Article by – bdc.ca
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Business Development Bank of Canada
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Investing in today’s business technology can help you solve common challenges and change the way you run your business.
Here are 6 opportunities to improve your business using affordable software products.
- Grow and maintain profitable customer relationships
Are you struggling to keep track of information such as customer contacts, follow-ups, correspondence, and sales and marketing activities? Customer relationship management (CRM) software can help you capture and organize information about your customers and make it accessible across your company. In addition, CRM software can allow you to improve customer service, track and predict buying patterns, automate marketing activities, better understand your clients and provide an improved customer experience.
- Automate invoicing for better cash flow
Falling behind on invoicing can have a disastrous effect on your cash flow. So automating your billing is one of the wisest decisions you can make. Depending on your budget, there’s a wide range of accounting and billing options available to small businesses. Many businesses can speed up their billing even more by using mobile devices and point-of-sale (POS) products to issue invoices and collect payments from customers right on the spot.
- Reduce inventory carrying costs
Why let the cost of carrying inventory erode your cash flow? For many businesses, the answer is inventory management software. You can track inventory location and movement, automatically generate purchase orders when needed and maintain optimal stock levels by purchasing inventory closer to the time it’s needed.
- Boost sales without adding staff
Hiring more sales staff is a costly way to boost sales. Using sales automation software is an effective way to get the most out of your existing sales force. It provides your sales team with tools and data to track leads, respond to customer inquiries, monitor sales performance and collaborate easily.
- Get your projects running on time and on budget
If overtime and unforeseen costs are leaving you wondering whether your projects are profitable, it’s time to consider project management software. By helping you easily tracking track schedules, budgets, expenses and time reports, you can take control of your current projects and obtain the information you need before bidding on that next big project.
- Start selling online with ease
Are you nervous about selling online? Online e-commerce software can provide you with everything you need to set up and run a successful online store at an affordable price. Common features include online storefronts, product catalogues, shopping carts, payment gateways and live inventory tracking.
Making the right choice
Before investing in technology, it’s important to clarify your business objectives and define your technology requirements, in order to ensure the best return on your technology investment.
