The great importance of new information technologies and its growing presence in the diverse areas of modern business involves increasing the presence of software applied to the business management.
Today information technologies play an important role in business strategies, and they are changing the way companies conduct their processes. Information systems enable companies to achieve competitive advantages in different ways: coordinating value activities in locations that are found in a wide geography, and also by creating new relationships between businesses, expanding the scope of industries. Software also serves for companies to support their competitive strategies, staying one step ahead of the competition.
The business management software is a type of software designed to support a segment of the company being able to handle almost all common functions of an organization (customer databases, payroll, accounting, etc.) But it’s necessary to have some idea about this technology in order to be able to take advantage of all the potential benefits that can be granted to the company, that’s why the demand of professionals who have studied a master of science in IT Strategic Management keeps growing.
“The strategic use of information technologies within the workflow of a company can result in its real competitive advantages”
The ERP as a Business Management System
Nowadays, business softwarecovers such diverse needs as possible, facilitating the management of information within the company. The ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)is used by companies who seek a universal solution to centralize all their information.
The ERP is an integrated business management system that is designed to model and automate most processes in the company (finance, trade, logistics, production, etc.). Its mission is to facilitate the planning of all resources within the company. At the same time it facilitates de flow of information throughout the whole organization.
Thus, an ERP aims to optimize business processes as well as integrating all data making it more reliable, accessible and shareable among the different members of the organization. Moreover, it also helps to reduce the time and costs of many processes.
CRM and Social CRM
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a kind of software that companies use for managing their relationship with customers. This computer systems are used to support the management of customer relations, sales and marketing. CRM refers to the system that manages a data warehouse with information from sales management and enterprise customers.
The CRM, and especially the Social CRM, is born from the need to recover personal ties with customers, especially in the age of social networks where each opinion is multiplied virally and significantly affects the image of the brand. That’s why the Social CRM differs from the traditional one adding the possibility toconverse with customers.
Through constant connection and the recording of every activity, the company keeps track of each of its contacts. These customers are provided with valuable information and support, they are notified of new activations and proposals and they are also rewarded for producing positive content. This leads to a constant feedback, as customers have the ability to review and share via social networks like Facebook and Twitter. This content production is becoming more personalized and relevant, deepening the relationship between the customer and the company.
Closed and Open Source Software
When choosing the right management software for our business we’ve got many options where to choose. Some of the most popular examples are Oracle, SAP, Fourth Shift, Baan, WorkMeter or Saint. It all depends on which are the needs of your business and the budget you can allocate to these means.
Lately manyOpen Source options have arisen enabling small and medium size companies to work with this kind of software. Some of the Open Source business management softwareareSugarCRM, Open Bravo, OpenERP and many more.