Running a business requires large amounts of coordination and organization. You can facilitate your business management with policies, management strategies and various tools and technological platforms. Here are six useful tools you can invest in for your business.
1. Transportation Management Systems
A transportation management system (TMS) is a useful tool for any business that ships its inventory or employs drivers. A TMS supports a business’s logistics and inventory management. These systems typically involve a software platform along with various internal tools, methodologies and access to support technicians. You can use a TMS for any kind of shipping, including via train, truck and airplane. TMS programs can help you manage the internal aspects of your shipping and transportation, such as delivery tracking, as well as communications with outside vendors, partners and customers.
2. Project Management Software
Project management (PM) software is essential for any business. Most businesses have many teams or departments, all working on several projects at once. PM tools ensure that team members and leaders can keep track of their workloads and progress, know what work they need to do, organize tasks and priorities, assign roles and create tasks. They also allow people from different teams to collaborate and communicate more easily and to understand how their work impacts or is impacted by other teams and projects.
3. Social Media Management Tools
Most businesses utilize social media in various ways. You may have multiple accounts across multiple platforms. Each platform needs to be able to convey the same information in a unique way. Some platforms are video-based while others are microblogging sites, for example. It’s important to invest in a tool that helps you manage all your social media. Social media management tools can be used to schedule posts and automate posting. You can also use them to keep your social media posts organized and in line with your overall messaging and marketing.
4. Accounting Software
Accounting software is beneficial to businesses of all sizes for various reasons. The main benefit of these tools is that they can automate many tasks related to your bookkeeping and accounting needs. Tasks you can manage with your accounting software include invoicing, payroll and financial reporting. People who use these tools can typically control which administrative tasks you use the software for and which ones your employees should do manually. Some accounting software options are cloud-based while others are hosted on-premise.
5. Collaboration Tools
Every organization can benefit from collaboration tools, which can be used for many reasons or types of collaboration. You may want a tool that allows employees to communicate quickly and easily no matter where they’re working or one that allows them to collaborate on documents in real time. Documentation collaboration tools ensure that everyone who accesses a document is working with the latest version of it, which helps businesses avoid duplicates and confusion over which version is the right one. Many employees want to be able to collaborate in multiple ways, not just one, and some may be able to integrate with your other tools.
6. E-Signature Software
Documents often require signatures, but with modern technology, you may be working with or for people based too far away to sign documents in person. This is where e-Signature software is useful. Someone can sign a document from anywhere in the world at any time, which is particularly important when obtaining a signature is time-sensitive. You can upload documents and use the software to indicate where the recipient needs to sign, then send it to the recipient and set it to send reminders as needed.
Some management and support tools can be useful for all businesses, no matter the industry or market. Others may be suited to businesses of specific types of sizes. For example, collaboration tools are good investments for companies of all sizes while specialized design software may benefit a business focused on graphic design more than it would a software company.
