The Need for Fully-Integrated Business Management Software

Business Operations are complex and multi-faceted.

• The marketing team extends your brand to meet your audience.
• The sales representative engages with the client and present products and offerings to quote pricing.
• The purchasing department sources the product and communicates requirements to vendors.
• The production planner schedules, fulfills, and ships.
• The accounting department invoices the customer, pays the vendor and provides mission critical information to management.

Each operational area has its own unique requirements. Each area has its own “silos” of data. Each department needs software to efficiently manage data and automate processes. Specialized business management software exists to meet the unique needs for each area, including:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• Ecommerce
• Web Analytics
• Inventory Control
• Order Entry
• Production Scheduling
• Order Fulfillment
• Accounting

A department may function independently in some aspects, but remains reliant on other departments within the organization for its very existence. Information must be shared across cubicle walls. Sales needs access to marketing lists. Sales must efficiently communicate information to purchasing, production, shipping and accounting to successfully service the customer. Accounting needs to communicate terms to purchasing and sales. Each departmental area is reliant on other departments. Companies rely on inter-departmental communication to manage with the sales order and customer life cycle. Departments and functional areas manage their own data silos, yet require communication and sharing of data with other departments and functional areas. Cross departmental communication is performed in a number of different ways:

• Email
• Post-it notes
• Voice mail
• Verbal
• Duplicate Data Entry
• Integrated Business Management Software

Many businesses rely on communication via email, Post-it notes or verbal conversations to transfer knowledge from one department to another. As each department independently manages its silo of information in a vacuum, information must be manually re-keyed from system to system as it is transferred throughout the company. The process of receiving information and manually entering from system to system incurs labor costs and produces human errors.

If areas use different software systems, each departmental system can be linked to allow the software applications to work together. Integration of existing system can become a complex long term project as different systems upgrade functionality and features over time as different intervals. Linking existing system may require less software investment initially, however requires a specialist to help setup and support.

Integrated business management software is one system that manages all the data of all departments and automates the workflow of each area. Integrated business management systems do exist to offer the desired functionality and automation that each relevant department requires. Integrated business management software allows the sharing of information throughout the company. Information can be communicated throughout the company as needed creating better responsive service and better relationships with customers and suppliers.

Within the organization, departments must communicate more efficiently. In today’s business environment manual mistakes are no longer tolerated. There is no longer an excuse for a lost Post-it note costing a company hundreds of dollars. In today’s economy the cost of duplicate effort cuts into the bottom line. Companies need to operate as a well-oiled machine to survive. Integrated business management software is the one way to effectively insure successful communication and work flow, while eliminating errors, reducing costs, and maximizing profits.