What is business software?
Business software simply means the software that is used for conducting business. The term is used more specifically for software that helps a business to accomplish detailed goals through the applied principles that the software supports. The term refers to a group of programs and functions that are designed and developed to do specific work that helps individuals, business owners, companies and teams to produce and sell goods and services through an automated way to carry out the operations.
Which business software is best?
Examples of applied principles for business software include decision support software (DSS), where technology aids in human decision making, and customer relationship management (CRM), where software helps a business to compile and maintain detailed profiles of customers or clients, along with other kinds of enhanced record-keeping. Programs such as DSS or CRM will apply common principles such as algorithmic data mining for sales, transaction automation, salesforce support or many other objectives. Other applicartions will focus on operations, supply chains, logistics or other practical forms of resource management. Each software is created for the specific needs and goals of the individual business.
The use of software or automation in business is not a digital trend, it’s mandatory.
Experts also define business software by what it excludes, for example, gaming applications and similar software would not be considered business software unless used in a customer service or demo environment. The definition has changed along with the propagation of useful software tools for business including DSS and CRM tools and so much more compared to the early days of business software, when applications were simply generic end-user programs labelled as “business use” programs, such as basic spreadsheets or other tools.
Why is software used in business?
Software is designed and processes are created or implemented to increase productivity, reduce operational cost, bring innovation and solve customer problems faster. Without the business applications, or before the use of computers in business, most of the business operations were manual. But manual business management and operation were not that much accurate, productive, fast, flexible, and cheaper as compared to the software. Also, the speed of production and innovation was slow when most of the business management and development were manual.
But today, you can use applications to operate and manage all types of business operations automatically, faster and cheaper. That’s why you can see that the speed of innovation and change is much quicker than 30 years ago. New products and services are launching every week and it’s all because of technology, the internet, and the use of code.
Business software helps to automate repetitive tasks in business with less or no use of human resources. The new resource or labour is software, the internet, and technologies. A single person can manage one and more operations through automation software. And it’s reducing the cost and increasing productivity.
Typically software used for business is created based on the use and goals of the business. To manage the bills, accounts, stock, sales and purchase, profit and loss statement, cost, tax, liabilities, and many others you can use business accounting software. To create and publish customer-focused videos for branding and marketing on social media you have to use video editing software to make it professional.
This type of software can be categorised as per the common business needs such as billing, accounts management, employee management, productivity management, research & development, customer support, business transactions, content creation, marketing, sells and communication software.
Examples
There are huge amounts of desktop, web, and mobile software applications to use in business which help to automate time-consuming and complex tasks.
Below, we break down the basic examples of business software along with their uses in business.
Word processor – document writing and editing application:
Word Processing, document writing, and editing software applications help to write better business reports, documents, letters, applications and agreements faster and more accurately with very little cost layout.
Business data management, visualisation and analysation software:
This business software makes it possible to perform calculations, store, analyse and access customers, employees, products, sales, and various other business departments and operational data and information with high speed, flexibility, and accuracy. Business Data can either be stored manually by a data entry operator or stored automatically to the cloud.
Accounting, payroll, reporting, vat, and bookkeeping software:
Accounting, Payroll, reporting, VAT and Bookkeeping Software is a very important part of the business and that’s why it’s important to use genuine, original authenticated accounting software. This branch of the business is data-oriented and also requires transparency and a high level of accuracy. Any misinformation or wrong entry in bookkeeping, tax calculation, income details, and credit or debits will impact the business negatively.
Branding, graphic design, and digital content creation software:
These types of software are used for logo design, images, videos, banners, advertisements and brochure creation, app icon design, photo-editing, illustrations, animation, website designs to create digital or print media content. The created content is used in marketing and advertising.
Business data storage or cloud storage applications:
In this technology era, business data is playing the most important role in business success and failure. There are various types of meaningful data in business such as:
- Customer product/services inquiry data
- Accounting data
- Employee’s performance data
- Website analytics and reporting data
- Business plans and meeting data
- Business documents/letters/agreements
- Training data
- Tools and software data
- Media coverage data
- Sales data
- Social media marketing data
Data is used to analyse, compare and make good business decisions at the optimal time and business operations create a sea of data. To store that data there are various options such as external storage devices, nowadays organisations cloud storage platforms are the best option. Business data stored in the clouds or remotely located servers will be accessible on devices at anytime, anywhere.
Business data security and antivirus software:
Business data security is very important. Wherever the business data is stored, you must make sure that data is safe and password protected. If data is stored on an office computer hard drive, then make sure it’s virus protected through antivirus software.
It’s vital to use data backup and cloud storage tools to protect the data from hackers and scammers. Handling small and big data is no easy task. Even more, it’s complicated and time-consuming to monitor and store.
But there are many antiviruses software, business data backup, and cloud backup software that most of the small and big companies use.
In conclusion business software is the backbone of today’s businesses and organisations.
The above business application examples help to understand what business software is and how it works. But still, there are many other business application programs such as sales tools, marketing automation and CRM Software, Enterprise Resource Management (ERP), business payment processing applications, digital marketing tools, communication tools, data analysis, reporting tools, and presentation software. From small businesses to large businesses almost all the business functions, production, operations, distribution are fully dependent on some form of software, web applications and mobile apps.
That’s why using software in business is important to aid planning and design, make decision making faster and implement the latest technologies, data analysis, customer support, and techniques in supply operations that will assist in accelerating the growth of the business.
