Small businesses have a special need to be competitive with a generally tight profit margin. Small business software packages are specifically designed to automatically help small business improve their profits. These software solutions can help them be more efficient especially when a few individuals fill multiple roles.
Software for small businesses can be very expensive if it is custom developed which generally means small business purchase standard packages such as the Microsoft family of products and specialized add-ons that meet their specific business needs. There are also vertical business solutions designed for a specific type of business.
Small business management packages generally include components necessary to manage a business.
They should be tightly integrated and include modules for:
- HR
- Business Solutions
- Sales/Retail
- Accounting
- Document Management
- Office Management
Major providers of general business software include:
- Microsoft
- Quicken
Providers of small business management software include:
- Net Suite
- Metasystems
- Logix
- Everest
- Many by vertical market
Some issues to consider when selecting the appropriate solutions for your business include:
- Size of Business: Small businesses can not afford large integration costs if they purchase individual modules from different providers
- Integration: Most businesses already have some level of automation. How will the new solution integrate with or be moved to by your old software? Is data from the new solution readily available to extract and use it in your own spreadsheets, databases, etc?
- Custom vs. Package: Package software is easy to implement and typically cheaper, Custom software is more flexible and typically more expensive
- Single solution vs. mixed applications: Similar to the choice based on business size. Multiple providers will more closely match business operational practices, Single source solutions means easily integrating information from multiple departments
- System resources: Not usually an issue, but sometimes small business environments are on over-taxed hardware already.
- Ease of use – the smaller the business, the less affordable time to learn a new system