technology Archives - Page 4 of 11

5 Important Management Software Features You Need To Start an Online Business

Posted on December 20, 2022December 20, 2022 by Irene Luong

Setting up an online business doesn’t have many barriers, but maintaining the business requires substantial effort, especially if you want to scale up. To deal with the complexities of business management, you can embrace technology that streamlines workflows and improve your operational efficiency. Investing in good software will help you save time on repetitive tasks and push your business to go faster. Let’s explore the benefits and the 5 most important management software features that help online business owners achieve their goals.

Why Do You Need A Management Software?

Business management software can support you in various aspects of both internal and customer-facing work. It can be a system for retail store management, inventory management, content and social media management, employee scheduling, analytics, and accounting.

Controlling the full spectrum of the business on 1 platform provides you with data centralization and consistency. Here’re the benefits of management system:

Ensure alignment for different teams: Since all data and documents are synced in 1 place, your employees can get access to the latest data and avoid discrepancies.
Standardized processes: Software is the digital solution to control business. It simplifies processes, makes sure people know their jobs and can access the resources they need.
Automate tasks to save time and money: Automation is the best way to scale up with minimized human resources. It eliminates human errors and saves time on manual tasks, thus freeing up your employees for more important tasks that improve the products and customer experience.

5 Features To Expect In A Business Management Software

As an online business owner, you need to control your remote teams and offer outstanding services to customers. To do that, here are the 5 management system features you need:

1. A simple and secure payment process

When customers place an online order, simplicity and security are their foremost requirements. To attract more online shoppers, you must provide a seamless payment process for your site. People want a safe and simple way to make purchases. Here’re some ideas you can implement:

Accepting multiple payment methods to give convenience for customers, such as debit card, credit card, mobile payment, buy-now-pay-later, etc.
Attach a checkout button that is easily accessible to take customers straight to their cart with order details, delivery information, and point of sale.
Show the real-time availability of each product during customer browsing.
Display a confirmation page when customers have placed the order successfully.

You can easily set up and manage these options with a point-of-sale feature inside the management software. It helps you process payments smoothly and control other actions, such as order returns or exchanges.

2. Customer relationship management (CRM)

Managing customer data is essential to understand their behaviors and preferences, improve your products and services, and retain existing customers. To record and analyze customer data, you need a CRM feature in your management software package. An effective CRM allows you to find insights about customers, such as your main targets, their pain points, what they like and dislike, etc. From there, you can design suitable products and marketing programs that boost sales and foster customer trust and loyalty.

CRM helps you stay connected with customers via many functions like audience segmentation, scheduled messaging, and customer service channels (ticketing systems or live chats). In this way, you can maintain your customer contacts, plan regular messaging to customers, and keep them engaged.

3. Project Management

For startups and small businesses, the project management feature is essential to organize and control a multitasking team. This system allows you to set up detailed objectives, assign tasks suitable for each employee’s workload, and track their progress in real time. It makes the workflows more dynamic, creates an agile working approach, and prevents bottlenecks in teamwork. This is especially useful if you have multiple projects at the same time, or if you have different teams overlap in their tasks.

For instance, the marketing has to secure qualified leads for the sales team to proceed with their work. A project management system can offer tools to assign, re-assign, add resources, and close projects without confusion.

4. Inventory Management

If you’re an online merchant, inventory management is your business backbone. With the right software to control stock, you can solve many problems and open up sales opportunities as well. Here are some aspects that a good system is capable of:

SKUs management: You should be able to add, edit, and sync product information with sales and vendor data. Although being a startup, think about if the system can scale with you if you expand. Ideally, it should allow you to easily add unlimited SKUs and control them.
Real-time stock tracking: The system can give you visibility on your inventory level and any stock allocations or movements. It means sales orders are synced with stock data, and goods purchased from suppliers are added once they’re scanned in the warehouse. Any stock returns and exchanges must reflect in the inventory position as well.
Low stock alerts and reorder points: The system should let you set automatic alerts when your stock reaches a specific level, and assist you to quickly generate a PO for that alert.
Procurement and supplier management: Controlling your purchasing is an important aspect of stock management. This feature digitizes various procurement activities, such as:
- Create and autofill your purchase orders, and add any quantity discounts
- Centralize all supplier details and track their performance based on product quality, price, delivery speed, and customer support.
- View your purchase history with each vendor

5. Performance Metric Monitor

When you open your online store, tracking key performance metrics from the start is critical. The management software should make it easy for you to measure your results, such as site traffic, conversion rate, average order value, inventory turnover rate, and many more.

