Hey people. So you landed with us. Great. And you are here because you wanted to
know which software is exactly called a small business software.
There are many categories which defines what is actually covered under development
of small business software. Some of the major ones are :
1. Administrative software : The administrative software are
built to provide screens to user where the data related to employee, students, inventory
or any other entity that belongs to your business are shown. The user is facilitated
with different options to analyze and maintain data into the system. The three main
types of popular administrative software are
2. Business Simulation Games : Business Simulation Games are
games that simulate a real-world, historical, or hypothetical economy or business.
These software help in learning in the respective field by modeling
the real world with computer and its technology. Some of the major software built
under this category are listed as :
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Amusement park simulation games
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Roller coaster games and simulations
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Sports management video games
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Trade simulation games
3. Business software for Linux : Linux is a Unix-like computer
operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development
and distribution. So to support the platform, there is need of business software
that are built specifically for Linux. In category of Business Software, following
are made available to Linux users :
4. Collaborative software : Collaborative software or groupware
is application software designed to help people involved in a common task to achieve
common goals. The software may be free collaborative, groupware. The real time collaborative
software called Collaborative real-time editor allows several people to edit a computer
file using different computers. Wiki software are type of collaborative software
that runs on wiki i.e. website that allows users to create and collaboratively edit
web pages via a web browser.
5. ERP software : Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a cross-functional
enterprise system driven by an integrated suite of software modules that supports
the basic internal business processes of a company. The major functional areas where
ERP solutions is one of the essential elements are :
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Financial accounting - General ledger, fixed asset, payables, receivables, cash
management, financial consolidation
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Management accounting - Budgeting, costing, cost management, activity based costing
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Human resources -Recruiting, training, payroll, benefits, 401K, diversity management,
retirement, separation
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Manufacturing - Engineering, bill of materials, work orders, scheduling, capacity,
workflow management, quality control, manufacturing process, manufacturing projects,
manufacturing flow, product life cycle management
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Supply chain management - Supply chain planning, supplier scheduling, order to cash,
purchasing, inventory, product configurator, claim processing
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Project management -Project planning, resource planning, project costing, work break
down structure, billing, time and expense, performance units, activity management
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Customer relationship management- Sales and marketing, commissions, service, customer
contact, call center support - CRM systems are not always considered part of ERP
systems but rather Business Support systems (BSS). Specifically in telecom scenario
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Data services - Various "self–service" interfaces for customers, suppliers
and/or employees.
6. Financial software : It is a type of computer software
designed to help individuals to manage their home finances as well as meeting accounting
needs of a business set-up. Financial software can track financial accounts, categorize
income and expenses, synchronize transactions with banks and credit card companies,
pay bills online, work with budgets, track and analyze investments, create financial
and tax-related reports, and provide at-a-glance snapshots of an individual's financial
net worth. The main software type making part of Financial software are :
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Accounting software - Small business accounting software automates tasks and
can save your hours of bookkeeping time, and here are the best selections. The features
that one can expect from an accounting software would be Order entry, Inventory,
Payroll, Contact management, Point-of-sale support, Ecommerce tools, keep separate
books for multiple companies, Accounting reports, tax and billing terms, accounts
receivable and accounts payable, invoicing, etc.
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Cost analysis software - Cost-benefit analysis software is a computer program
or suite that assists personnel in the complex task of determining whether or not
a proposed plan or project will payoff. Cost-benefit analysis (CBA) compares the
expected financial gain derived from a particular set of actions with the expected
cost of providing each action to determine the most profitable option. The projected
benefits of a plan or program are divided by its estimated total long-term cost.
Additionally, subjective variables such as customer satisfaction are often quantified
and factored in. The program must take into account the fact that the impacts of
costs and the values of benefits might extend far into the future.
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Financial markets software or stock market software are available as both,
desktop and online stock analysis software, and benefits of using this software
include: Real time stock market simulation to help you to learn how to adapt to
market fluctuations, Back testing, to test trading strategies using historical stock
market data, designing a stock trading or investing plan, elp with avoiding decisions
made based on emotions.
7. Health Software : Health software related to mental and
physical surveillance, majorly used by health center and medical practitioners.
Major types that software companies caters as health software are disability software
(speech synthesis software) , Health Video Games, Public health and bio surveillance
software (like Distribute Surveillance System & HealthMap)
8. Human Resource Management Software : A Human Resources
Management System (HRMS) is a type of information system (IS) that is designed to
manage an organization's computerized and automated human resource (HR) processes. It is a combination of hardware and software
resources that hosts and provides most, if not all, of a HR department's business
logic. A HRMS is also known as a Human Resources Information System (HRIS). Currently
human resource management systems encompass:
9. Manufacturing software : Manufacturing software includes
real time systems which give information to facilitate faster decision making. These
software acts as an ERP solution to automate and manage the manufacturing process
of a firm. The major functions that a manufacturing software offers are :
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Financial - Book keeping for bills received and paid.
