How Investing in Software Solutions Can Save Your Business in 2024?

Wondering how investing in business application software solutions can save your company?

With such a rapidly changing global industry thanks to technology, this is the question that all companies are asking.

Besides saving your company, innovating in this industry can actually cause you to leapfrog ahead and expand into new markets.

Business Application Software: A Growing Market

You can get an indication of how important business application software is by reviewing their market. This market is growing steadily. Sample the following:

• A “Global Market Insights” report projects that the enterprise application market will grow to $250 billion in 2024 from $150 billion in less than a decade. This report estimates a CAGR of 5% during the 2016-2024 period.
• Cloud enterprise software represents a key part of this market. The market for cloud enterprise software was said to grow to $144.111 billion by 2023 from $55.988 in 2016, according to an Allied Market Research report. This represents a CAGR of 14.6% during the 2017-2023 period.

A Few Key Examples of Application Software in Business

Businesses use application software widely. What types of software are helpful for large businesses? Enterprises and large businesses invest in the following types of business software:

• CRM,
• ERP,
• SCM,
• BI,
• BPM.

Technology giants compete intensely in the business application software market. The following are a few key players:

• SAP,
• Microsoft,
• Oracle,
• IBM,
• Adobe.

A few examples of popular business application software are as follows:

• CRM: Salesforce, HubSpot CRM, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Zoho CRM;
• ERP: SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics;
• SCM: SAP SCM, Oracle SCM Cloud, Epicor SCM, Infor Nexus;
• BPM: Appian, monday.com, Process Street.

The importance of application software in business

The need for application software in business arises due to the increasing complexities in the business environment. Application software benefits for a business are manifold, and we will now explain them.

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1. Automation

Businesses need to improve their profitability. They need to reduce costs for this, therefore, they need to improve their operational efficiency. Automation is a key tool for businesses to improve operational efficiency.

Automation can cut costs by reducing manual intervention in many business activities, e.g.:

• File transfer;
• User provisioning;
• Report generation and distribution;
• Order entry;
• Email processing;
• Claims processing;
• Number-crunching;
• Integrating business applications;
• Web browser activities;
• Cloud computing processes like the provisioning of resources;
• Information systems event log monitoring;
• ERP integration.

Read “15 examples of business process automation” to learn more about this.

You can use business application software to automate several activities. A few examples of automation tools are as follows:

• ActiveCampaign: A popular marketing automation platform that offers excellent email marketing and CRM capabilities;
• Hootsuite: A well-known platform to manage your social media marketing campaigns;
• Xero: A popular accounting automation platform with helpful features like automated invoices, scheduling of payments, etc.

You can find more examples in “10 small business automation tools to save time & increase profit”.

2. Simplifying payroll processing

Payroll processing is a key activity in all business organizations. You probably already know about the importance of application software in payroll processing.

You can use payroll processing software to simplify several tasks, e.g.:

• Calculating the salaries of your employees;
• Processing various deductions;
• Depositing the salary of employees directly into their bank accounts;
• Producing documentation like tax forms, payslips, etc.

The following are some of the top payroll processing application software in the industry:

• Gusto,
• RUN powered by ADP,
• Wave payroll,
• OnPay.

Read more about them in “The best payroll software for small businesses”.

3. Improving your invoicing and billing processes

Invoicing and billing processes are crucial to every business, and business application software can significantly improve these processes. Invoicing and billing application software can offer many benefits, e.g.:

• Simplifying simple tasks like writing checks and bookkeeping;
• Automating routine tasks concerning invoicing;
• Eliminating manual errors;
• Improving the accuracy of your accounting processes.

The following are examples of popular billing and invoicing software:

• FreshBooks,
• NetSuite ERP,
• Tipalti,
• Sage Business Cloud Accounting,
• Vcita,
• Sage 50cloud,
• MYOB Essentials,
• HoneyBook,
• AvidXchange,
• Armatic,
• Younium.

Read “Best billing and invoicing software” for more information.

