how software selection influences growth
choosing the right systems to run your business
Software selection plays an important role in business operations and can either help or hinder growth, efficiency, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, reporting accuracy, and ultimately decision making.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to select software that will empower you to become an efficiency master, promote collaboration, and scale your business.
Why Software Selection Matters
Your team relies on software every day to help them do their jobs.
All too often, systems are quickly introduced to meet an immediate need. Over time, these systems are layered into the business, eventually leading to overwhelming manual work to keep them up-to-date. Teams then refer to creating their own spreadsheets and documents to fill the gaps, resulting in disjointed data, low visibility for leadership and loss of trust.
Choosing the right software to meet the evolving needs of your business can help leaders avoid these issues and gain:
Reduce manual work and human error by utilizing systems that work for the needs of the business and are automatically integrated with each other.
With greater efficiency, the business can grow with the resources it has.
The right tools and trustworthy data allow the business to generate accurate reporting – helping you get ahead of your competition, be top of mind to your customer and drive innovation in your industry.
Minimize operational costs by optimizing use of time and resources.
software Selection Key considerations
Before diving into software options, it’s important to first clearly define what your business needs today (and what it might need in the future).
Start by considering the following framework:
- Marketing
- This might include email marketing, social media, website, and associated analytics tools.
- Sales
- Customer relationship management (CRM)
- Sales pipeline
- Quoting
- Fulfillment
- Inventory management
- Time tracking
- Subcontractor tracking
- On-site data collection
- Billing
- Generating invoices and accounts receivable from fulfillment data
- Billing profiles such as fixed fee, time and materials, subscription, and more
Your business will likely utilize multiple software platforms. That can include marketing tools, a customer relationship management system, inventory tracking, accounting platforms and more. With multiple systems, it’s easy to end up with overwhelming manual work when your team has to enter the same information (such as names and addresses) into each system.
Consider which information needs to be in each system, then evaluate if there is an integration opportunity to automatically share that information between systems – removing the need for manual input. For example, if your customer’s company name and contact information need to be used in three systems, can those systems be integrated?
Choose intuitive software that is easy to learn and use. Easy access to customer support is also helpful.
Your business will grow and evolve over time. Look for software that can automate repetitive tasks, handle increased data, and be further customized as your business needs change.
Weighing the benefits vs. cost, the least expensive option might not be the right option (and the most expensive option might not be, either).
When selecting your software, consider how much it will cost for licensing fees, implementation, maintenance, and potential upgrade expenses. Then compare that to what you’ll get in return.
Here are some factors that can help you evaluate return on investment:
- Quantitative benefits:
- Increased revenue from new products, channels, and markets
- Lower administration expenses
- Decreased errors, rework, escalations
- Improved customer satisfaction
- Qualitative benefits:
- Informed decision making (and confidence) from accurate, real-time data
- Less conjecture and guesswork
- Stronger culture with greater accountability
Making the right choice
Software selection is a strategic process, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. By taking the time to identify your business requirements, evaluate key features, and embrace automation opportunities, you can quickly set your business up for incredible growth.
Creative Sparq specializes in systems architecture, workflow design, and CRM implementation – helping make system selection and business processes easy for growing business.
Ready to optimize your business? Contact us today to discover how we can help you select systems, automate processes, enhance efficiency, and drive growth.
Summit Fleet digital strategy
“We now have a clear understanding of where we are today, where we’re going, and how we’re going to get there.”
See how Summit Fleet consolidated systems, reduced silos, and removed spreadsheets – reducing manual effort by up to 50%.
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