with us about our independent consulting services?
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Today we officially launch the Software Shortlist Directory – a free online resource to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) quickly find relevant software.
Don’t worry, we see the irony. Here is a company that specialises in shortlisting software that is now giving you a long list of software.
But there’s good reason for this. The feedback on our online recommendation and comparison service has been fantastic, but we have also heard from many customers that they wanted to see the full list of software that sat behind it. There seems to be a certain level of comfort people get from seeing the long list of options. Of course, we suspect that when confronted with a long list of available software, you will appreciate even more the value of our shortlisting service 
So, without any further ado, welcome to the Software Shortlist Directory.
The directory includes over 700 products in popular categories such as Accounting, Email Marketing, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Project Management, and Small Business ERP. And more categories are being added all the time.
What is particularly distinctive about our directory is that it focuses only on small business software. With no consumer or big enterprise solutions to wade through, you save time and money not having to consider options that aren’t relevant to you.
You will also find the quality of the listings is better than most. We have applied strict selection criteria as part of a global search process to create a powerful resource for small businesses. Our aim is to build an extensive yet high quality list of software — and if faced with a choice, we have gone for quality over quantity.
What are you waiting for? Go check it out at www.softwareshortlist.com/software/directory.html