These metrics help you understand how you are performing and give you insights into different aspects that need improvement. Therefore, you should look for software that has a built-in analytics dashboard that allows you to create customized reports to investigate deeper. Filter by criteria to help you identify the data you need and address any trends or issues. Analyzing data is the key to understanding your business and customers to make the right decisions for your startup growth.

In Conclusion

Business management software is essential for online businesses to organize teams, save time, reduce costs, and boost morale. Adopting the modern technology solution can help you operate your store smoothly, and quickly determine any threats or opportunities for improvement across all aspects: customer experience, inventory management, employee retention, and vendor relationships.

Why Planning and Forecasting Are More Important During Supply Chain Disruptions

Posted on December 19, 2022December 19, 2022 by David L. Buss

Though the COVID-19 pandemic has come and gone, it’s left widespread and ongoing disruptions to the supply chain. All industries have been affected, forcing businesses to either adapt or shut down.

Compounded by pre-pandemic challenges, global supply chains have taken a heavy hit – especially with ocean shipping. The container shipping industry has been up against significant challenges to begin with, such as low rates and overcapacity, which have only been exacerbated by the pandemic.

For businesses to overcome these obstacles, it’s more important than ever to have a defined planning and forecasting strategy in place.

The State of Global Container Shipping

There’s a lot of complexity in the modern economic landscape, especially with the container shipping industry. Shortages, delays, and backlogs have had a devastating impact that’s rippled through the industry, leading to low warehouse storage capacity, limited labor pools, and other disruptions in logistics.

In some ways, the industry has been rebounding since the conditions at the start of the pandemic, but there’s a long way to go. The current obstacles include:

Rising container costs
Volatile freight rates
Decreases in global trade
Extended lead times and unexpected delays

As a result, container shipping has become more and more unreliable. Businesses are forced to deal with long transit times, canceled shipments, and other disruptions, causing increased costs and decreased profits.

Some businesses are weathering the storm, but there’s no clear end in sight for all the backup that occurred at the height of the pandemic in 2020. The current conditions are expected to continue for at least a few years, and affected industries are looking for opportunities to adapt and overcome.

Planning and Forecasting Solutions

If the current conditions continue, businesses that rely on ocean shipping – and shipping in general – have to adapt accordingly. One of the best ways to stay agile in the face of a volatile industry is with a strategy for planning and forecasting.

Forecasting provides an opportunity to anticipate future trends and challenges to make adjustments to operations. With the future of global shipping unpredictable, this is key to staying ahead of the curve.

Here are some of the benefits of forecasting:

More Lead Time With Less Concern

Crises and devastating changes can happen in a flash. Every business needs to be adaptable, but with the many moving parts of the supply chain, even a small disruption can be catastrophic in its ripple effect.

Forecasting future trends gives businesses plenty of lead time to react and make changes as conditions change. The extra time involved can mean the difference between a business running smoothly and a business that has to stall operations – maybe indefinitely. Forecasting also maximizes internal resources without a lot of excess spend and waste.

As expected, a proactive approach is ideal to prevent problems or mitigate their impact. In addition, knowing what’s on the horizon can reduce stress for a team trying to scramble to handle challenges.

Better Customer Satisfaction

Customer trends play a big role in the supply chain with demand. When you anticipate what customer trends are upcoming, you can adjust accordingly. For example, if you expect a high demand for a product, you can overstock it to prepare for high-volume orders. Taking this approach reduces revenue losses by avoiding stockouts and delays while building stronger relationships with business partners.

At the end of the day, customers are the lifeblood of your business and they have to be satisfied. Investing in forecasting reduces the risks of delays and errors that ruin the customer experience and diminish customer satisfaction – and by extension, harm your business.

Improved Cost Efficiency

Balancing inventory with demand and resources can always be a challenge. Forecasting ensures you have the optimal inventory to maximize your resources, streamline your ordering process, consolidate shipments, and optimize your shipping routes. You have a more efficient shipping process with cost-saving measures that can make a huge difference in your bottom-line performance.

How to Improve Your Forecasting for Ocean Shipping

Stocking products from global suppliers increases uncertainty when the disruptions not only affect getting your goods to the customer but getting the goods from the supplier to your warehouse. Demand planning helps you navigate these lead times and reduce the risk of disruptions to your business.

