It’s hard to find a business that doesn’t use software to operate these days. Reports show that 84% of companies use at least one piece of digital technology to serve customers. Most companies primarily use software to meet their customers’ needs.
If you aren’t sure how to choose small business software to meet your needs, this post will help. Use the guide below to look through your options for software and find the best ones.
Investigate Your Needs
You have a lot to do as a business owner, but not all those things are suited for software. That’s why you need to figure out your business needs before starting your software search.
Look at what you and your team do every day and look for things software can help with. Whether you’re looking for email cleanup software or ERP programs to handle all your software needs, have your team document their tasks and see if software can help with them.
In many cases, your team can also recommend options that will help make their lives easier.
Investigate Software Integrations
Software compatibility is a big concern for companies that use a lot of software. You can use many data points from different applications in other parts of your business. The hard part is transferring data to make the most of it.
That’s why many companies build software integrations into their products. They create endpoints that let other applications read and write to internal databases. As you build your software stack, check which applications work well together.
Look at Pricing Structures
You’ll find a lot of pricing structures when looking at business software. Some companies keep things simple and have a single monthly price. Other companies charge by user and business software features.
You’ll need to examine these structures to determine the trust cost of buying a software product. Once you have this information, comparing software costs should be much more straightforward.
Ask for a Free Trial
A free trial is a must before you purchase business software. You can only learn so much about software by reading a website and talking to customer service. If you want to know everything a program can do, you’ll need to use it first.
That’s why most software providers offer free trials. In most cases, you can get a trial of at least a week to try a product. Come into the process with your use case and ensure you try every feature your business will use.
Read Consumer Reviews
Even if a free trial works great, that isn’t the final indicator that you should buy a product. If you want to work with a great company, you’ll need to check out the customer service.
You need to know that you’ll get help when the software doesn’t work right. Check out the user reviews of software to look for any red flags that indicate that a software provider isn’t worth doing business with.
Don’t Choose Small Business Software on a Whim
When looking for a business software provider, you have countless options to choose from. That means you don’t need to settle for horrible software just to meet your business needs. Use the guide above when you choose small business software to find a program and company that meets all your needs.
If you’re interested in more tips that will help you make the most of the technology in your business, head back to the blog to check out more posts.