IT TOOLS FOR BUSINESS GROWTH

IT TOOLS FOR BUSINESS GROWTH

Information Technology Tools for Business Growth

Now day’s business uses Information Technology or IT to carry out basic functions including systems for selling items, capturing the sales data by item, stock control, buying, management reports, customer information, decision making, accounting, etc. Here, we discuss some of the IT tools crucial for business growth:

1. Computer Systems, Laptop, Scanners, Printer, Webcam, SmartPhone, Etc.

Use of computer systems, laptop, printer, scanners increases accuracy, reduce processing times, enable decisions to be made more quickly and speed up customer service. Webcam, microphone, etc. are used in conducting long distance meeting. For example, one can charge accurate prices and eliminates the need to apply price labels to individual items by the use of scanning system.

2. Business Website

By having a Website, enterprise/business becomes reachable to a large amount of customers. In addition, it can also be used in an advertisement, which is cost-effective and in customer relationship management. These websites can be designed by using HTML, XML, ASP .NET, etc.

3. Social Media

Social media is everywhere. Every corporation, brand, and the mom-and-pop shop has at least a small presence on social media for lots of good reasons. It allows for direct communication between you and your consumers, it increases your overall presence in the business world and enables you to take control of what kind of image you’re presenting to the public. 

Using management systems like Hootsuite can even allow you to keep an eye on multiple social media accounts at once through one simple interface, making it easy for even a social media beginner to rise to success.

4. Internet and Intranet

The Internet is the best source of communication. Time and space is no more obstacles for conducting a meeting of people working in a team from multiple locations, or with different vendors and companies. 

Intranet is a system that permits the electronic exchange of business data within an organization, mostly between managers and senior staff. E-commerce among partners (suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, distributors) using intranets, e-mail, etc. provides a new platform to the business world for conducting business in a faster and easier way. E-Commerce provides business to business, business to customer, customer to customer and customer to business communication with a click of mouse.

5. Software and Packages

Software is a Set of Instructions, data or programs used to operate computers and execute specific tasks. Software is a generic term used to refer to applications, scripts, and programs that run on a device. The software can be thought of as the variable part of a computer and hardware the invariable part.

DBMS, Data Warehousing, Data Mining Tools, knowledge discovery can be used for getting information that plays important role in decision making that can boost the business in the competitive world. e.g. by having information of buying habits of customer, sales of product, marketing strategy can be built quickly and effectively with the use of data mining tools and Knowledge Discovery In Database (KDD). These can be used in Supply chain logistics, including planning, purchasing, replenishment, logistics, and space management.

6. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Packages

ERP is one of the latest high-end solutions that seek to streamline and integrate operation processes and information flows in the company to synergize the five major resources of an organization namely men, money, machine, materials and market. 

ERP can be defined as a system, which is a fully integrated business management system that integrates the core business and management processes to provide an organization a structured environment in which decisions concerning demand, supply, operational, personnel, finance, logistics, etc. are fully supported by accurate and reliable real-time information.

An ERP System is a multi-module software system that integrates all business process and functions of the entire enterprise into a single software system, using a single integrated database. Each module is intended to collect, process, and store data of a functional area of the organization and to integrate with related processes.

7. Data Mining (DM)

Data Mining can be applied in database analysis and decision support i.e. market analysis and management by finding patterns that are helpful in target marketing, customer relation management, market basket analysis, cross-selling, market segmentation, risk analysis, customer retention, improved underwriting, quality control, competitive analysis, and fraud detection. 

Other applications of DM are text mining, web analysis, customer profiling - it can list out what types of customers buy what products by using clustering or classification, identifying customer requirements- it can identify the most demanding and appropriate products for different customers, and also can list the factors that will attract new customers by using prediction etc., provide summary information i.e. various multidimensional summary reports and statistical summary information, finance planning and asset evaluation cross-sectional and time series analysis, and resource planning- it can summarize and compare the resources and spending.

8. Business Intelligence (BI)

Business Intelligence refers to applications and technologies that are used to collect and provide access and analyze data and information about companies operations. BI software consists of a range of tools.

Some BI applications are used to analyze performance or internal operations e.g. EIS (executive information system), business planning, finance, and budgeting tools. While others are used to store and analyze data e.g. Data mining, data warehouses, Decision support system, etc. 

Some BI applications are also used to analyze or manage the human resources e.g. customer relationship and marketing tools. A complete Business Intelligence provides consistent and standard information essential in enterprise operations.

9. Cloud Computing

“The Cloud” has become a bit of a buzzword in business recently, with its offer to share resources and data on-demand. While the presentation of cloud computing as a magical cure-all might be a bit of an exaggeration, it can certainly make your daily tasks easier and more efficient and oftentimes cheaper, too. 

Incorporating a cloud into your IT practices means you can focus on maximizing the usage of your shared resources, saving you and your team a lot of time and energy. 

10. Enterprise Content Management (ECM)

Being able to store and organize your business’s information properly is crucial to the success of your company. ECM is a way for your business to do just that. If you’ve been in business for a long time, you might have some of your older files still kept in paper folders and stored in a box somewhere taking up space. With ECM, all of your Physical Files can be captured, managed, stored, and preserved all through One Easy Organizational Process.

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Sources: ICAI Material