Build In More Lead Time

When your product procurement is from global suppliers, you must understand all the risks and challenges that could have a widespread impact on your supply chain, potential delays, and customer satisfaction. Consider all aspects of the process, including supplier reliability, natural disasters, and geopolitical risks.

Once you have a clear understanding of the risks involved, you can plan for the best-case and worst-case scenarios. What’s the maximum amount of time you’ll need for product procurement and is it feasible? If not, you may need to plan extra lead time to ensure your deliveries go out on time.

No matter the state of the supply chain, it’s always smart to have a generous margin for your typical lead time – especially if there are significant materials or supply shortages that apply to your industry.

Be Aware of Peak Periods

Global shipping demands tend to rise at specific times of the year, such as major holidays like Christmas and Chinese New Year. Keep in mind that shipping can be disrupted according to the major holidays in other countries as well, such as the long holiday period that takes place in December and January for South American countries.

If you’re planning on shipping goods during these periods, you have to be aware of the risks and plan for them. You may need to place orders earlier or work with a freight forwarder that has demonstrated strong performance during peak shipping periods.

Leverage Data and Technology

There are numerous data and technology tools that can enhance forecasting, such as intelligence platforms and intermodal solutions with real-time shipment tracking.

Using these solutions can help you visualize the conditions of the global shipping market to see the “big picture” and make more informed decisions about the supply chain. Many of these tools have additional features that help you automate the forecasting process to maximize time and resources.

Keep an eye on major disruptions in the market as well. An array of issues can impact the supply chain, including a natural disaster that affects major shipping routines or a labor strike that causes a shortage of workers. When you’re aware of these disruptions, you can build a plan into your forecasting to minimize the impact.

Leverage Forecasting and Planning to Stay Agile

Planning and forecasting are essential for businesses that rely on global shipping solutions to deliver goods to customers. Having a strategy in place to address shortages, peak shipping periods, and other unexpected challenges can keep your supply chain running more smoothly.

Striven Named #2 Small Business Manufacturing Software of 2022 – SoftwareAdvice

Posted on December 6, 2022December 13, 2022 by Scott Hammer

Lumberton, NJ (December 6th, 2022)- SoftwareAdvice, a leading provider of business software reviews, has named Striven as the 2nd best small business manufacturing software of 2022.

Striven’s placement above the majority of manufacturing software options showcases the increased emphasis that manufacturers place on incorporating business management technology into their daily operations. For small manufacturers, the need for modern, powerful technological solutions is especially relevant.

While many manufacturers have traditionally relied on outdated, disconnected, and occasionally analog software systems, the need for updated technology in the manufacturing sector has become increasingly prevalent. And for small businesses that have previously had to work with bloated, expensive ERP systems, Striven provides an easy-to-use, affordable alternative that includes everything small manufacturers need to grow and thrive.

An all in one business management software like Striven allows businesses to connect their financial data directly into other silos of their company including project management, CRM, inventory management, and more.

Striven ranks #2 in the ‘Small Business Manufacturing Software’ category ahead of other notable software solutions including Acumatica, MRPEasy, Katana, Netsuite, and Fishbowl.

Orion H, a small business decision maker who uses Striven to manage his company’s daily operations, added this about his experience with the system:

“This software has everything a business would need all in one place. Too many times do companies find themselves needing a handful of different software programs to organize their different departments.

Striven takes all those major departments and stores it in one place, which makes it significantly easier to track, organize, and provide the information needed.”

To learn more about Striven and read about customer experiences using the platform, visit the company’s ratings and review page.

About Striven
Striven is an ERP software for small and growing businesses that want to expand, simplify, and reduce costs. Striven combines all of the features for accounting, projects, sales, inventory, management, reporting, and more into a single streamlined system.

Striven Earns Top 10 Spot in 4 Small Business Accounting Software Categories for 2022 – SoftwareAdvice

Posted on December 1, 2022December 13, 2022 by Scott Hammer

Lumberton, NJ (December 1st, 2022)- SoftwareAdvice, a leading provider of business software reviews, has ranked Striven as a Front Runner after earning 4 distinct top 10 placements in various accounting categories for 2022.

According to customer-sourced data at SoftwareAdvice, Striven was ranked:

#4 in Mobile Accounting Apps

#5 in Online Accounting

#8 in Small Business Invoicing

#9 in Small Business Accounting

Striven’s placement among other business management and accounting software options continues to highlight an important trend permeating the world of growing businesses—the need to move to an ERP system with more robust financial management.

