Managing your company with software

Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata Jnr.

One advantage that ICT has brought to the world lies in its capacity to make life a whole lot easier for those who apply it one way or the other in their daily individual and corporate lives.

As a small enterprise operator, I can attest to the fact that software as a service has made life a lot easier as quite a number of IT services are now available at less expensive prices.

However, many businesses still prefer to be in control of their data which is quite understandable especially if it is a high risk business such as banking. I probably care less as an SME operator and that is why I am happy with may cloud based SAAS but honestly may have a rethink as business grows bigger and customers begin to entrust sensitive data to my care.

Undoubtedly, companies all over the world do generate huge amount of data in the course of performing their daily routines. A variety of Information Management Software are available to a company to manage large volumes of data from diverse sources to achieve a more informed, faster decision making procedure, as well as streamline various processes across the entire organisational structure.

The software is intricately designed to help you in governing data proactively, other than ensure accurate and complete information, facilitate regulatory compliance and minimise your IT costs.

Potential benefits of applying IT-related information software in your business

• Ensuring that decision making becomes much smarter with timely, accurate and complete information at hand
• Ensuring that business operations are streamlined across incongruent systems with reliable and consistent data
• Providing enhanced levels of productivity with ready access to all content that is relevant to such processes as are run by your business
• Superior regulatory compliance, along with effective management of the information lifecycle

As a whole, Information Management Software comprise systems that are principally based on computers and which in effect help in providing information desirable for effective management of an organisation.

The software is, hence, designed with the prime objective of enhancing the level of communication between company employees, supporting the strategic direction and goals of the organisation and least of all, for providing an adept system that records information crucial to the wellbeing of the organisation and its prospective business interests.

Transaction Processing

Among a diversified range of Information Management Software available today is the transaction processing software. It is purposely designed for dealing with huge volumes of transactions that are routine. These are day to day transactions that come in large volumes.

First launched in the 1960s with the advent of the mainframe version of computers, transaction processing software has gained a wide range of usage in today’s business and commercial world. For one, banks are among its top current users, particularly where maintenance of efficient record for bank payments and deposits into various accounts is given the highest priority.

Supermarkets too are not left out as they make regular use of the transaction processing software for tracking their inventory and recording daily sales. So is it with so many other fields of endeavours. Many company managers often make use of the transaction processing software for dealing with tasks that generally include customer billing, supplier payments and payroll.

Operations Software

After the launch of transaction processing software, operations information software found all-round utility in the market. Operating information software is useful for gathering comprehensive data, which is then summarised and further organised in a manner that managers find greatly helpful. The summary and organisation of data save the managers a whole lot of time that would otherwise have been concentrated in sifting through a whole heap of data.

Since its prime function is the access of data generated by the transaction processing software and organising the same into usable forms, company managers prefer making use of this software for obtaining information related to accounting, inventory, sales and other business performances.

Management Applications

One thing that will really determine the success or otherwise of the application of Information Management Software by an organisation is for all the staff in the organisation to flow with the tide and synergise to make effective use of management software applications.

One sure way to achieve this is to ensure that all the staff in the organisation are well trained in the application of management software. This way, they will learn how to effectively access and share relevant information that will propel the organisation to success in record time.

It is sad to note that some organisations spend a lot on acquiring the best tools that can help their processes but neglect the training of the manpower that will utilise those tools to achieve the objectives the tools are meant to achieve. This is not good enough.

Organisations should brace up and improve on staff training. This is because having the required tools like the information software without training those who will use it is like buying a car and giving the keys to the car to a greenhorn who does not know anything about driving a car. We all know the obvious result of taking such an action – a fatal accident! The same should be expected of an organisation that fails to train its staff on the tools they are supposed to use to improve the job processes.