From accounting and CRM software that runs behind the scenes, to e-commerce software that runs your online shop, every business relies on software to run their business. In this article, we cover some of the most popular types of software, and the most popular options available for you to choose from.
Accounting
Accounting software lets you record all your financial transactions and prepare your end-of-year accounts and tax returns. Many business executives choose an accounting package that their accountants are familiar with, because they rarely have to use it themselves. Popular accounting software includes expense management from Workday, QuickBooks, Oracle E-Business Suite and a range of options from Sage and SAP.
Today, more businesses are integrating their accounting software with their e-commerce and CRM software. When a customer completes a transaction through a website, an accounting entry is immediately made, without the need for anybody to do anything manually. Popular accounting software includes QuickBooks, Oracle E-Business Suite and a range of options from Sage and SAP. There are also a growing number of cloud-based options, including Xero and Simply Accounting.
E-commerce
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If you run a website that sells things online, you’ll need an e-commerce application. Some businesses choose to create e-commerce software entirely from scratch, but most businesses use a pre-existing solution and customize it to meet their business needs.
Rather than building something yourself, it’s usually better to go with a solution that’s been proven to work.
Some e-commerce software like Shopify and Yahoo Stores run in the cloud, and all the information about your sales and products sits on the software provider’s server. Alternatively, you can install software on your server. There are plenty of very good open-source e-commerce options to choose from – including Magento and OpenCart – that are completely free. You can also find a lot of add-ons that help you do lots of specific tasks.
Workflow Automation
Workflow automation software lets you connect different types of information together. For example, the iDatix workflow software lets you take information from your CRM, accounting and e-commerce applications and combine the data together to help you complete tasks.
Workflow automation is about combing information and managing processes. It could be pictures, files and contracts. It could be structured information inside another software application. It allows you to put all this information together and create workflows to save you time. Tasks that would once be completed manually can now be done with very little or no human input.
CRM
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CRM stands for customer relationship management. CRM software lets you record information about your customers, run marketing and sales campaigns, and so much more. In the past, CRM software was usually only used by bigger businesses, and smaller businesses would resort to spreadsheets and very basic contact management software.
Today, CRM has become more accessible to small businesses with the rise in cloud computing. Companies like Salesforce.com and Zoho make it possible to set up a CRM account and pay according to the number of users in your organization, so the cost remains closely correlated to the size of your business. Nowadays, most CRM software lets you interact with customers and monitor conversations on social media.