It’s all too common that growing businesses ‘outgrow’ their traditional accounting software. They’ve found their needs are not always met when working with software systems that separate their accounting from the rest of their core business processes. Instead, more and more small and growing businesses are turning to solutions that go beyond accounting to incorporate more than just financial data.

Striven ranks #8 in the ‘Small Business Accounting Software’ category ahead of other notable software solutions including, SAP Business One, Zoho Books, and QuickBooks Desk Premier.

Ryan, a small business CEO who uses Striven to manage his company’s daily operations, added this about his experience with the system:

“It has an incredible amount of features for the money and there is no license level, meaning one user license gives you access to everything.

Many other products require you to buy additional items to get more features. Having the project management and time tracking systems live in the same place as a full accounting product is a *huge* help.”

To learn more about Striven and read about customer experiences using the platform, visit the company’s ratings and review page.

What is Data Scrubbing and Why Small Businesses Need It

Posted on November 28, 2022November 28, 2022 by Emily Rollwitz

As a small business owner, you no doubt have a lot on your plate. You’re responsible for keeping your customers happy, creating a top-notch product, ensuring your employees are productive, developing marketing campaigns – the list goes on! With all of these balls in the air, it’s easy to let some things slip through the cracks – like data scrubbing.

In layman’s terms, data scrubbing is the process of cleaning up your data. If this is something that you’re not already doing, don’t fret. We’re here to tell you why data scrubbing is essential for small businesses and how you can get started.

What Is Data Scrubbing?

Essentially, data scrubbing is a process that involves identifying and correcting inaccuracies in data. This can include anything from misspellings to outdated information.

For example, suppose you’re a small company selling business continuity planning software. You have a list of potential customers you’ve been working with for months. However, when you go to contact them, you realize that many of the phone numbers and email addresses are no longer valid.

This is where data scrubbing comes in. By scrubbing your data, you can ensure that the information you have is accurate and up-to-date.

Issues That Can be Fixed With Data Scrubbing

Now that you have a better understanding of data scrubbing, let’s take a look at some common issues that can be fixed with data scrubbing.

Outdated Information

Over time, things change – people move, change jobs, and so on. As a result, it’s important to regularly scrub your data to ensure that the information you have is still accurate.

Suppose your company offers automated localization testing software and is targeting potential customers in Europe. But, similar to the above example, you realize that their contact data is out of date.

Data scrubbing ensures that you’re not wasting time trying to reach people who are no longer at the same company or even in the same country. And in business, time is money.

Misspellings and Typos

We’re all human, and as such, we’re prone to making mistakes. However, when it comes to data, even a small mistake can have big consequences. This is why data scrubbing is so important. Here, data scrubbing helps to ensure that all of the information is accurate.

Incorrect Data

In addition to misspellings and typos, sometimes data can just be wrong. This can happen for various reasons, but data scrubbing can be the solution. By scrubbing your data, you can ensure that the data you store is correct.

Duplicate Data

It’s easy for businesses to accidentally create duplicate data sets for the same customer. But this can be confusing for your teams when trying to contact customers. Data scrubbing can help ensure that you have a single entry for each customer.

Why Is Data Scrubbing Important For Small Businesses?

Data scrubbing is important for small businesses because it helps to improve data quality. Inaccurate data can lead to a number of problems, such as:

Wasted marketing efforts: If you’re using outdated data, you could be wasting your time and money on marketing efforts that will never reach their intended target.

Frustration for customers: If you’re trying to contact a customer and your emails continue to bounce back because of an invalid email address, your customer is likely to get frustrated. The same goes for trying to contact a customer by phone only to find out the number is no longer in service. Data scrubbing can help you avoid these frustrating customer experiences.

Missed opportunities: If you’re not keeping your data clean, you could be missing out on opportunities to reach new customers or nurture relationships with existing ones.

Small Business Data Scrubbing Tips

Incorporate Data Management Software

There are a number of data cleansing and data management software options on the market that can help you clean and manage your data quickly and easily. This can be a great option if you don’t have the time or resources to do data cleansing yourself.

Utilize Data Enrichment Tools

In addition to data cleansing software, there are also data enrichment tools that can help you improve the quality of your data. These data enrichment tools can help you add missing data such as social media profiles or contact information.

Regularly Audit Data

It’s important to regularly audit your data to ensure that it is accurate and up-to-date. You should also update your data regularly, such as when you obtain new customer information or make changes to your product offerings.

