5 Signs That Your Business Might Need Custom Software

by

06 December 2018

Business

Custom Software

Investing in custom software might help you solve a complex business problem, boost your productivity and stay at the top of your niche if you’re a small- to a medium-sized business owner. When assessing your software needs, making the right choice is crucial. Therefore, how do business owners know if it’s time to go for custom software? Here are five signs that show it’s time to partner with a software development firm.

1. You feel technology is leaving you behind:

If you are running a business that offers much value to your customers but it seems like other companies are ahead of you, then this is a sign that it’s time to invest in software development tools. This means your old software are not meeting your expectations and needs anymore.

When you invest in new software, your business has the potential to benefit from functionalities that your old software is not offering, enable you to increase your market share and boost your sales.

2. Your whole business is running on Spreadsheets:

Your company uses Excel to ensure the smooth running of your business when you first startup. However, as your business grow and expand, you’ll find that you’re wasting more time managing those spreadsheets rather than developing new products that add value to your company. When this happens, it’s time to migrate to customized software.

All your company operations could be automated into custom software that does all the work for you with minimal manual labor. Custom software will reduce the time you spent on data entry, and focus on results so you could use your time planning and act on operations.

3. Your present software poses many problems:

Your business has been using a piece of software that offers much value to your customers, and it takes care of the tasks you require, but recently, you noticed it slow, freezes up, and it’s been known to lose some of your most crucial data permanently. Besides, your workers hate using the software because it stuck in operations or it frequently sends back errors.

It’s a sign your business needs custom software that it is reliable and user-friendly. You can either hire a professional developer to create a custom solution, which is perfectly tailored to your business or invest in new software development tools, which will offer only solutions.

4. You spend more time on a task:

If you have a given task that you find yourself dedicating many hours because you can’t work out how to do, then, it’s time to scale your software support and save your precious time by ‘hiring’ a software specialist. Excellent software development companies should help you find workable solutions to impossible manual tasks, and get your time back.

They can configure your software to let you add more functions at each stage of your business growth as well as add different functionalities or expanding to different user groups incrementally over time.

5. You’re finding it challenging to satisfy your customers:

Having a low customer satisfaction can hinder your efforts of staying on top of the competition. Communication issues like disorganization, low efficiency, and workflow breakdowns are all signs it may be time to get in touch with a software development company.  It would help if you considered how custom software could help make your business more valuable and improve the customer’s experience as strive to improve customer satisfaction.

Custom software can get the entire company back on track, help you improve communication, eliminate human error, and speed up service times. Whatever your business needs may be, custom software development is a tailored solution created to promote your bottom line.

In Summary:

It’s time to think about using a custom software solution that allows you to run a better business if you find business reflecting on some of the named signs. Custom software developed from a reputable company like Skywell software development services is all your business.

When you have custom software, you will start realizing that you’re saving time and money as well as improving your employee and customer satisfaction in the long term. Everyone is using custom software to boost their overall business efficiency, and companies who refuse to use might be risking his or her business.

Read Also:

Content Rally wrapped around an online publication where you can publish your own intellectuals. It is a publishing platform designed to make great stories by content creators. This is your era, your place to be online. So come forward share your views, thoughts and ideas via Content Rally.

View all posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related

Hiring Strategies

Only the Best for Your Business: Check These Hiring Strategies

As a small business owner, you are probably familiar with the constant challenge of finding the best people to work for you. There is no single best approach to getting the right people to join your company. But one thing’s for sure, hiring involves a lot of money, time, and energy, so it should be done right every time. Check out these fresh and innovative ways to get top talents to fill roles in your company. Find Who Fits In What is your company’s character, the values it stands for, the attitudes of people in it, and so on? Have a clear definition of your company culture to help you look for people who share the same values or beliefs or will be able to adapt to your unique environment. Also, come up with culture-fit questions that elicit honest responses, and show applicants the physical working space or describe the virtual setup. Company culture can affect an employee’s performance and desire to stay in the organization. Some new hires quit on the first day because of “how things are being done.” To avoid this situation, have a potential new hire mingle with the team and see how well they fit in. But as a long-term solution, ensure that office dynamics remain healthy and productive for everyone. Enlist Employees’ Help This help can come in many forms. The most practical one is to ask for the opinion of those who will be working closely with the new manager, for example. You can share the candidate’s resume with them and crowdsource interview questions, like leadership style and experiences relevant to the open position. Make sure that you don’t breach the candidate’s privacy, though. Limit the number of employees with whom you share a candidate’s personal information as much as possible. You can also have everyone meet over lunch or for a quick chat to get a feel of how they will get along. Another way of involving employees in the hiring process is through a referral program. It’s a win-win situation: The employee gets rewarded for the referral, and the company gains a quality employee in a more cost-effective manner. The ultimate success of the program lies in its design and implementation. Ask Questions That Matter Not all interview questions produce the same results—that is, answers that will help you make sound hiring decisions. Ask questions such as “Why should we hire you?” “What are your biggest strengths and weaknesses?” and “Where do you see yourself in x years?” in addition to unexpected questions that no one has seen on Google yet. Consider these points when formulating interview questions to ask candidates: Tailor questions the specifics of the job, particularly the skills and traits necessary to perform the job successfully. Does the job involve handling people? Ask about that time when the applicant was involved in a conflict and able to resolve it. Ask off-resume or LinkedIn items to reveal a hidden strength that may be useful at work. Conduct Background Checks Employers perform background checks as part of hiring and recruitment. Some checks serve to confirm the accuracy of the documents presented, such as academic credentials and references. Others are used to look into criminal records as deemed reasonable and subject to laws and regulations. In Canada, for example, businesses can run a quick criminal record check on an applicant that has given their written consent. Companies like Instant Record Check can help with RCMP criminal record checks. Take Time to Decide Consider this as the fifth tip. The competitive job market has applicants doing everything to land a job. As for you, you to use a multifaceted approach, based on what the candidate has offered and presented, to decide to choose the most suitable per son for the job. It may take a while for you to give an employment offer. This is also in consideration of the needs of the business, which may have changed since posting the job ad. As it is, quality is always best in hiring. Read Also: What to Know About Location-Based Data Things to look out for while hiring health app developers Tips When Hiring a Concrete Driveway Contractor in California

