7 reasons why you need business management software to drive real growth

Running a business is different from what it looks like on the surface. Big business ideas, creative strategies and sky-reaching goals are all easier said than done.In fact, maintaining everyday tasks, trying to keep everything on track and running smoothly actually eats up a lot of your time and energy. 

These everyday little actions are the real deal, they can make or break an organization and when it comes to venturing in new directions you have to be careful about not blowing up your existing operational structure.

How do you manage your business?

If the above sounds like your story then let me ask, do you make extensive use of status or catchup meetings? Sticky notes, spreadsheets, communication scattered on emails, messages on Whatsapp and calls? You feel work progress is generally behind schedule and sudden issues pop up blocking your entire workflow. Are there situations where people point at each other for delays or lost opportunities?

Well, then that is the story of most small businesses. In an ideal world a business should operate with the same precision as a clock and we at Workpark, believe you can reach close to that without having to learn the mastery of clockwork. What you need is a business management system that can cover all your business needs.

These are new, simple, and cost-effective counterparts of the ERP (enterprise resource planning) systems used by large enterprises enabling them to operate much more smoothly than SMEs despite having a workforce in thousands and spread across the globe.

How does business management software help you boost the performance and growth of your business?

Add structure and organize your work

The first key purpose that business management software serves is to set up the foundation of work at your office. It ensures that all the employees and external stakeholders are identified and the tasks or actionable items are properly listed. This creates a structure and organizes the way work takes place in your company. All the actions and data are stored in a centralized system which is always available and can help uncover trends and patterns which could not be identified otherwise.

Without having such a system there is a good chance that your company data is not fully recorded and you may have information scattered across multiple spreadsheets or function-specific apps which makes it hard to store and secure for long-term use and it’s nearly impossible to generate insights from that.

Visualize, foresee and proactively tackle problems

Using milestones, deadlines, and advanced charts (that visualize your data without any manual input) you can make your business data much more meaningful and uncover valuable insights to help foresee. You can find areas of improvement and proactively tackle possible hurdles which may arise later without notice. All the moving parts can be set in motion perfectly from the get-go to work in coherence, where one ends the other begins.

Dependencies which could otherwise be a major bottleneck can now be preplanned and actioned in parallel so that their expected output is readily available.

Transparency & Accountability

Decision-makers can not only see but also measure the performance of teams and individuals. It’s like a birds-eye view of your entire organization highlighting areas of concern that may require further action. Issues pointing to grey areas are no longer a concern and each unit or individual is responsible for themselves, making it an additional factor of motivation and at the same time eliminate slacking behavior.

Productivity & Happiness — the new company culture

Transparent and clear plans laid out for future help boost the morale and confidence of team players in the business and management. Clearly understanding of the company goals and their own scope within helps individuals and teams own the responsibility and better plan their work to avoid burn-out. Leading to increased productivity and a happier workforce which eventually contributes back to the bottom line of the organization.

Peace of mind with clarity & control

Unlike project management systems or even work management systems, a business-focused platform is not just limited to managing your projects or general operation tasks. It also covers the entire length of business activities such as finances, human resources, clients, sales pipeline, support tickets, internal team collaboration, etc. You can have a full track of a client’s profile, things like sales, invoices, dues, and payments received or in case of employee payroll and other payments, attendance, employee check-ins at work and much more can be managed through a centralized system.

This translates to complete peace of mind, you don’t have to carry your business in your head all the time. Everything is just a click away and is securely stored in a much more meaningful manner.

Increased revenue and growth

With all the inefficiencies straightened out, your business machine is working efficiently and your team is now more productive than ever before. This only adds to the bottom line of your organization. There is an increased capacity to serve customers. You have increased output overall. Leading to more sales, more deliveries, more satisfied customers which equal higher revenues and growth.

Recession & Pandemic proof

Last but not the least, once your business is digitally transformed it not only helps solve existing problems but also, it’s now better prepared for times of crisis. It can endure abrupt changes better, change its form and adjust in a newer less friendly environment. You can quickly move to work from the home model without having to worry about communication breakdown in case of a pandemic and if the stress is economic then you already have all the tools and processes in place to switch to a temporary part-time workforce.

How is an all-in-one solution better than standalone apps or spreadsheets?

Let’s assume you are working on a complex project with many moving parts. In this case, your team might be on the move and they may not have a clear idea of what each and every other team member is doing and what is the timeline of other actions or tasks on which their task might be dependent. 

Option 1 – spreadsheets: You are required to create a manual project tracking spreadsheet with your project manager fully drowned in following up, updating it, and also trying to keep the project team well informed by calling or messaging every single member which is a big hassle and may still leave room for gray areas resulting in errors or delays.

Option 2 – Separate tools for each business function like project, accounts, HR etc: In this case you’re better prepared than before your operational team is fully aware of the progress and timelines but guess what? 

• Your accounts department is completely out of sync with the project costs, expenses, payments received or made. 
• Your HR team doesn’t know anything about the performance of your timesheet or the peace of work-based staff. 
• The inventory or logistics team is not aware of which equipment is needed and when to provide it.
• You are still paying for multiple systems but still, your departments have to do manual record-keeping similar to spreadsheets. It’s just that collaboration within each department has improved but for the overall performance, your company has loosely connected islands performing better on their own, not as a whole.

Option 3 – All-in-one solution: In comparison, a comprehensive business management software would leave no gaps or underperforming areas and uplift your entire business’s productivity.

Conclusion

We cannot stress enough how small businesses today are unable to reach their true potential due to the lack of processes and systems which should be in place and one of the most important among those is the absence of a business or work management system. It is that one hidden factor behind the scenes which acts as the digital brain of your company. If you are using spreadsheets or even some form of function-specific solution then it’s time to migrate to a comprehensive business management solution. COVID-19 pandemic has been a wake-up call for businesses worldwide and there is no better time to start than now.

About Workpark

Workpark is a comprehensive all-in-one Business OS covering all the core business processes from sales, finance, human resources, projects, customer support to products & inventory. Specially designed for small and medium-sized businesses to help them overcome the common digital transformation challenges of complexity and high costs through a simple, easy to use, and cost-effective solution.