Best business software for a growing company

[Biznez]

I have just started a new company and I am wondering about various ecommerce and IT solutions others are using to manage their business.

I have all the startup areas covered for my business including my articles of organization and have just applied for my LLC with the state. I am at a point now where I need to implement business software to track various company assets and expenses.

I read a good article that answered a lot of the questions I had regarding the scope of the software that my company requires. http://www.business-tracking-softwar...king-software/

I still had a few questions though as far as specific software recommendations. I am unfamiliar with a lot of the titles out there, and was wondering what other people are currently using to manage their business.

I am looking for an application that can do more than just accounting / invoicing. I need something that will also allow me to manage inventory, create help desk tickets, track project goals and scheduling, and provide time tracking for employees. Any recommendations or advice is appreciated.

Bill
Biznez

[Barney Stone]

You might want to consider separating shopping cart software, business management software and accounting software. They are all very different applications, and it's hard to find a software company that does a good job of more than one of them. Also, going with one program that tries to do everything will probably be very expensive, and will make it difficult if you ever want to switch to a different system for any one component.

Also, look for systems that were written for your size of business, including your projected growth for 3 years or so. If you out grow any of them, you will have a much better idea at that time of exactly what your needs are, and there will probably be more choices available to you at that time.

Choosing a shopping cart system is one of your most important choices. It's the Internet equivalent of the old "location, location, location" adage for brick-and-mortar stores, and for better or worse there are hundreds of good options available. QuickBooks is a good accounting choice for small companies. And the leading order management systems are OrderMotion, Dydacomp's Mail Order Manager (M.O.M.) and the Stone Edge Order Manager.

Hope that helps,

[marc77]

If you are willing to dive into the technical things yourself, you may have a look at sites like http://cgi.resourceindex.com or http://www.hotscripts.com (or our SunnyScript site, by the way).

Basically you could even start your online shop with a formmailer - it depends upon the number of products, complexity and your future plans.

Same applies to CRM (customer relationship management, helpdesk): You can at no problem serve your customers from your e-mail client. A CRM software just makes things easier if you get more than a dozen requests per day.