If you look at the definition of software, Wikipedia would describe it as “a collection of instructions and data that tell the computer how to work”. To most people, this is an extremely vague definition that doesn’t translate well to a business perspective, especially if you’re not well-versed in technology and how businesses use it.
So in this post, we’re going to explain the concept of software from a business perspective. This will help you gain a better understanding of what software can do for your business, and it’ll also give you an idea of how you can find the right software solutions to improve your productivity and efficiency.
A basic understanding of software that will change how you see it
For people that aren’t well-versed in technological concepts, the software is often seen as a magic black box that performs various tasks. For example, you could use bookkeeping software to help you manage your finances by plugging in a few values and having it spit out some reports or budget numbers to help you manage your business.
While this might seem like a primitive understanding, it’s actually all you need to embrace software in your business and start choosing solutions that are suited to your needs.
A better way to describe software is to consider the different components it requires.
- First, the user is required to give some kind of input. This can be a keyboard or mouse input, or it could be data in the form of some values.
- Secondly, the software uses its features to process that input.
- Finally, the software gives you the output. In the case of bookkeeping software, this could be anything from a printed report to a budget calculation.
Picking the right software based on this simple concept
We can apply this simple software equation to help you choose the right solution for your business. For example, if you’re building up a considerable amount of customer data (such as likes, preferences, and emails) and you want to make use of it, then you need to consider how that data is processed and what it can turn into.
If you have emails and information about your customer’s preferences, a good example of an output would be email marketing. You know what their preferences are and you know their emails, meaning you can send them personalised marketing messages to convince them to shop at your store.
The processing part is what you should now be searching for. You could consider AI automation services to help you automatically send emails based on the inputs you offer. Alternatively, you could use CRM software to process all of those emails, create customs templates, and then manually send emails at specific times.
This is the most basic approach to take when it comes to choosing the right software packages for your business. By using the simple process of input > processing > output, you can start looking for the ideal tools that your business needs to grow exponentially, save time, and optimise resources.
