Is your business software slowing you down?
Software should help your business do better. It should be a tool that helps your people work more efficiently, reduce costs, and deliver better service.
The wrong software can do the opposite. If your business software is outdated, you’re using multiple systems that don’t communicate or you’re relying on Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and hard copies, it could be slowing your business down. As you grow, systems that once worked for your business can become a hindrance to progress – making your processes unnecessarily complex, reporting and visibility difficult and errors and delays more common.
If this sounds like your business, it’s time for a serious evaluation of your current systems. Switching to an integrated cloud business management solution could be the next step.
9 key signs that it’s time to upgrade
1. Your current software is slow
If your software wasn’t designed for a business of your current size, you could start to experience slower processing times, more frequent crashes, and errors. This happens when a system can’t deal with large numbers of transactions – and problems often start after a period of rapid growth.
Slow-moving software has obvious impacts on your day-to-day operations. Waiting for the system to generate a report or run a batch of invoices is a waste of time – you and your team need instant access to business data to be able to work effectively. Worse, if your system can’t be relied on for accurate data and reporting, your staff will need to make up for it with manual checks and re-entering data. It all adds up to significant time and energy being spent on something that should take seconds.
2. You can't get the insights you need
There’s no point collecting business data if it doesn’t tell you anything. Your data should give insight into how your business is performing and what needs to improve. But it can’t do that if it’s not accessible.
Using disparate software systems can lead to multiple databases, each with its own subset of your crucial business data. When you want to create a report or check on a metric, you’re forced to chase up data from various systems, compile it manually and double-check to make sure everything matches up. Not only is this an inefficient use of your time, but it’s almost guaranteed to lead to errors – they’re just a fact of life when you’re relying on manual data entry.
When you’re using your business data to project revenue and make significant business decisions, errors and inaccuracies can be disastrous.
3. Updates lag and data is delayed
When you have people working in different locations, in the office and offsite, in retail stores, or from home, it’s essential to track every transaction that goes through your system in real-time. If a staff member makes a sale in your store, it should be visible in your head office. If a builder on a construction site makes a change to a quote, you should have access to the update straight away.
If you’re working with slow software or using several different systems and apps, this might be impossible. Data may not be shared between systems and may take significant time to update, meaning you’re working with an incomplete picture of what’s happening in your business at any one time.
4. You don't have a single source of truth
It’s not enough to have data you can find; it also needs to be data you can rely on.
If you’re constantly double-checking reports generated by your software systems, finding errors in quotes and invoices, or – worse – fielding complaints about those errors, it’s a problem.
Every business needs a single source of ‘truth’ – that is, data that everyone can access and trust to be accurate. Without that central reference point, you’ll have staff coming to you to verify details, more errors and missteps, and time wasted across the business.
5. You're catching problems too late
Most business issues can be rectified if they’re recognised early on – that staff member that needs to improve productivity can be empowered, the product that’s losing money can be reviewed, the customer that always pays invoices late can be chased up. But if you don’t have that information on tap, it’s difficult to identify issues before they become big problems.
If you’re finding business issues are creeping up on you and causing major problems – like loss of revenue and customer complaints – then it could point to a deeper problem with your systems. Disconnected, non-integrated software and apps or spreadsheets aren’t always able to deliver useful information because they lack a centralised repository for key data. An issue that pops up in one system may not be visible across all your systems, making it easy for you to miss early signs and unable to act upon issues quicker.
6. Your people don't work well together
If your teams are finding it difficult to collaborate on work, it’s not always a sign of poor relationships or personality clashes. Disconnected systems can, unfortunately, lead to disconnections between people.
Teams may find it hard to work together if they’re using different software systems – it’s trickier to share work in progress or comment on updates if you’re not working on the same platform. Lack of visibility hinders collaboration as well – because nobody knows what others are working on, they can’t jump in with suggestions or take on some tasks if one team member is struggling.
7. Data entry takes up too much of your time
Team members spending significant chunks of time on manual data entry and reports are far from ideal – but it can be a reality if you’re using disconnected systems to manage your business. Using software and apps that aren’t integrated – or don’t ‘talk’ to each other – can mean manually copying data across from one system to another, double-checking numbers, and reformatting information if it doesn’t fit a particular system.
In a growing business, you want your people to be focused on revenue-generating work – contacting leads, fulfilling orders, marketing your products – rather than tedious, repetitive manual work.
8. Mistakes and misunderstandings
Mistakes are inevitable, but if you’re frequently finding errors and running into misunderstandings with clients or suppliers, it could be a sign that your systems are letting you down. Make too many mistakes, and you could damage relationships with those clients beyond repair.
Mistakes can happen because of manual entry errors or delayed system updates. If your POS system isn’t integrated with your stock management software, for example, you could run into trouble when stock showing as available has been sold.
9. You can't get the tech support you need
Local, 24/7 tech support is a must when you rely on software to run your business. If your current systems don’t offer that kind of support, it could have a serious impact on your business. One example: if your accounting system crashed and you couldn’t get in touch with a tech support person to help, you’d have to delay payroll – leaving your employees unpaid for days or weeks.
While some providers use online support only, a local phone line is essential as well – sometimes, you need an expert to talk you through an issue.
Seeing the signs
The wrong business management software – or using multiple systems – can lead to a host of problems, from mundane, time-wasting and slow processing speeds to lack of insight, problems with collaboration and serious mistakes that impact your relationships with clients.
If you’re seeing some of these signs in your business, your current systems are holding you back. Upgrading to a fully integrated cloud business management system – like MYOB Advanced – could help you solve ongoing problems and set your company up for successful growth.
Our software helps connect people, data, and processes, eliminating errors and delays and giving you up-to-the-second insight into what’s happening in your business.
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