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Human Resources - concerning payroll, attendance, health & safety management,
employee benefit management, etc.
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Process Manufacturing Management - Formulas and recipes, modeling of process using
formulas and routings, process batch control and reporting, conformance reporting,
process manufacturing costing, process manufacturing-related material management
are the major functional areas of this module.
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Inventory Management - stock details and regular transaction records
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Purchasing Management - record raw-material purchase, generate purchase orders
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Quality Management - provides quality standards guidelines to track the production
according to set rules and regulations of authorized committees.
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Sales Management - order maintenance, order tracking, invoicing, status reporting,
etc.
10. Marketing Software/ Online Tool : They are basically internet
tools that are built to market various businesses. To give you clear understanding,
there are two basic typesof software that falls under this category :
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Customer Relationship Management - It is a tool that provides integrated and interactive
platform where company's can interact with their current and prospective client.
The data and information maintained in CRM software helps in following up the business
leads and also to maintain good relations with existing clients. It involves
using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize sales, marketing, customer
service, and technical support.
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Search Engine - These are the software built and designed to search what resides
on World Wide Web. The need of having search engine software is to provide the opportunity
to those who have something to offer to the rest of the world. It is one of the
most popular software that helps in marketing for services and products and earns
the interested clients to the business owners. The idea is to get the online presence
with SEO friendly stuff over the internet.
11. Manufacturing Execution System (MES): Manufacturing Execution
Systems are computerized systems used in manufacturing. Major functional areas
are management of product definitions across the product life-cycle, resource scheduling,
order execution and dispatch, production analysis for Overall Equipment Effectiveness
(OEE), and materials track and trace.
12. Office software : These software are package containing
productivity applications that are required by users who manage their office work
through computer. The main applications which make an office suite are Content management
systems, Email clients, Presentation software, Spreadsheet software,
Typing software, Word processors.
13. Portal software : Gartner defines a portal as "a Web software
infrastructure that provides interaction with relevant information assets (for example,
information/content, applications and business processes), knowledge assets and
human assets by select targeted audiences, delivered in a highly personalized manner."
Enterprise portals may face different audiences, including:
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Employees — Business-to-Employee (B2E)
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Customers — Business-to-Customers (B2C)
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Business partners — Business-to-Business (B2B)
Vertical portals focus on accessing specific applications or business functions.
Horizontal portals seek to integrate and aggregate information from multiple cross-enterprise
applications, as well as specific line-of-business tools and applications.
14. Project management software : This category of software
helps the manager in recording, distributing and managing the business projects, either
at own level or at in collaboration with a team. The software will help in keeping
record of all the business projects, execution of each project based on its priority
and deadlines, what resources are applied to which project and then finally maintaining
its status. The software is designed in a manner as to provide continuous monitoring
which would help in making decisions related to projects and business as whole.
Under this category, there are some sub-categories like
15. Publishing software : Desktop publishing is the process
of using the computer and specific types of software to combine text and graphics
to produce documents such as newsletters, brochures, books, etc. Desktop publishing
software is a tool for both graphic designers and non-designers to create visual
communications for professional or desktop printing.
16. Reporting software : These are the software which are
used to generate human-readable reports from various data sources. These data
source can be manual feed or via some other application. All the data is collaborated,
analyzed by the software and present the report in a manner in which is programmed.
Such software are basically used to generate reports as consolidations, multiple
level totals, charting, conditional formatting, and page-based output, which are
quite difficult and time-consuming if done manually.
17. Risk management software : The use of risk management software
provides an opportunity to manage, report, and reduce risks within an organization.
The use of risk management software can help an organization keep track of emissions,
spills, injuries, or a variety of other types of incidents within a company and
will help to reduce future events. Recognizing these accidents and taking necessary
corrective actions to prevent them in the future will benefit the health of employees,
reduce costs, and help keep the organization positive in the public light. Risk
management software can ultimately mitigate risk, protect the lives of employees,
and to reduce expenses within an organization.
18. Tax Software : Tax compliance software is software that ensures
tax compliance for income tax, corporate tax, VAT, service tax, customs, sales tax,
use tax, or other taxes its users may be required to pay. The software automatically
calculates a user's tax liabilities to the government, keeps track of all transactions
(in case of indirect taxes), keeps track of eligible tax credits, etc. The software
can also generate forms or filings needed for tax compliance.
This sums up all the available small business software categories that lend a helping
hand to almost all verticals of business. The article will help you to decide
which section of software to approach as per your need.
There are many direct and indirect benefits for using business software for small
scale business. Know the benefits of using our small business software tools by clicking here.