Usually to tough call to make, as there are lot of software’s available in
the market for small business management. Three formats are available for users
- standalone software for a single machine, cloud version an online application
which can be used over the internet and third is the LAN network setup which uses
standalone software and integrate it among users.
So when we want to choose best small business software, there are certain steps
we should follow before going for a purchase.
1. Decide for yourself which approach suits you the most: For doing
this you can explore the internet and try to find out different companies who are
offering the software in which you are interested. In above mentioned formats, try
to learn their features from company’s official website, what are the benefits
each have over others and what are the features which are most highlighted in each
company’s website because mostly they show their best features to really help
their customers, so you can make out easily do you need those features or not. It
can be your choice decision 1.
2. Read Review: In most of the cases for the good companies and
products you will find the reviews on the internet, but you need to be very careful
that which reviews are actual and which are just speculated by the company itself
to build the brand value and attract prospect buyers. There are different kinds
of reviews available on the internet. I will try to share some with you and like
to focus on what we need to see in the reviews.
-
Detailed Reviews: These are reviews written by the companies who
are professional in writing reviews and do an honest research on products and try
to put almost every feature in comparison, mostly with a grid view. You can somehow
trust them but you need to be sure about the review writing company, and make sure
it is not an SEO company.
-
Short Reviews: These are the reviews written by users of the software
whether a client or a trial user, and mostly you will find these kinds of reviews
with Pros and Cons about the software as they have already used it. Make sure they
are attached to the real user ids like Jeff, Richard and not “bestseo”
or “topreviews”.
-
Paragraph Reviews: These are the reviews you need to be aware of
as most of them are paid or self promoting reviews either written by the SEO companies
or by the company himself. These reviews mostly are in the shape of a paragraph
keeping 2 or 3 other software in comparison, and it is very easy to find out once
you start reading it that its inclined towards one particular software among the
list and now it is up to you to give it a try or not. This is your choice decision
2.
3. Explore Discussion Forum: This is also one of the great way
to find about the software where people are involved in discussions about the software
amongst whom we have paid users, trial users, prospect buyers, knowledge people
and in some cases company people itself. There you can directly interact and asks
questions which will give you lot of understanding about the products and the company
itself which are very important like after sales service, customer support (Technical
& sales both), policies and if there are any hidden things. There you can also
start a thread keeping your concern in front. This is your choice decision 3.
4. Social Networks Cues: As these days most of the discussions,
content sharing and interest can be identified by understanding its social engagement
whether it’s a company or a product, this gives a great understanding about
the seriousness of the product and is company actually putting efforts and managing
the product well because in case of software’s this becomes very important
and as software need to be updated regularly occupying the day to day business needs.
The things to look whether they are updated on facebook, twitter, pinterest pages
and their live content and user engagement. You can come to the same conclusion
by going through their updates, likes, tweets and people response towards it. You
can also consider Linkedin to explore more about the company and its people because
as we say “Good people build better”. This is your choice decision 4.
5. Term Pricing: This is the most important part of making
a right choice simple rule says “You get what you paid for” so here
we are discussing about the pricing, we coined it as term pricing because you need
to evaluate first the pricing strategy of the company like if its monthly and renewable,
is it a one-time price, is it a user license based, limited by amount of work, and
after calculating this you need to come to the conclusion of total amount spent
on a software during a particular TERM example like an year, month or lifetime.
This is your choice decision 5.
These are some of the inputs you can consider while making a choice of buying software.
Hope you agree with few points.
Also read our blog titled "What can be expected from Small Business Software" to understand why software fails to provide you correct functionality.