Software Essentials for Running a Small Business Staying current with technology boosts productivity and profitability.
By Michael Astrachan
Deploying the right software can be crucial to the productivity and profitability of your company. Following are some popular tools of the trade that you might consider when purchasing business software.
Productivity Tools Microsoft Office is arguably the cornerstone of productivity software for small business. The Microsoft Office Small Business Edition 2003 comes with Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Publisher.
Word and Excel, the workhorses of this software suite, allow you to implement core business tasks from collaborative word processing to financial summaries and projections.
PowerPoint, the industry standard for presentations, allows for simple or advanced presentations that can include video and animation. You can quickly construct a professional presentation with the easy-to-use templates, or customize your own style and format.
Outlook has become the defacto standard for e-mail management. The latest version allows you to manage e-mail messages, contacts, appointments and tasks.
And finally, Publisher offers a low-cost way to design effective corporate communications such as brochures, newsletters and benefits statements.
Financial Health There are a variety of bookkeeping options to meet your needs. QuickBooks, by Intuit, is one of the more versatile accounting packages for small business. Easily tailored for your business type, this package simplifies the bookkeeping process with a user-friendly interface and easy-to-understand features. Among these are time tracking, custom reporting, job costing and estimating, payroll and more.
Another popular package is Peachtree Premium Accounting, by Best Software SB Inc. Both QuickBooks and Peachtree have Web-based ASP versions for companies that are interested in centralizing their accounting using the Internet.
Intranets and Extranets Sharing your company information with both in-office and external work associates can be accomplished through Web-based tools such as intranets and extranets.
An intranet uses the same communications and computer technologies as the Internet, except within the privacy and security of your organization. This technology offers nearly effortless input and retrieval of corporate information such as marketing materials, corporate policy, benefits statements, healthcare information and employee directories. Extranets allow external associates and business partners to access company information using dial-up or secure, password-protected Internet connections.
Intranet and extranet applications are typically built and customized to meet an organization’s specific needs and specifications, thus making them a powerful productivity tool. Contact Management ACT and Goldmine are two popular contact management applications for managing day-to-day sales activity. Using a database as their foundation, these applications allow you to have a centralized place to manage your customer information.
Some of the features offered include daily scheduling; creating and sending personalized letters, faxes and e-mails; detailed tracking of sales activity; and the sharing of information in a workgroup environment. Both applications also easily sync with PDAs for mobile use. Bluetooth (Going Wireless) Technology such as Bluetooth (www.bluetooth.com) is revolutionizing business communications. It allows wireless interaction between devices such as computers, printers, PDAs and cell phones.
Bluetooth “enabled” devices can “talk” to each other via the Bluetooth standard specification. This allows for:
The exchange of files, business cards, calendar appointments and so forth between individuals or groups of Bluetooth users.
The ability to communicate wirelessly between electronic products and accessories; for example, printing wirelessly from a computer to a printer.
Transferring and synchronizing files between devices.
Bluetooth is still relatively new, but it’s worth keeping an eye on as it matures and has a greater impact on your office productivity.
Planning for Success Regardless of your software of choice, it is important to budget accordingly for software purchases and upgrades. Many packages come with multi-user licenses that offer tiered price structures. Make sure to plan time for installation and training on the new applications. Professional business software is an investment that ultimately will pay off with greater productivity. With the right set of software tools in place, you will be ready to take on complex office tasks with ease.
Michael Astrachan is president of Astrachan Communications, Inc., a full-service e-business and traditional marketing agency. He can be reached at or at (816) 363-0799 or by visiting www.astrachan.com.
