Regardless of whether your business is a startup or an already established company, no business is ever immune to the use of technology. Integrating the latest software into your business processes will not only help to increase efficiency but also increase ROI and give your business a competitive edge. Since most businesses realize this, they will typically invest in different business software to benefit.
Most businesses today tend to invest in software from different vendors whereas they would receive the same solutions from a single vendor. For instance, a business might only buy MS word from Microsoft® Office and use other vendors to cater for their spreadsheets, database, and slideshow needs. While this might seem like a great move, buying software from a single vendor as a package will have more benefits to offer the business.
Here are three benefits that you can expect:
Less Employee Training
Every time you introduce something new into your business, you ought to train your workforce to use it. When using software from multiple vendors, you will typically need to spend a lot of time training your staff on how each software works. On the other hand, purchasing software as a package will only require you to train them about the single software.
For instance, if you use Kanban boards, a workflow management software, as a package, you will only need to enlighten your employees on using it. In the process, your company will enjoy aspects such as workflow analytics, lead and cycle time management and even lean management from a single package. Furthermore, employees can adapt to the dynamic software upgrades faster, which means business operations will continue will less disruption.
Manage Few Relationships
Vendor relationship is vital in the world of IT. Having a strong relationship with your vendors will help you be on the front line of any changes since the business software will typically call for updates and bug fixes. However, using software from different vendors to achieve related business purposes can be daunting when it comes to managing the relationships.
Such a business environment will have you on your toes every once in a while to receive notifications from the different vendors. Purchasing software as a package from a single vendor will make it easy to reach out to the vendor in case of any future technicalities.
Increased Business Efficiency
Most companies design their software in a way that they are interoperable. Tasks such as sharing information across the different platforms become easy as long as such aspects are enabled. On the other hand, rival companies might make their software non-interoperable with that of their competitors.
This means that business processes that will need you to use different software in collaboration will be tough. Not only will this harm the efficiency of doing business but also make achieving previously easy tasks challenging. On the flip side, using software from the same package will allow the seamless integration of the software into your business processes and increase efficiency.
The Overall Cost Is Reduced
At first glance, the cost of purchasing software as a package can seem high, but in reality, you will be reducing expenses in the long run. The cost and time needed to train employees on software from a single vendor are only but a fraction of the cost needed to do the same for software from multiple vendors. Furthermore, you will spend less time and money on fostering a strong relationship with one vendor than with a couple of them.