Business Software

I have been a business owner for the last 12 years and I have easily spent millions of dollars on business software or trying to develop software of our own to accomplish exactly what we want.

One of the divisions in my company started selling enterprise software. We sold millions of dollars of software per year. We soon learned that we had to really access the need of the company for the software or we would have tremendous problems with that client down the road.

When you get the right business software package, you feel like celebrating. You wonder how you ever got a long before you had it and how your competitors stay in business without such a package.

When business software goes wrong, at the minimum it is annoying and frustrating, at worst it can mean the death of your company. I have either been involved with or seen too many horror stories regarding poor business software. In my experience, it seems that the problems arise from several avenues:

Exaggerated Claims by Salesmen - Software salesmen are driven to meet their quota for the month, quarter, or year and are pushing to get that commission and bonus check. The purchaser asks "Will we be able to do this?" "Certainly, it will be easy to do," responds the salesman, with no actual knowledge if it can do this or not. Later, when you have found out that the software really can NOT do that, the salesman has moved on, or has selective memory.
Inadequate ROI Analysis - Many large and small software manufacturers will offer ROI tools that help the purchaser to evaluate if the total cost of the software can be paid for by increase in productivity, efficiency, or some other gain. Often faulty assumptions are made in calculating the ROI and the true ROI turns out to be something much different.
Inadequate Understanding of the Implementation - Cost and Process For many of the large Enterprise software packages, the implementation cost will exceed the cost of the software. Some can be a multi-year, many headcount installation process. Often, a number of firms will get part way through the installation and give up under the sheer complexity of the transition and fall back to the old legacy systems.
Faulty Understanding of the Ongoing Maintenance - Costs and Requirements Software companies are generally more interested in the ongoing revenue stream from maintenance, support, or upgrade protection programs, than from the one-time revenue from the initial sale. It is critical that a firm have a thorough understanding of the true cost of these ongoing fees.
No Buy In from those in the Critical Path - A number of times I have seen one team evaluate, gather bids and select a vendor and then throw it over the fence to the team that will implement. For one reason or another, the other team hasn't bought into the process and sabotages the process where they either delay, or make it seem too difficult to implement and finally, out of exhaustion, the business manager abandons the project.

I have tried to put together a site that contains a broad range of software and solutions that would be valuable for a business. Most applications are oriented toward a mid-size or large enterprise, but some are applicable for any sized organization.

I have visited and reviewed every application listed. I have tried to list the most popular and most full-featured software applications. In many categories I realized that I was leaving off some great packages, but I keep my list to 5 applications per category. If you feel really strongly about a software application I have missed, please email me at recommendations@be-business-software-smart.com and I will review it and see if I should add it in or replace it with another.

Business Software Links

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