Systems can grow over time as your business grows. You add a bit here and add a bit more there to make sure everything’s under control. Maybe you have an Access database holding key information and/or information in Excel, so it’s “easy” to record what matters and pull a report together that everybody can understand.
Unfortunately faces change and the skills required to keep these systems “alive” become ever more expensive. Perhaps you should start thinking about the future cost of running dis-integrated systems and what alternatives are available in what has become a highly competitive and complex market.
The following documents will help your understanding of whether business management software is right for you.
A Corporate Guide to better decisions using IT
Assess whether business management software is right for you.
Small and medium businesses can usually be categorised into three main types; Basic, Advanced and Sophisticated.
‘Basic’ businesses will find the functionality of Sage 50, AccountsIQ* or Xero* perfectly adequate in the majority of cases. AccountsIQ and Xero are delivered as ”On-demand Services” (Web based, Software as a Service) and provide a number of advantages over the usual ‘On Premise’ applications, such as Sage 50. It is worth understanding the clear benefits of this approach as well as understanding the potential disadvantages before making any decison.
‘Advanced’ businesses will find the functionality of Sage 50 with perhaps an ‘Addition’ as perfectly adequate to support their business processes. Sage is a well known UK brand providing a mature product in a number of versions that can cater for the needs of smaller businesses with straight forward business processes. There are a range of ‘Additions’ which extend the functionality of Sage 50 for more specific needs, but these can increase the overall cost of the system and may still not provide a seamless and fully integrated application. We can help with the decision as to which version of Sage 50 is the most suitable – a full explanation of the features and differences between the versions can be found in the PDF Sage 50 Accounts – Product Comparison.
SAP Business One & Sage 200 are specifically targeting the ‘Advanced’ SMB with out the box solutions. However, in some cases these will require an element of customisation, which pushes up the overall cost. There are also SaaS systems looking to complete at this level providing fully integrated solutions on a monthly rental basis. These systems are all equally capable of handling the following business type:-
- 10 – 250 employees with less than 30 professional users.
- Up to £40m Turnover (100,000 transactions per annum).
- Outgrown their accounting only system and would like an integrated view of the business, including CRM.
- Has a maximum of 5 physical warehouses.
- Relatively straight forward business processes.
- Service, Wholesale, Retail or Light Manufacturing.
- Independent small business or autonomous subsidiary or satellite operation needing to integrate with an SAP driven Head Office.
- Limited IT capability with a preference for an on premise system.
We can provide advice and guidance in making these decisions - For more information please contact us on 07596 117002 or complete the form below.
