For every company, big or small, it can be challenging to handle all the aspects of a business such as sales, operations, finance, human resources, payroll, etc. To be candid, you require more than just management skills. At some point in time, every business must consider switching to business management software if they wish to run their activities optimally.
The best part is, there are dedicated applications available for the different department processes in an organization. You don’t have to compromise by picking software that has a limited role in you specific business model. With that said, it’s also imperative to choose software that can add value to your existing operations.
In this article, we’ll go over the features you should look for in your business management, as well as the benefits that the right software can bring you. Let’s take a look.
Top features to look for in business management software
Choosing the right software can become a stepping-stone for your company’s ladder of success. Ensure the business management software that you choose has these key features that can improve productivity, efficiency, and automate workflows:
Task management
This is an important feature as tasks are what drive the project’s objectives. The software you choose should have ability to assign tasks and provide visibility regarding the status of tasks across projects.
Read on: Recurring tasks: What they are, and how and where to use them
Gantt chart
Many business management systems have Gantt charts - a critical feature of project management that help you with planning, scheduling, and viewing tasks over time. It uses horizontal bars to represent the start and end dates of each task, allowing managers to see the project timeline, task dependencies, and progress at a glance. This helps with tracking milestones, coordinating team efforts, and ensuring projects stay on schedule.
Read on: What is a Gantt chart and how does it help?
Asset management
Managing your organization’s inventory is essential. Asset management software typically includes features for tracking and managing an organization's physical and digital assets, such as equipment, vehicles, and IT resources. Key features often include asset tracking, maintenance scheduling, depreciation calculation, and reporting tools to monitor asset performance and lifecycle. It also integrates with financial systems to provide insights into asset costs, usage, and return on investment.
Reports & dashboards
Accurate and real-time reporting is crucial as it can help you make informed, data-driven decisions.
Read on: Extract practical business insights with custom reports and dashboards
Real-time reporting and comprehensive dashboards provide you with up-to-date data and visual insights, allowing you to monitor key metrics instantly and identify trends or issues as they occur. This helps in making informed, timely decisions, improving efficiency, and responding quickly to changing business conditions.
Business process designer
The customization of business processes is the key to improving efficiency and productivity of processes. Be sure to choose a solution that has a business process designer.
Personnel and HR module
Having a central data repository for your staff reduces your administration cost and efforts while measuring personnel costs and their performance, centralizing data such as payroll, performance reviews, and leave tracking. It ensures compliance with labor laws, enhances workforce planning, and improves HR efficiency by automating routine tasks. This leads to better resource allocation, improved employee satisfaction, and reduced administrative burdens.
Time tracking
Time and billable hours are important revenue sources in IT and other industries. Ensure you capture how long a task takes so that you can compare planned time vs actual time. Billing also becomes simpler due to accurate time reports.
Read on: How time tracking helps your business
Leave management
By tracking time off, you’ll be better equipped to align your resources. Increase efficiency by approving and managing absences so that you have a clearer understanding of the situation.
Time tracking software typically includes features like clock-in/clock-out functionality, task tracking, and the ability to log hours worked on specific projects or activities. It may also offer reporting tools, integration with payroll systems, and the option to set timers, making it easier to monitor productivity and ensure accurate billing.
Read on: Manage and track time off easily
Candidate management
A recruitment module is a useful feature that can help you advertise job openings. It can also help speed up the recruitment process and reduce the administrative costs that come from recruitment.
Recruitment software often includes features like applicant tracking, resume parsing, and job posting automation across multiple platforms. It may also offer tools for interview scheduling, candidate assessments, and collaboration among hiring teams, streamlining the recruitment process and improving candidate selection.
Integration with existing business operations
Most companies already have existing applications that take care of their operations. Either it's accounting, inventory control, or operations, and there could be several different applications running to support each of these processes.
Integration helps information flow across the organization's systems. Business management software helps company leaders and managers see a unified view across the organization. They can gain actionable insights and drill-down reports all in real-time. Unified data views help make faster and more accurate business decisions.
A good business management software must be capable of integrating existing operational management tools into a single platform. If there’s a lack of integration, then the information will remain in silos.
User-friendly interface
In every company, different employees have different capabilities in terms of technical expertise and learning. The adoption of management tools is crucial for every department within the business. From HR to technical experts, everyone uses the business management application.
As a result, these tools must be intuitive and straightforward to use. The user interface must be consistent so that the look and feel is uniform across modules. This will allow staff across departments to easily find information and use its features. A consistent and customizable graphical user interface allows for easy adaptation of the business software within your organization.
Accessibility and responsiveness
Nowadays, working isn’t limited to office locations. Teams can complete tasks on time remotely while traveling or from other places. This is why business management applications must be responsive to access data from different devices like smartphones, tablets, and laptops.
Protection of data
Data management solutions must ensure the security of information. Data is a goldmine today, and the business application must be able to securely handle data. Business management software typically includes data protection features such as encryption, role-based access controls, and secure user authentication to safeguard sensitive information. It may also offer audit trails, regular backups, and compliance management tools to ensure data privacy and meet regulatory requirements like GDPR or HIPAA.
The benefits of project management software
Project management software is an important part of business management software applications. they help plan, track, and manage tasks, resources, and timelines, ensuring projects stay on schedule and within budget. Project management software provides numerous benefits to companies. These include:
Managing teams effectively
Project management software allows users to plan projects in detail. From task allocation to team collaboration to in-depth reporting, it’s possible to set up schedules and assign tasks to resources quickly. You can also assess the progress of your projects in real-time and take action if necessary. You can also optimize resource allocation.
Measure progress and stay on track
Project management software helps monitor projects, track their status, keep it under budget, highlight risks, and gain resource insights. You can gain insight into the profitability of your projects and view important KPIs on dashboards that provide actionable insights.
Better planning
Project management software helps set up schedules and view Gannt charts on schedules and project dependencies. Improve project profitability and productivity with automation in project management.
Real-time dashboards
Using real-time dashboards allows you to track the progress of projects across departments. Analytics dashboards display KPIs in real-time along with insights which enables faster and more accurate decision making.
Manage your business in one place
An all-in-one business tool like an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is often the best option for business management software because it integrates core business functions into a single platform. With centralized data management, businesses can gain real-time insights into performance, enabling more informed decision-making.
One of the key benefits of an ERP is increased efficiency. Automated processes reduce manual data entry and errors, while integrated modules enable teams to collaborate more effectively. In addition, an ERP system enhances scalability, allowing businesses to adapt to growth without needing separate tools for each department. It also ensures data security with advanced protection features, compliance tools, and consistent data backups. Ultimately, the holistic nature of ERP systems makes them ideal for businesses looking to streamline processes, improve efficiency, and maintain a competitive edge in today’s dynamic marketplace.
Ready to gain that competitive edge? Vault ERP combines all the processes you need to run your business in one place. From a leave management and time tracking to custom KPI dashboards and even a comprehensive project management module, Vault ERP has it all. Don’t hesitate to get in touch for a free 30-day trial.
