Enterprise software product company

Also by keeping an idea of the critical software , you'll spend less time going through options that are insignificant to your needs. Enterprise SaaS and enterprise software are slightly different, with the first being rented and hosted in the cloud. And, SaaS solutions are tailored to be multi-tenant: in other words, several enterprises are working on a single database. Every business professional knows the pain of losing a potential customer at the very last minute. There will be times you forget to close a deal, upsell your customers, cross-sell, or advertise those new products to your existing customers.

CRM can be described as a contact list that possesses a brain: it supplies you with an indispensable overview of the exact position you are with your client.

CRM includes managing social media and customer support departments. This type of software helps you communicate with colleagues working in different parts of the world.

It allows setting deadlines or targets: this way, every team member will be updated and get the work done. As you begin to see your business growing, you'll need to automate your daily marketing operations. Communicating with each customer on a mailing list or responding to Facebook comments would take too much time. That's where Marketing Automation Software solutions can help.

These tools allow automating communication with your customers through SMS , email, social media, or digital advertisements. You can perform market segmentation: this way, you'll tailor specific solutions to different targets. Marketing automation tools allow marketing teams to spend less time doing manual work.

And it ensures marketing campaigns are launched on schedule. If you're looking for a tool to make your daily marketing tasks more manageable, Whatagraph is here to help. Whatagraph was designed to build marketing data reports automatically and save hours of manual work. ERP, short for Enterprise Resource planning, sources every module of your business and digitizes them. By doing it, it can establish a complex network between each module. This way, everyone in the organization is working using a single database that keeps updated information.

Besides, ERP ensures different enterprise software tools are running in sync, including CRM or project management applications. Internal as well as external costs should be considered including the time spent by internal staff on the project, distracting them from their usual daily responsibilities and often disregarded but additional resources may be required to maintain basic business functions during busy project periods. It is also important to look at the cost of typical product upgrades post implementation.

Most vendors issue regular service packs bug fixes to add minor functional improvements which may not incur additional cost but if in the long-term the company can expect regular upgrades then this may lead to additional costs in terms of licensing, plus time and resources.

Companies may choose not to accept all available upgrades immediately but the business needs to ensure that they will not be penalized in terms of missing functionality and support. Future running costs need to be carefully reviewed together with the immediate implementation and licensing cost as systems which are initially cheap to install may require higher running costs in the long term.

Additional license costs may also need to be considered if headcount is expected to increase and pricing structures for different concurrent user numbers can vary significantly. It is important to ensure that any necessary customization will operate effectively and creating a prototype or boardroom pilot for testing is a worthy way of firstly ensuring that they work and secondly deciding whether all customization is required.

Workarounds may be adequate in certain situations and the less customized a system, the easier it will be to troubleshoot problems and train staff. It is also simpler to upgrade a standard vanilla system as customization will not need to be repeated. Vendors will need to be paid for their prototyping activity but it is a valuable investment as many companies have discovered at this stage that the software which was previously top of the selection list does not effectively meet their requirements or do not stand up to rigorous testing.

This is also the time to view more in-depth demonstrations from a more limited number of vendors, inviting them on-site for as much as a day so that they properly go through all aspects of the system tailored to requirements. This also gives the business an opportunity to spend more time with the vendor and establish whether their company outlook and practices fits with the business.

When implementing a new software system it is not simply a question of buying a new system but also establishing a partnership with the software vendor and a good working relationship is vital for success.

As well as obtaining references it is important to visit at least one company currently using the systems being considered for selection, this provides visibility of system operation in a live environment.

Talking with the finance systems team about their experiences with the vendor during implementation and post go-live and most importantly speaking to the users operating the system on a daily basis, many of what will have gone through intensive training and had to adjust to new working practices. Although reference sites are likely to be the vendors most satisfied customers this should provide the opportunity to talk frankly about the software, its benefits and drawbacks.

The choice of vendor should have become clear during the selection process as despite some vendors were simply unable to fulfill specific business needs or back-up their sales demonstrations with live sites and client references. If a single vendor at this stage has not become an obvious choice there are many factors to consider in the final decision, such as the vendors compensation and track record, functionality, customization of the software to satisfy unique requirements, total cost of implementation and ownership , ease and timescales of implementation, ability to keep up with technology changes and support services available.

The final decisions may in the end come down to the relationship built up with the vendor during the selection process, if other factors such as functionality and cost are rough equivalent.

Not every vendor is equally attentive during the sales process and long term it will not be the sales team which manages the account and provides support, however the way the vendor's sales team behaves and their willingness and openness to provide client references and information is likely to be a good indication of their service levels moving forward. At this stage it is also important to consider all factors and remember not just to automatically go for the 'safe' option, the phrase "no-one has ever been fired for implementing SAP" is one often aware, despite the complexity of these projects meaning that they are frequently over-run and go over budget.

It may not be the best decision to choose the largest or most well known vendor over one that may provide a better business fit and service levels at a lower cost. It is important that the team contributes to the final selection to avoid bias from individuals who may have a preference towards a certain system due to company reputation, previous experience, or their own desire to work with a particular product.

The final decision should involve all members of the team in particular those who will be implementing the system and using it post go-live. It is advisable to consider the organizations future plans for growth and development so that if the organization has significant growth plans then these should be factored into the decision so that the chosen product is scalable, able to accommodate this growth and it will not lead to any unplanned additional cost.

