The role of business software
The best way to think about software is in terms of your business objectives. Business must lead IT, not the other way around. Ask yourself, what are the most important activities in your business? What are the challenges and frustrations you face in these areas? Where are the opportunities to improve your speed, cost, and quality?
Once you have your business needs clearly in mind, it’s time to think about the role of technology in enabling better performance. As you look at your options, it becomes clear that software is one of the most important and powerful types of business technology available.
The right software helps your business by improving the quality and flow of information, which in turn boosts both efficiency and effectiveness. Software can give you a better picture of where your money is going, who your customers are, how much time is being spent where, which activities are giving the best results, and many other such insights. And it helps this information flow quickly to where it is needed: for example, it can help frontline staff provide better customer service, enable people in the field to respond to situations, help factory workers optimise a process, and give managers the insights needed for effective decisions.
Types of business software
There are many different types of business software available, ranging from generic solutions that apply across almost any business through to so-called ‘vertical market’ solutions that are designed for a particular industry or function. It can also be useful to distinguish standalone or separate software (more often used by small business) from solutions that integrate a range of modules into a combined software package.
Popular types of business software include:
- Accounting and recordkeeping software
- Customer relationship management (CRM) software
- E-commerce and email marketing software
- Document management software
- Enterprise resource planning (ERP) and business management software
- Office productivity software
- Project management software
- Security and database management software
- Supply chain management (SCM) software
- Timesheet and expense management software
- …and many others
When vertical market solutions are considered, the range of available software expands even more to include such applications as livestock recordkeeping for cattle farmers, computer-aided-design (CAD) for structural engineers, press release management software for PR professionals, case management software for lawyers, and many hundreds of other specialist software applications.
How to find software that suits your business
Regardless of your industry, size, or specific situation there is almost certainly a product out there that’s right for you. The challenge is finding that ideal choice amongst the tens of thousands of software packages on the market.
That’s where
SoftwareShortlist comes in. We aim to help you find the right software for your business through a free online service. After an assessment of your business software needs, we provide a custom shortlist of relevant solutions from our carefully selected database. Plus we make it easy for you to assess and compare the software in your shortlist, with side by side comparisons and detailed reviews. Get started now, by filling in the drop downs on the top-right of this page.
