Can Business Productivity Software Help Small Business?

By Chris Miles

The push for greater business intelligence in the small business market has never been more intense. Small business owners want business intelligence solutions that drive big productivity gains, provide greater levels of collaboration, and optimize efficiency in an increasingly mobile business environment. Now small businesses can take an emerging technological route to a more streamlined and efficient workflow—Business Productivity Software. 

Business Productivity Software, or BPS, provides a new approach for small business. BPS solutions let  you optimize cloud computing to operate like Fortune 500 companies—or better. BPS supports and integrates both data and processes for nearly every aspect of business—sales, marketing, human resources, customer service, executive management and more.

Business Productivity Software

BPS technology helps SMBs abandon disparate, diverse software systems and, instead, use one complete business operations system to operate all aspects of their business. In short, BPS organizes daily operations for companies of all sizes and markets.

5 Business Productivity Software Benefits

1. Better Collaboration

A BPS system lets you collaborate with your clients better, which moves projects along faster and even helps with billing. A BPS system that includes a customer portal can significantly decrease the amount of time and effort your employees spend handling customer service inquiries and issues. An online customer portal can provide 24/7 customer support and let customers submit requests, make payments, or request additional projects at any time of the day.

2. Mobile Advantages

With a cloud-based BPS solution in place, a business can operate all of its critical functions 24/7. That means you can be at home on a Wednesday night and still quickly login to view employee status, new projects and accounts receivable updates. You can even access all functionality from a tablet or a smart phone. With access to the BPS system, team members can get business done, from anywhere, anytime, on any mobile device.

3. Outstanding Organization

Juggling multiple systems to run daily business operations is a disorganized process. Your team enters the same data in multiple places and spends unnecessary time researching everything from customer service issues to billing issues—even responding to routine client questions. Finding the data your employees need—quickly—boosts daily operations and long-term business planning. BPS lets you and your employees access companywide data instantaneously, creating a more effective data stream for informed, yet rapid, operations.

4. Greater Project Management

Get projects approved faster with online contract approvals. Stay on top of projects with customizable project templates, deadline tracking and document management. Manage resources with responsibility assignments and shared calendars. With BPS on board, your business can achieve higher levels of project management performance, and manage all company information in one place by integrating with software products including QuickBooks, Microsoft Outlook, Google Places and more. BPS fosters comprehensive project management, connecting all elements of a business for easily reviewing project status and client satisfaction.

5. Get Paid Faster

A BPS platform lets you easily manage flexible billing schedules and provide customized billing according to individual client requirements. You can reduce time to bill with automated billing and get paid faster thanks to online payment portals and integrated collections workflows.

Leveraging a BPS system that includes a customer portal can significantly decrease the amount of time that you currently spend handling customer service inquiries and issues. It streamlines everything from the recruiting tasks to human resource processes—with data easily viewed by any authorized team member at any time. BPS offers process consolidation and integration and creates a systemized platform on which your business can thrive.

Chris Miles is CEO of MilesTechnologies.com , an award-winning IT, business productivity software, online marketing and Web development firm. He has more than 20 years of experience helping businesses accomplish more by optimizing technology.

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Small Business Computing Staff
Small Business Computing Staff
Small Business Computing addresses the technology needs of small businesses, which are defined as businesses with fewer than 500 employees and/or less than $7 million in annual sales.

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