If the organization is acceptable it needs to be determined how easily new companies can be assimilated using the new product. Flexibility of the solution is also important so that if the organization changes then the new system should be able to adapt or there may be a need to change the system once more to accommodate new working practices. When the new system has been selected and fully implemented it is advisable to review the selection and implementation process as there will always be room for improvement and it is important to learn from past mistakes.

Rarely will everything operate completely as planned following a software implementation and teaching problems are to be expected. It is important to obtain feedback from users regarding system performance and it is likely that some changes will be needed.

If the most appropriate product and software vendor has been selected then the organization should receive effective support to resolve any initial teething problems and the expected business benefits should soon become noticeable.

Skip to content. Package selection is never risk free Selecting a new Enterprise Software system can be difficult and time-consuming. The selection team First-class project management is the key to success for any major Enterprise Software change project and the participation of experienced, appropriately qualified change consultants with he appropriate mix of technical and soft skills and ability to work effectively with users and the business is a pre- requisite.

Long list of possible software products There are various ways to obtain the initial long list of potential vendors and most finance systems professionals will be aware of the established software vendors and are likely to have worked with a number of systems themselves previously.

Contacting potential vendors with requests for proposal RFP Once a long list of resellers and vendors has been identified and system requirements defined and prioritized, these requirements should be clearly communicated to the vendors in order to allow them to decide whether their software offers meet the requirements.

Initial evaluation and short-listing The responses obtained from the RFP's can be used to score vendors on the suitability of their products and how closely they fit the business requirements and this should help reduce the list of potential vendors to no more than 4 which can go forward for further evaluation. Attending software demonstrations and calling references Inviting about 4 or 5 vendors to provide an initial pre-sales demonstration is a good start to the selection process.

Total cost of system ownership It is essential that before a final selection is made the total cost of ownership of the system is fully understood. Prototyping, testing and visiting reference sites It is important to ensure that any necessary customization will operate effectively and creating a prototype or boardroom pilot for testing is a worthy way of firstly ensuring that they work and secondly deciding whether all customization is required. Sales and customer relationships are the lifeblood of any business.

Unless your sales reps have supernatural attention spans, they will miss out on some opportunities to cross-sell, market new services to existing clients, or close the deals. A CRM system ensures your team is aware of every clien t. Most CRM systems allow you to track leads, manage orders, communicate with your clients, track their statuses, plan advertising campaigns, and gauge their effectiveness.

One of our clients asked to develop a custom system for managing members of Norwegian associations. With hundreds of organizations across the country that have different needs and structures, it was impossible to unite them under one out-of-the box CRM. Over time, the system we built evolved into a fully-blown CRM that manages a large number of members, companies, and departments.

Associations can now charge for subscriptions and sell tickets to various courses, meetups, and conferences using a single system. As each association has unique needs and workflows, we created a number of custom modules tailored to their requirements. Now each organization enjoys advanced automation and increased revenue.

Apart from basic CRM features like lead management, invoicing, and task management, the system now has:. Read more: top 7 business pain points solved by custom CRM. BI software helps companies gain actionable insights based on data that comes from various sources: marketing, sales, manufacturing, HR, etc.

It uses data mining, benchmarking, and advanced statistical algorithms to reveal patterns and make accurate forecasts. To help managers detect trends and patterns in complex data, BI systems use various graphs, charts, and tables; everything you need to make better decisions without a background in statistics.

Many industries including construction, recruitment, healthcare, and IT have made Business Intelligence a standard part of their toolset. One of our clients provides energy audit, management, and monitoring for more than 30 energy-saving projects. The system they used to track energy consumption was so outdated that generating a simple report would take several minutes. Consumers can use these readings to assess the energy efficiency of their buildings.

The system factors in air temperature data pulled from weather stations , surface area, building materials, the year of commissioning, building designations and so on to visualize heat consumption and provide accurate forecasts. Every company involved in manufacturing needs to manage procurement, storage, shipping, and distribution.

Typically, these tasks are carried out by people in different departments. For multi-location enterprises, managing dozens, if not hundreds of suppliers is almost impossible without specialized software.

Supply Chain Management SCM tools help to ensure a steady flow of supplies necessary for continuous production and delivery. In the past, energy and carbon measurement services involved lots of pen-and-paper documents.

To make the process more efficient, we built a cloud-based Supply Chain Management platform tailored to the needs of sustainability. The system helps companies monitor emission factors across the whole supply chain. A unique risk management module allows them to audit contractors with the help of a survey constructor. As a result, companies can identify social responsibility risks and increase sustainability indicators.

Track emission factors across the whole supply chain with a customizable dashboard. The bigger the enterprise, the harder it is to search for good job candidates. There are dozens of routine tasks that can be automated with HRM software like hiring, payroll management, workforce planning, performance management, payroll, reporting, employee training and engagement.

One of the biggest recruiting companies in Western Europe, used a year old HRM system built in-house. The system had an awful UX and lacked many crucial features. Recruiters had to manually search dozens of sites for job applicants and update their profiles.

As none of the existing tools fit their business processes, they went for a custom system that would satisfy all their requirements:. Now the whole recruitment agency is controlled from a single app, from staff workload and client request statuses to tracking essential KPIs.

When an enterprise reaches a certain size, it becomes impossible to conduct all the marketing activities manually.