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How many times have you heard entrepreneurs bragging about their business “running on its own”? Well, anyone who says this obviously forgets about all the hard work done by software apps and web services! These little contraptions have many duties, ranging from storing documents and staying on top of emails to actually keeping the books and matching business teams. Of course, proper knowledge in coding is required in order for this to run smoothly, but every serious startup has an expert coder on their team nowadays. Here are some software tools businesses should consider implementing in 2017.
Accounting Software
Books no longer belong in the filing cabinets – their place is in the computer and the easiest way to transfer them is by using QuickBooks’s accounting options that are based on flowcharts. This piece of software has become a borderline standard in financial management.
Blogging Tool
Your business should already have a blog, as it’s among the best ways of providing the most up-to-date product and company news. If your business doesn’t have a blog, you are 3 years late, but not necessarily too late. By installing WordPress (which is fully set up on your device within minutes), you are entering the world of blogging without a single stroke of effort. Easy to use and quite interesting, your employees are likely to be inspired to contribute with their own industry knowledge.
Office Suite
Of course, you can equip all your business PC units with Microsoft Office, but your Android devices will have to wait. Certainly, the alternative is simply installing Macs and giving out devices that support iOS software to your employees, but it is a rather expensive option to go with, so your team will have to come to terms with using office suite alternatives. Things aren’t that gloomy, as quality options do exist here, such as Google Docs, an Office alternative that enables its users to share files and collaborate in real-time. Okay, a word processor and spreadsheet are your only options here, but upgrading to the Premier Edition will give you another 18GB of storage space.
Calendar
Having a calendar as a software improvement does sound a bit ridiculous, but Mozilla’s Thunderbird is more than a simple date-tracking service – it even makes email easier, as they boast on the website. Very straightforward, this app allows you to access day, week and month views, but also to publish features and send your calendar to websites, in case you are aiming at going public with certain announcements.
Backup and Recovery
Have you ever experienced data loss? If you haven’t, you better believe that you are lucky; and if you have, well, then you know exactly what we’re talking about. You are probably already using NAS (network-attached storage) or an external hard drive as a backup spot for your documents, but this doesn’t entail physical safety of your files – external drives get stolen and servers can burn up in smoke. Opting for an online backup service is a smart way to go and we recommend Mozy – a software tool which allows you to select what you want to back up and then does it all for you.
Business Management and Communication Platform
Properly managing you business means creating engaging and quality content at all times, which is why a powerful content management system is required. Interact offers just that – this piece of software allows you to meet compliance and audit requirements, flag stuff according to their importance. For example, if you mark certain content as ‘Mandatory Read’, you’ll be able to keep a full record of who read the content, based on users’ confirmations. Additionally, it allows you to set different levels of permissions, depending on each employee. Finally, this piece of software offers measurement – a way of keeping track of page statistics, in order to see how the content within your intranet CMS might be performing.
Collaboration
Hosting internet sessions can help a couple (or a couple of dozen) of co-workers who are scattered around the globe discuss business together in real time! The Vyew app is based on a simple virtual whiteboard where documents that are up for discussion can be uploaded and desktops shared. Naturally, writing on the virtual whiteboard has been made available and, should you choose to register, you can get access to VoIP and a variety of other audio services that are free for up to 20 live participants! If you want to communicate with your colleagues and/or partners across the globe, no better way to engage into a business discussion than using Vyew.
These pieces of software are definitely worthy of being considered for 2017, as your business is bound to benefit from them. Welcome to the world of tomorrow!
Also read: Save Time on Bulk Product Descriptions with AI Content Writers
About the Author
Marcus is an Australian IT support professional. He’s running his own business, working with companies that outsource their IT maintenance. He often writes about technology, business and marketing and is a regular contributor on several sites.
