Modern software tools for SMEs
Software tools in management processes are more and more popular. Management boards better understand the power of software and take the advantage of its capabilities. Software developers answer this need and offer many systems with different functionality. The decision which system should be chosen is very difficult. But it is unquestionable that the good software for business must have few very important attributes.
Data availability
System must provide access to corporate data for each user who has proper access rights. The best way to realize it is to use an Internet application. Such type of software is used via web browser and ensures data availability all around the world. This aspect is very important especially for companies which have several divisions and mobile employees. Whenever they sign-in to the system all data is up-to-date, consistent and the same for every user.est oryginalne, co pozwoli naszej firmie efektywnie wyróżniać się na rynku po przez:
Open source
Open source software means that when you buy the program you get also its source code. This code is written by the software developer in one of the programming languages (e.g. PHP, Java) and then it is automatically translated into special code which is interpreted by the computer. Why open source? At first it is opportunity for developing the software by yourself. You are not depending on software provider and fully independent of the software producer. You can work up your own tailor-made path of developing the application conducted by any software company. It has great influence on costs reducing.
Flexibile choice of additional tools and operating systems
Costs are always very important aspect of software implementing. The high price of the software is often an obstacle which potential users cannot overcome. But there are some ways to reduce the costs of the software. We can use software which is free and for which we don’t have to pay (e.g. GNU GPL). There can be found free data management systems, operating systems, office tools packages and other software tools. System which we are buying should be able to work with different tools and other systems, commercial and free as well.
Multilingualism
Some companies have divisions in foreign countries or foreign customers or employees. For such companies multilingualism can be the key feature of software system. The system must have possibility of using it in different languages, including data viewing, adding and analysis.
Easy changes of the interface
Employees of each company have some habits. There are also cultural and ethnic differences which cause that e.g. in some countries one colour can be perceived differently – white is neutral in Poland but in India it is a colour of mourning. The user of the program should have possibility of changing the layout and colouring without engagement of software producer.
Above attributes connected with wide general functionality make the software attractive for business purposes. The good example of such software is INFInet System of Varico. It is a set of useful tools supporting the management in medium companies - customer relationship management (CRM), easy changing of company's multilingual web-site content (CMS), surveys mechanism and e-learning trainings. It is an Internet solution so there is no problem with data availability. The system is distributed according to open source idea. It uses free and open tools and solutions (e.g. PostgreSQL database, LINUX operating system, PHP and Apache server) but we don’t meet any difficulties with using it with commercial solutions (e.g. Windows 2003 Server and Oracle database). INFInet System is installed only on one computer (server) and it is used via web browser. It also supports multilingualism. User's language detection is based on language settings of his browser so that each user can see system’s interface in his/her own language.
The choice of the business software is a very difficult task. We are often aiming at general functionality of the program and we forget about different important features. We have to know that the main attribute of good software is its flexibility and when we omit it we can have much trouble with our software in near future.