Nowadays, it seems like there is software for just any business operation imaginable. Indeed,software providers are constantly improving and expanding their offerings. In the past ten years, apps have become significantly better at increasing productivity and saving time on administrative tasks. The following are the types of software that have proven essential for emerging and established businesses alike.
Project Management
How did businesses manage projects before the avent of technology? History shows that, since the late 1800s, workerks began to use charts and diagrams to organize themselves.
The Gantt chart was developed by Henry Gantt in the early 1900s. It was used to visualize a project’s schedule, including start and finish dates for individual tasks. In the 1950s, Walker and Kelley developed the Critical Path Method (CPM) to determine the time needed to complete projects by identifying the longest sequence of dependent tasks.
In the 80s and 90s, project management was completely revolutionized thanks to the introduction of management softwarefor planning workloads and resources.
Nowadays, there are many products to choose from. Many of them are based on the simple tools created by Gantt, Walker and Kelley. Some examples include TeamGantt, GanttPro, Trello, Monday.com, Asana, and Jira.
High-quality customer support is integral to any successful business. It is, after all, through support agents, how the company communicates with its clients. Research also indicates that customer support is what entices customers to keep coming back to the brand’s products and services over time.
According to Salesforce Research and HubSpot Research, around 90% of consumers are more inclined to make a second purchase after having experienced excellent customer service.
Customer support software comes in many different forms –from CRM (customer relationship management) tools to live chats and self-service. Well-known solutions, such as Zendesk, Zoho, Salesforce, and HubSpot – to name a few – have been specifically created to help companies manage their interactions with their customer-based on multiple platforms.
Live chat services, for example, enable customers to communicate in real-time with support agents whenever they’re in need of assistance. Some of the industries who rely the most on quick customer support are healthcare, traveling, real estate, and e-commerce. Other rapidly evolving sectors, such as iGaming, also require strong and efficient communication with their customers. If a user playing the Aviator Casino Game on a platform like Bitcoincasino, for instance, experiences a technical issue, it’s fundamental to have some readily available to provide assistance.
Digital payments are reshaping consumer habits across the world. In the United States, for example, a survey entitled “Future of Payments” by the Onbe company found that 70% of respondents prefer receiving payments digitally, while 73% favor shopping and paying through digital methods such as in-app and peer-to-peer transactions.
Businesses are taking notice, as noted by Onbe’s CEO, who said: “As we continue to see this trend grow, it’s vital for businesses to offer the right mix of payment forms to meet their customers’ needs. We’re proud to have helped our clients create modern, agile, and compliant disbursement operations to meet this demand.”
The increasing appeal of digital payments stems from their ability to eliminate reliance on cash. Many consumers find carrying a wallet simply cumbersome and value the simplicity of shopping online and making transactions with just a few clicks. Beyond convenience, digital payments also save time by removing the need to visit physical stores or endure long checkout lines.
PayPal, Stripe, Amazon Pay, Shopify, and Square are some of the payment transaction tools that even small businesses utilize to manage finances via credit cards, checks, and wire transfers.
Technology is making accounting much easier through various software for small, medium, and large businesses. Take tools like Xero, QuickBooks, and FreshBooks, for example. These make complex and often problematic operations like the processing of payroll, pay slips, and superannuation payments easier.
There are, of course, various types of accounting software. Besides managing payroll, businesses can leverage these tools for other everyday operations, including managing taxes and bookkeeping.
The most salient benefit of accounting software is time management. It saves business hours of work each week by automatically handling time-consuming manual bookkeeping and accounting processes. Other key advantages include more data accuracy, clear financial reporting, and the synchronization of all financial information.
Nearly 70% of small businesses in the world have a website. 43% of small enterprises are planning to invest in improving the performance of their existing website. Moreover, 56% of global consumers prefer to shop online, through a website, as physical stores do not usually operate twenty four hours a day. What these statistics show is that having a website is detrimental to any business, no matter how small.
So, why is this? A website serves to establish the credibility of a business or brand. It offers social proof that the enterprise is serious and that there is something to offer. The public expects a website that expands on what the business is about and showcases positive reviews from previous or existing clients.
About twenty years ago, building a website from scratch was extremely difficult, and it required professional intervention. Yet, the mid-2000s and early 2010s saw the rise of no-code website builders. In other words, anyone could create their own sites without knowledge on how to code. Nowadays, Squarespace, Wix, Webpress, and Shopify are enabling businesses to create their own website and build their online presence.
Small businesses often struggle to find the time and resources needed for effective marketing, as highlighted in Keap’s 2020 Customer Survey. Among the respondents, 22.9% admitted to collecting contact information manually, a time-consuming practice that could be streamlined with automation. These challenges demonstrate how necessary it is nowadays to implement systems, which automate lead generation and marketing processes.
Marketing automation has emerged as a sound solution, enabling small businesses to generate and nurture leads with greater efficiency. By automating procedures between marketing and sales, businesses can focus on strategic activities rather than repetitive tasks. For instance, automated campaigns can send thousands of personalized emails daily using simple software tools. These campaigns are activated based on specific benchmarks, ensuring timely and relevant communication with prospects.
The benefits of marketing automation are well-documented. Nucleus Research reports a 14.5% boost in sales productivity and a 12.2% reduction in marketing overhead for businesses adopting such tools. Moreover, data from the Annuitas Group shows that companies using marketing automation to nurture prospects see a staggering 451% increase in qualified leads. These leads are not only more likely to convert but also tend to make purchases 47% larger than those who aren’t nurtured.
The Right Business Software: How to Choose?
Choosing the right software for a business can be extremely challenging. For small to medium-size businesses, seeing all the different kinds of available software, as listed above, can be overwhelming. After all, having several tools and platforms might cause confusion and end up being costly.
The first step is to determine the organization’s current requirements. The operational needs of a small business differ greatly from those of a larger corporation, for example.Moreover, each industry has its own specific requirements for seamless operations. A business with a large number of employees will definitely demand a more robust payroll software than a smaller business with only a few employees.Similarly, a business with a large client base will need an accurate time tracking application to document the work being done for each client.
As previously mentioned, there are numerous business software available, with new offerings being introduced each year. Some of them, such as Monday.com and Asana focus on a more “all-in-one” approach, connecting various operations – operations, products, tasks, and others.
Conversely, it is possible to find software and tools tailored to meet the needs of a company operating in a specific industry. A law firm might benefit from Fastcase, a wide library providing legal resources and a quicker way to find relevant information. Software providers like Live88 and Evolution, on the other hand, supply products and services for iGaming platforms like Bitcoincasino.
The integration of specialized software across various business operations has become essential in the 21st century. From project management and customer support to payment processing and marketing automation, the right tools can make everyday processes more efficient and drive growth.
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