Maximising Software Applicaitons Within Organisations

As any business owner worth their salt knows, software applications are vital for a business’s running, and their value can be immense for performing certain tasks and functions. 

Statistics suggest that 99% of business owners use at least one app to help them run their business. The average number of software applications is around 250 for companies with fewer than 500 employees, rising to over 470 for firms with 10,000 plus employees (source: CloudZero).

While apps and SaaS are imperative for many businesses, over 40% actually aren’t fully maximising either capability. However, by fully exploring all the options for what they already have in use, companies can unlock significant potential for improvement and cost savings, leading to a more efficient and profitable operation. This potential for improvement should inspire optimism and motivation in business owners and managers, showing them that there are always opportunities to enhance their operations.

Underutilisation of software in businesses is a common issue, and there are many reasons for it. In many cases, it’s a result of wanting to set up and roll out fast, with the intention of circling back to it at a later date. However, that ‘later date’ often never comes, leaving the software underutilised.

• Change in personnel
• Lack of training
• Updates not explained or shared
• Outdated habits
• Ineffective menu or missing menu/hidden

It’s important to note that the reasons for underutilisation are not insurmountable. If you suspect this might be an issue in your business or if you want to avoid wasting profits on underutilised software, this post will provide practical advice on optimising your software usage. Remember, this is a manageable task that can lead to significant improvements, so don’t be discouraged.

Take Stock

In the first instance, you need to sit down and look at all of your applications and what they do. You need to understand all of your business functions and the role each app plays in this. You then need to address any issues or bottlenecks that might be occurring and pinpoint the exact instances where you are having problems.

Once you know what you need and what is stopping you from getting things done, you will have a better idea of where to start making changes.

From here, you need to examine each application’s efficiency, feasibility, and usability individually, removing everything else from the equation.

How easy is it to use? How does your team find using it? Do they think it implicates the process, or is it even necessary to do what you do? What results does it give you? Is it impractical to use? Has it given you results comparable to others in your industry, or is it falling short?

These are all essential questions you need to ask yourself to better understand the software itself and how it works for your company and your industry. Be ruthless here because if something isn’t a good fit, it’s likely making things more complicated than they need to be, and this is not a viable option for you to sustain.

Identify Underutilised Software

By using your data or tools to help you track software analytics, you need to uncover any software that is underutilised or not even sold, i.e., made redundant by other types of software. If you have followed the above points, you are definitely on the way there, but step it up by identifying the options that are not being used and uncovering why rather than how the software works within the organisation and each department.

From here, you can see if you need to use any features that might not be currently operating to help you evaluate your subscriptions so you can move anything that isn’t needed or won’t be of value to you moving forward.

Talk To Suppliers

It’s worth mentioning that once you understand the role each software application plays in your company and find out what it’s capable of and what you’re not using, you should refer back to the supplier, who can assist you in learning more about what it’s capable of and how best to use and implement it within your organisation.

If you don’t understand something, you can’t configure it correctly, or your needs have changed, use the support services offered to help you make the necessary adjustments and identify and explain the appropriate changes.

Update The Software

It is not always a simple task, but it is essential. Keeping your software updated allows you to improve security and functionality and introduces new features or settings that have been updated by the supplier. There might be new features that can be extremely beneficial or help things improve, but if you don’t update, you won’t find out and will likely still be struggling.

Always use any security protection that comes with the applications or have business application security measures in place to assist you in protecting data and the business before turning updates and after.

Reboot and Reconfigure

You need to make sure that your systems and devices are set up to help you utilise all of the features available to you. Depending on what you have in place, you might need to reconfigure some aspects to fully implement each type of software.

For example, to get the most from your Project Management Software for Non-Profits, you might need to disable other programs running so you can fully integrate this software to manage all of the programs it is capable of handling and streamline each aspect. From here, you can reintegrate other software to complement this and handle tasks outside its capabilities for further enhancements.

This action removes anything that might be unneeded and gives you a fresh start. It allows you to rebuild your systems and implement software correctly for maximum impact. 

Start with the type of software that does more of the heavy lifting or has more functions than others and forms the basis of what you do—i.e., the one you cannot live without. Put this in place first, configure it correctly, and explore all the options and features. Then, look for gaps in what you’re missing and add those one by one. This can eliminate any excess and prevent you from doubling up or running conflicting programs.

Training

Training for each staff member, including yourself, is vital. Whether you hire a third party to implement training on using the software correctly or you get each developer to carry out the turning using pre-recorded tutorials or in person, you need to ensure that everyone tasked with using it has the knowledge and skills to do so correctly for maximum impact. This preparation is key to successful software utilisation, and it will equip you and your team with the necessary skills to make the most of your software.

It’s not feasible to simply install it and then expect people to know how to do it or have them learn as they do because this is how things are issued and mistakes are made. So, whether it’s a refresher for the team or from-scratch training for new hires, ensure everyone has the same knowledge and is ready and equipped to use everything they need to.

Your company training program needs to include software training as a standard for each one. Include best usage practices, troubleshooting common mistakes, making the most use of the tools and so on so everyone can work from the same page and have what they need to move forward. It can be a good idea to track common mistakes or issues, implement fixes, and add to the training schedule to address and eliminate this.

Stream Acquisition

To avoid any comforting software, you simply buy new software for its own sake. You need to streamline your buying process. What this does is make you think more about how you think you need the software and what gaps it’s actually filling instead of being wowed by a shiny new toy.

Before investing in new software, you should vet all vendors, perform a cost analysis for each application, and identify areas of overlap as a standard.

A top tip is to include software in your offboarding process so you can keep track of accounts in use and capacity limits and eliminate unneeded accounts. You often need to upgrade or expand simply because inactive accounts haven’t been identified or deleted from the system.

Conclusion

Software is a valuable aspect of many business operations, and the value of the right software in an organisation can be worth the effort and cost to implement. From benefits including streamlined processes, cost-cutting, time-saving, and increased proactivity capabilities to improving your business, such as improved standards, increased consistency, and greater compliance, the right type of software can be worth its weight in gold.

However, for any application to be useful, you need to make sure you, as a business, understand its functions and how it works. You need to configure it to your needs to ensure maximum usage and that you aren’t paying for what you don’t want or need. These tips can help you do just that.