“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” – Bill Gates
Right! Now that a disclaimer is in place, I’d like to highlight some amazing and shockingly easy to use mobile apps that small and medium sized businesses cannot afford to ignore. Below are, our most favourite apps that we find best suited to individual business functions. The apps are broadly recommended for specific parts of the business, having said that the benefits of some certainly overlap.
Operations/Production/Service Delivery
Asana – (Free for unlimited teams of up to 15. Prices apply for more than 15)
No matter what your product or service, flawless collaboration is and always will be key to great success. We find Asana one of the best tools for project management for individuals and teams alike. It has an easy to use interface and a long list of very useful features.
Sales/Marketing
Insightly – (Free for up to 3 users. Reasonable pricing, USD$99/month for up to 40 users)
This one we use ourselves. It’s a feature rich, cloud based CRM (Customer Resource Management) system. There are no lock-in contracts or service agreements and is very simple and easy to implement. An intuitive interface and abundant free support make it unquestionably the best CRM for SMBs. We extensively use it for our sales and marketing campaigns, it is one app we could not do without. I could write an entire blog dedicated to how awesome this app is but then I wouldn’t be the only one.
Finance
Xero – (Starting at AUD$25/month for unlimited users. Most popular plan at AUD$60)
They call it ‘Beautiful accounting software’ and we concur except we also think it’s a workhorse with wings when it comes to doing our least favourite activity. Apart from making general accounting easy, it generates and records invoices, receives bank feeds and also reconciles them. It does payroll, auto superannuation and is multi-currency capable. It will save you weeks worth of boring accounting work a year.
Administration
Google Apps of Business – (AUD$5/user/month)
If ever there ever were a king of all apps, this would be it. From emails, calendars and files, to documents and presentations it does everything. This single cloud based app allows you to control almost all your IT administration from a surprisingly simple browser based dashboard. This, ladies and gentlemen, is an IT support killer.
All the apps above are cloud-based, can be accessed from almost all smart mobile devices and any macs or pcs. We encourage you to at least give the free ones a try. You have nothing to lose except, going back to the wise words of Mr Gates, before you decide to fully implement any or all of the above, ensure a sound mobile strategy is in place.
Do you use apps for your business? Are there any favourite ones you cannot work without? Have we missed any good ones? Or you want to know more. Feel free to leave us a comment below or email us at hello @ vocatys . com
Right! Now that a disclaimer is in place, I’d like to highlight some amazing and shockingly easy to use mobile apps that small and medium sized businesses cannot afford to ignore. Below are, our most favourite apps that we find best suited to individual business functions. The apps are broadly recommended for specific parts of the business, having said that the benefits of some certainly overlap.
Operations/Production/Service Delivery
Asana – (Free for unlimited teams of up to 15. Prices apply for more than 15)
No matter what your product or service, flawless collaboration is and always will be key to great success. We find Asana one of the best tools for project management for individuals and teams alike. It has an easy to use interface and a long list of very useful features.
Sales/Marketing
Insightly – (Free for up to 3 users. Reasonable pricing, USD$99/month for up to 40 users)
This one we use ourselves. It’s a feature rich, cloud based CRM (Customer Resource Management) system. There are no lock-in contracts or service agreements and is very simple and easy to implement. An intuitive interface and abundant free support make it unquestionably the best CRM for SMBs. We extensively use it for our sales and marketing campaigns, it is one app we could not do without. I could write an entire blog dedicated to how awesome this app is but then I wouldn’t be the only one.
Finance
Xero – (Starting at AUD$25/month for unlimited users. Most popular plan at AUD$60)
They call it ‘Beautiful accounting software’ and we concur except we also think it’s a workhorse with wings when it comes to doing our least favourite activity. Apart from making general accounting easy, it generates and records invoices, receives bank feeds and also reconciles them. It does payroll, auto superannuation and is multi-currency capable. It will save you weeks worth of boring accounting work a year.
Administration
Google Apps of Business – (AUD$5/user/month)
If ever there ever were a king of all apps, this would be it. From emails, calendars and files, to documents and presentations it does everything. This single cloud based app allows you to control almost all your IT administration from a surprisingly simple browser based dashboard. This, ladies and gentlemen, is an IT support killer.
All the apps above are cloud-based, can be accessed from almost all smart mobile devices and any macs or pcs. We encourage you to at least give the free ones a try. You have nothing to lose except, going back to the wise words of Mr Gates, before you decide to fully implement any or all of the above, ensure a sound mobile strategy is in place.
Do you use apps for your business? Are there any favourite ones you cannot work without? Have we missed any good ones? Or you want to know more. Feel free to leave us a comment below or email us at hello @ vocatys . com
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