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5 Types of Business Software Applications You Will Definitely Need

16
May
2015

Our lives are “moved” every single day by the power of the IT industry. From medicine to how we cook our food and from entertainment to work, there’s almost nothing left to be “untouched” by technology.

And honestly, we all love this. We love it because technology makes life much more entertaining. But even more than that, we love it because technology makes life much easier as well.

If you are about to set up a business or if you have already made this step, make sure you know what are the most important software applications you should own. Following, we have gathered 5 of the most essential ones – so read on and find out more.

Backup and Recovery

No matter what type of business you run, you will want to make sure all of the data you store on your computer is safe and that you can recover it in case your hardware stops functioning. Statistics show that in the time span between 2010 and 2012, no less than 50% of the businesses suffered a malfunction that caused a lot of them (approximately 81%) to stop working for at least one day. Even more than that, the same research shows that businesses that ran without a data center for at least 10 days had to file for bankruptcy within the following year.

Under these circumstances, you should really make sure to choose the right backup and recovery software or service. Paying for such a software application/service will provide you with a fast, secure and inexpensive backup option.

Example: Bvckup 2 (software), SugarSync (service)

A Recently Developed Operating System

If you are not running a company that is based in the IT industry, you might find it almost “useless” to invest in a recently developed operating system. However, that is completely untrue. In fact, you should get an operating system that has been released in the past few years (at least). And the main reason you should do this is related to security.

For instance, Windows XP was developed more than one decade ago and the support for it has already been discontinued. This puts your business’ computers at great risk especially since studies show that XP is 469% more likely to be infected by viruses and computer security-related risks.

Example: Windows 8, OS X Yosemite

Remote Access Software

If you have employees who work remotely or if you provide services your clients may need technical support for, you should make sure you invest in a quality remote access software application. And there are a lot of reasons why quality is emphasized here.

For starters, a good software application will have multiple features that allow you to do almost anything you want remotely. Moreover, a quality software application for remote control, management and access will also be a lot safer than a poor quality software.

Example: Proxy Networks

Accounting Software

There is quite a huge debate over whether or not businesses are better off hiring an accountant or purchasing a software application to help them manage their finances. Truth be told, there is no such thing as a “clear” answer for this. It all depends.

Some businesses will find it more helpful to hire an actual accountant – mostly because only a professional can provide them with genuine advice and consultancy. At the same time though, paying for an accountant can be quite expensive.

An accounting software can do almost all the things an expert accountant can do. It will lack the human touch and it might not be able to consult you on certain matters, but when it comes to keeping numbers “in line”, it will be more than perfect. And it will be less expensive too.

When choosing your accounting software, remind yourself to put in balance the different features it might offer and the particular type of business it is targeted at. For example, there are accounting software applications designed to serve small businesses and applications designed to serve larger businesses. Moreover, there are software applications and web-hosted services too. Analyze what all of them offer and pick the one that suits you the most.

Example: Sage 50 (for small businesses), NetSuite (for larger businesses), QuickBooks Online (web-hosted)

Customer Relationship Management Software

It doesn’t matter if you run a business with one employee or with 1000: proper customer relationship management is crucial. After all, your customers are the “fuel” behind your business. Ultimately, their satisfaction is your business’ success.

A good customer relationship management software can help you manage both the current customers and the future ones as well. Since there is quite a large range of options available on the market, you should make sure to pick one that suits your business’ needs.

Some of the most important characteristics to consider before making the final purchase are the price, the scalability of the product and the vendor’s reputation. Sit down, think of what you would like your CRM software to do and only settle on a solution once you are as sure as possible your option can deliver what you really need.

Example: Salesforce

Office Suite

It is quite impossible to run a business without a proper office suite. However, what you may not be fully aware of is that there is a very wide array of options from which you can choose. Microsoft Office is, of course, one of the most popular ones – but there are plenty others that can satisfy your business’ needs too.

When analyzing the different suites, think of what your company needs when it comes to office tools, think of how much you are willing to pay for it and think of whether or not it is cross-platform and suitable for your particular operating system.

Example: Kingsoft Office (both free and paid), Libre Office (free)

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