For example, let’s say you own a cloud applications architecture company and you introduce a new product to your lineup. You’ll want to audit and inspect your customer data platforms to make sure the data is still accurate before you start marketing the new product.

Report and Fix Errors

If you find errors in your data, be sure to report and fix them as soon as possible. Ignoring data errors can lead to bigger problems down the road.

Have A Plan

Data scrubbing can be a big project, so it’s important to have a plan in place before you start. This plan should include what data you need to scrub, how you’re going to do it, and who will be responsible for each task. Having a plan will help you stay organized and on track throughout the data scrubbing process.

Ensure Your Data Is Clean and Accurate

It’s no secret that data is becoming increasingly important in today’s business world. In fact, it’s often said that data is the new currency.

As such, it’s more important than ever for small businesses to make sure their data is accurate and up-to-date. After all, data is useless if it’s not correct. That’s why data scrubbing is a great way to ensure that your data is clean so you can contact your customers as and when needed.

In addition, small business management software can make the data scrubbing process more efficient. These software programs can help small businesses by automating many of the tasks associated with data scrubbing, such as identifying errors in data sets, correcting errors in data sets and updating outdated information.

Small Business Software: Is An ERP Software The Right Fit For Your Business?

Posted on October 26, 2022October 28, 2022 by Matt Bernot

Does your growing business need business management software? What makes a good ERP software for small and medium sized businesses? What are the benefits of an ERP software for your small business? These are the questions that need to be answered in order to help you make the best decision for your small business.

It’s understandable to question the necessity of an ERP for your small business. Many business owners are still stuck on the fact that ERP systems used to only be feasible and practical for Fortune 500 sized companies. However, this is no longer the case. But before making any big decisions, it’s important to consider the following: How much can a business management software benefit your small business?

How To Make The Smart Choice

There are many areas of ERP software that your small business will find useful. Whether it’s in the form of customer portals, accounting, ease of implementation, or sales, the outcome of your success with small business ERP software will vary depending on how well you choose the right ERP software and how well it is implemented into your business.

Thanks to the increasing popularity and demand for business management software, there are many more options for small business software than most people initially realize. In recent years, there has been significant growth in ERP software to fit the needs and sizes of any business, which is why an ERP software might just be the best solution for your small business as opposed to piecing together many different software solutions for different features.

However, it’s not just just about the quantity of services provided by a small business software but rather, whether it fits your business needs and/or is moldable enough to fit those needs.

Costs and Considerations

Every business is unique, so the cost of a small business software matters in terms of what features a business can afford to pay for. However, among the best small business ERP options, accounting, centralized document management, customer/vendor management portals, mobile compatibility, CRM and sales, and inventory management are some of the things to look for in how an ERP software can fit with your business needs and with the best small business ERPs, can be included with one, low monthly cost.

The Benefits of Small Business Software

A Single, Streamlined System

The best thing about small business software is that it’s a single streamlined system. This is useful for a variety of reasons: better organization, faster updates and access to information, saving time and money, better data security, and better communication. It erases the needs for too much manual work that can divert your focus when you should be focusing on important factors that grow your business.

Flexibility Of Use

The great thing about a small business software is that it provides flexible solutions to issues such as needing information outside of the office, accessing information on a multitude of technological devices, erasing the need for messy papers that can easily get lost beneath the rising piles. Additionally, it is easier to share information through a system where everyone has permissioned access.. No matter what products or services your business provides, there is no doubt that all businesses benefit from using a cloud-based business management system.

Better Customer Service

It’s not an exaggeration to say that good customer service might be the only thing that a lot of customers look for when deciding between one business or another. With the best business management software, the ease of access to customer information, including purchases, questions, requests, etc, are all easy to access with a centralized database. According to The Harvard Business Review, “…customers who had the best past experiences spend 140% more compared to those who had the poorest past experience.” Once again, customer service is often the distinguishing feature from one business to another.

Ensure A Smooth Transition With Your Small Business Software

In order for your employees to use the new small business software properly, sufficient training must be provided. This way, you and your employees are using the full benefits that come with ERP software. Being aware of your team and providing them resources to train through the new changes will build teamwork, confidence, and allow for full and better uses of the resources provided by a small business software.

The Takeaway

While it takes careful planning and consideration to jump into purchasing and implementing a small business software, being aware of the diverse and various ERP software systems to choose from can ease those worries. Keep in mind, choosing the right software to fit the needs and budget of your business and being aware of the costs to maintain success in the long-term is key.