4. Strengthening your enterprise resource planning

If you are a business leader in an enterprise, then you can see the importance of application software in your ERP system. ERP is a complex function. Using effective ERP software can offer many benefits to you, e.g.:

• Cost savings: A robust ERP system unifies many processes and systems, which improves operational efficiency.
• Better collaboration: All market-leading ERP software have a centralized database, which is the “single source of truth” for your organization. All stakeholders can use this database and collaborate.
• Improved insights: Leading ERPs have excellent analytics features, which help you to gain great insights from your data.
• Better productivity: Traditionally, ERP involves many manual and repetitive tasks. A robust ERP software can automate these and improve your productivity.
• Customer satisfaction: Improved ERP processes help you to deliver better products and services to your customers. You will have more satisfied customers.
• Better risk and compliance management: Most businesses operate under stringent regulations and they need robust ERP processes to comply with them. Market-leading ERP software helps enterprises improve their compliance and risk management.
• Better inventory management: With the help of modern technologies like barcoding and RFID tags, modern ERP systems can help you to manage your inventory better.

ERP systems can help you to manage resources and plan production operations, as you can read in “8 reasons why ERP is important”.

The following are some of the market-leading ERP software:

• Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne,
• SAP Business ByDesign,
• Sage X3,
• SYSPRO,
• Microsoft Dynamics,
• Infor SysteLine,
• IQMS,
• Oracle NetSuite OneWorld,
• Epicor ERP,
• IFS Applications.

Read more about them in the “Top ERP software comparison list”.

5. Improving your supply chain management

Supply chain management (SCM) is a key function in any business, and the importance of application software is very evident here. SCM involves many complexities. A robust SCM software could include several modules, e.g.:

• A supplier management module;
• A module for the purchase of raw materials;
• A module to maintain the inventory of in-process and finished goods;
• A management module to execute transactions with distributors, wholesalers, and retailers;
• A module for warehouse control;
• A customer management module.

A great SCM product can deliver many advantages, which are as follows:

• You can significantly reduce your operational costs.
• Businesses can achieve a faster movement of goods by reducing the delay in shipment.
• You can reduce errors concerning logistics and distribution.
• With the help of a robust SCM, you can significantly reduce wastage.
• Market-leading SCM software has great reporting and analytics capabilities, which help you to get forecasts and insights.

Read “Why is supply chain management software essential for your organization?” to learn more about SCM software.

The following are a few leading SCM software:

• E2open,
• SAP SCM,
• Logility,
• Perfect Commerce,
• Oracle SCM,
• Infor SCM,
• JDA SCM,
• Manhattan SCM,
• Epicor SCM,
• Dassault Systemes SCM,
• Descartes SCM,
• Highjump SCM,
• IFS,
• Watson Supply Chain,
• BluJay SCM.

Read “Top 15 supply chain management software” to learn more about these SCM software products.

6. Improving your business process management

You need to improve your operational efficiency, moreover, you need to improve customer service. Obviously, you also need to innovate so that you remain ahead of the curve. “Business Process Management” (BPM) is the key to achieving all of these simultaneously.

BPM can be complex, however, BPM application software can help. You can gain significantly by using BPM software, and these gains are as follows:

• Agility: The global business environment changes continuously, and you need to adapt to these changes. With the help of BPM software, you can bring in much-needed clarity to your business process. This helps you to adapt to changes quickly.
• Visibility: You need to know how your business performs. You also need to know how the individual business processes perform, and BPM software can help you to gain this visibility. BPM software can replace manual monitoring with the help of automation and give you this visibility easily.
• Efficiency: With the help of robust BPM software, you can find how your business processes would work when you provide an optimal condition. BPM software also helps you to adjust your business processes so that you can achieve higher performance. You can use BPM software to implement controls. The combination of these helps you to make your business processes more efficient.

Read “The importance of business process management technology” to learn more about BPM software.

The following are examples of top BPM software:

• com,
• Orchestly,
• SAP Business ByDesign,
• iGrafx,
• K2 Platform,
• Signavio,
• IBM Blueworks Live,
• Oracle BPM Suite,
• Novacura.

Read “Top 10 BPMS (Business Process Management Systems)” to learn more about them.

Final Thoughts

In this article, we reviewed why investing in business application software is the key to success for your business. We also reviewed the benefits of such software and its examples. If you need help with developing application software for your business, please contact us at DevTeam.Space. We are ready to help!

FAQs on Business Application Software Investment