READ MOREDetails
operating cost

How To Reduce The Operating Cost of Your Business?

You might come across account words you're unfamiliar with when looking at papers like the balance sheet and income statement. Understanding these operating cost concepts, on the other hand, is critical. This can help you better comprehend your financial accounts and improve the financial health of your company. Are you interested in learning more about operating costs and how they affect your company? We'll give you a detailed breakdown of running costs. Then, following a definition and explanation of the phrase, we'll go over some of the things you can do to lower your operational costs. If you are just starting your business, then you might even need to consider a startup mentor. What Are The Operating Costs? The costs of running your firm on a day-to-day basis are referred to as operating costs. Therefore, the operating expenses, operating expenditures, and all terms of OPLEX are used to describe the operating costs. The cost of products sold is one of the most important components of operational costs (COGS). The direct costs of manufacturing your company's goods or services are referred to as COGS. Operating expenses include the following items: ●        Payroll and other labor costs related to operating costs ●        Employee benefits like employee health insurance, pensions, and other facilities ●        Commissions on sales ●        Depreciation ●        Amortization ●        Costs of upkeep It's critical to understand how to calculate operating costs because it allows you to boost your bottom line. If you run a for-profit company, lowering operating costs will directly affect your profitability. 6 Things You May Do To Reduce Your Operating Costs You will be able to stay ahead of the competition by minimizing your operating costs. Therefore, small business owners should always look for ways to reduce costs without sacrificing product quality or making life more difficult for their employees. So, what are the most effective methods for lowering operating costs? Here are eight suggestions for lowering your business's running costs, allowing you to reduce overhead and increase income. 1. Adopt A New Technological Mindset There is a plethora of internet tools and software packages available to help small businesses automate and optimize their operations. Accounting, website hosting, marketing communications, pay stubs, and other areas of business can all be covered by these platforms. Technology is beneficial not only because it increases productivity but it also leads to a reduction in OPEX in sectors like direct labor. Robots and artificial intelligence can work faster and with fewer errors than humans. The technology could also help to improve supply chain procedures, such as lowering the cost of delivering raw materials. Ask yourself the following questions to help you find the proper program for operating cost or service for you: ● What am I exceptionally skilled at? (For example, if you have a background in accounting, you might want to try employing technology for marketing rather than finance.)            ● What do I find myself devoting an inordinate amount of time to each week? ● What would I do if I could eliminate one of my most time-consuming responsibilities? Hopefully, your responses to these questions will reveal the task or subject matter area in which you should employ technology. 2. Outsourcing Outsourcing the key business activities to a third-party specialist is an alternative option for increasing work efficiency. If you don't have a background in real estate or tax law, it may be difficult to identify strategies to lower your lease payments or property taxes. Someone with specific training in this area might be able to assist. Advertising and marketing appear to be one area where outsourcing appears to be particularly beneficial. This is a source of frustration for many entrepreneurs if they are not having a good grip over that. They discovered that the amount of time they spend on advertising and marketing is related to the amount of money they make. However, they may not have the time to devote to a marketing strategy. While it may appear that hiring an outside vendor would cost more money, assigning specific duties to subject matter experts will save you money and produce even better outcomes in the long run. Outsourcing specific functions is a sound long-term investment in the operating cost. 3. Shop Around For The Best Deals If you work with vendors regularly, you might wish to put up a project and work bidding system. If you ask three separate vendors for quotes, you can pit them against each other to drive down pricing for an operating cost. Make sure you create an appropriate scope of work or request a proposal (RFP) for suppliers to bid on since missing information or increased complexity can substantially impact the stated fee. In addition, you can better plan for anticipated operational expenses if you get an accurate quote. 4. Cancel Unused Services Examine your variable operating cost to find out which services you are no longer using. Look for a cheaper plan or cancel them completely if you haven't used them in a few months. If you're not using them, they're not helping you make more money. It's easy to lose track of unused services, especially if you have them set up on auto-pay with your credit card. If you do decide to keep service, do some comparison shopping to see if there are any cheaper options. 5. Go green If you have an office, think about making it as environmentally friendly as feasible. To save energy, replace incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, enhance your insulation and windows to save money on heating and cooling, and reduce the amount of bodily waste you make.  Not only will you save money on electricity, but you'll also save money on office supplies on a monthly basis for an operating cost. 6. Telecommute Leasing office space, paying utility bills, and keeping a physical workplace can all put a strain on your budget. Allowing your workers to telecommute can help you save money overall. In the United States, telecommuting is becoming increasingly popular. In 2005, 1.8 million employees in the United States reported they worked from home for half of the week. That number had risen to 3.9 million in 2015, and it has continued to rise up. With today's level of connectivity, the difference between a person working in an office and one working from home is almost indistinguishable. Employees will often benefit from this as well since they will be able to reduce their commute times and expenses. Take Charge Of Your Company's Money Are you the type of business owner that simply watches spending and income without delving into the details? If that is the case, it is time to make a change. Understanding things like running costs will become increasingly crucial as your company expands. Operating costs allow you to examine how your spending affects your profitability in greater detail. Once you understand your expenses, you can start decreasing costs and increasing earnings using the strategies we've offered. Read Also: 5 Financial Risks of Starting a Small Business and How to Avoid Them Why Virtual Offices Are The Future Of Business

READ MOREDetails
Warehouse Construction

Is Prefabricated Metal The Future Of Warehouse Construction?    

With technological advancements and building techniques revolutionizing the industry, warehouse construction has come a long way in recent years. One such innovation that has gained significant attention is prefabricated metal construction. Warehouse prefab appears to be the sensible method to build currently, with its multiple perks and advantages. This article will explore the principles and advantages of prefabricated and why it is becoming increasingly popular in the industry. The Evolving Landscape Of Warehouse Construction The warehouse construction industry is continuously evolving to meet the growing demands of businesses worldwide. Traditional construction methods have their limitations, including time-consuming processes and higher costs. As a result, alternative solutions like prefab construction have emerged to address these challenges and offer a more efficient and cost-effective approach. Understanding Prefabrication Prefabricated involves the fabrication of building components off-site, which are then transported to the construction site for assembly. These components, commonly made of steel or other metals, are manufactured in a controlled environment, allowing for greater precision and quality control. Benefits Of Prefabricated Metal Construction Prefabricated metal construction offers several advantages over traditional construction methods. Here are some key benefits: Speed And Efficiency Prefabricated metal components can be manufactured simultaneously with site preparation, reducing construction time significantly. The streamlined process enables faster project completion, allowing businesses to start operations sooner. Cost Savings Due to the controlled manufacturing environment and the ability to optimize material usage, prefab often leads to cost savings. The reduced labour and construction time can lower overall project expenses, making it an attractive option for businesses with budget constraints. Durability And Strength Metal structures are known for their durability and strength. Prefabricated metal components undergo rigorous quality checks and withstand harsh weather conditions, seismic activities, and heavy loads. This makes warehouse prefab an ideal choice for projects that require long-term reliability and structural integrity. Sustainability And Eco-Friendliness Prefabricated metal construction promotes sustainability by minimizing waste and optimizing energy efficiency. The controlled manufacturing process allows for precise material usage, reducing scrap and minimizing the environmental impact. Metal structures can also be recycled, further contributing to eco-friendliness. Overcoming Challenges With Prefabricated Metal Construction While prefabricated warehouse construction offers numerous benefits, some challenges must be addressed to ensure successful implementation. By understanding these challenges, stakeholders can make informed decisions and maximize the potential of prefabricated metal construction. Transportation And Logistics Transporting significant prefabricated metal components to the construction site requires careful planning and coordination. Specialized equipment and logistics support is necessary to ensure these components' safe and timely delivery. However, with proper planning and experienced contractors, transportation challenges can be effectively managed. Skilled Workforce The prefab construction process requires skilled labour familiar with the specific assembly and installation techniques. Training and education programs can bridge the skills gap and equip workers with the necessary expertise to handle prefabricated metal components. Investing in a skilled workforce is crucial for successfully adopting this construction method. Conclusion As the demand for efficient and cost-effective construction methods grows, prefabricated metal construction is emerging as a leading solution in the warehouse industry. With its inherent benefits of speed, cost savings, durability, and sustainability, prefabricated metal offers a promising future for warehouse construction. Stakeholders can unlock their full potential and reshape the industry by addressing the challenges associated with this construction method. Read Also: Project Management in a PRINCE2 setting How Can BYOD Improve Your Productivity? The New Global Project PRINCE2 Management Forum Commercial Construction After COVID-19: How Developers Can Adapt

READ MOREDetails