by : admin Website Design

Why Having a Software is Better for Manufacturers than Using Excel?

Are you a manufacturer and using excel to keep tabs on the day-to-day operations of the business? You are here because you are finding it difficult to manage everything using excel, right? Well, then let us help you by providing insights into the potential of using a custom software. Whether it is based on a custom or clone system, it will offer great benefits. So let’s see how a software can make your business more efficient as compared to excel.

Implementation of Software in Different Aspects of Business:

More Efficient Accounting:

With the help of a customized system software for your business, you can generate accounting reports with just a single click. Unlike excel where you need to enter several formulas to design a framework that gets you a report when you manually enter all the variables, the software does all of this for you. This will save you a lot of time and effort and you can get all reports like profit/ loss sheet with just a single click.

Furthermore, if you make errors in the excel formulas, you won’t have accurate data in hand. By the time you know it is an error, you may have made wrong decisions based on it. Plus it is pretty challenging to find the cell where you put the wrong formula and can take several hours.

For Example: Software like QuickBooks can do all the accounting tasks for you while you sit back and relax. It can generate professional and thorough reports with a single click. Plus, it also has an ‘edit trail’ that you can use to find who is making the changes in the data.

Data on Single Dashboard:

Data is the main ingredient in a successful plan of action. No matter which type of decision you want to take for the betterment of your business, you will be firing arrows in the dark unless you have concrete data.

Excel can show you the sales numbers, profit, loss, inventory, and other numbers but on separate sheets. However, a resource management software can show everything at one place which will save a lot of your time and energy.

For Example: A cloud based app can get data from different departments like sales and marketing, production, logistics, accounting and so on, a process that data into viewable format and display it onto your dashboard. This makes it easier for the top decision makers to view everything at single place and make better decisions rather than going back and forth with excel sheets.

Visual Representation:

Stemming from the last point, you can view data in different formats when using a software for your business. Excel lacks this feature and you will have to see data in a numerical format which you will have to manually enter first.

The addition of visuals in your data will help you understand the trends better and predict next moves based on historical data.

For Example: Using visuals like charts, graphs, and linear trend lines, you can assess which time of the year you get the most sales and which quarter is the slowest. You can then improve your marketing efforts in slow months and bring in more stock in fast ones.

Automation of Production Department:

The role of excel is to keep tabs on things like how many units of products have been sold, and how many are in stock etc. However, it doesn’t have the functionality to auto update, someone has to update it after every transaction of goods. Furthermore, it cannot notify about a product that is about to run out of stock.

You will have to hire a data entry operator to manually enter all the records of the day into excel sheet and also check it for any product that needs restocking. However, a customized system software can do these things on auto pilot.

For Example: You can have a cloud based app that keeps record of the inventory. All of the inventory has barcodes on it so the sales person can simply scan the barcode before selling it.

This will log that product as sold in the database of software and show real time remaining inventory. So when it gets below a certain threshold, you will be notified to restock.

Automation of Customers Relationship:

Collecting and managing data of your customers is a challenging task especially if you are using excel. You will have to first manually enter it into the sheet, organize it based on type of customer persona and then revisit the sheet and find the data of the customer when contacting him/her. This is a lot of work and can consumers a lot of your time. Using a CRM solution can make it easy for you to keep everything about your customers well-organized.

For Example: The software will be connected to your social channels and email account. So whenever a new customer contact you, their information will automatically be saved in the database.

Later on, you can access it if you want, otherwise, it will automatically come up when the customer contacts you again.

by : admin Website Design

Software Technology Can Improve Performance of Various Departments – Here’s How

Wondering whether getting software development service for your business will help you or not? Well, it will, and every department can benefit from a well-designed software. Whether it is a customized or clone system of another tried and tested software, it will increase the efficiency of your business to multiple folds. So if you want to know how, then we have discussed how a software can help various departments cut their time and cost. Also, how it can increase efficiency by automating most of the tasks. So let’s have a look:

Finance Department:

When you use a customized system software for accounting and finance, a lot of the tasks can be automated, leaving managers and their subordinates free for more important tasks. For instance, you can automate the accounts payable and receivable management so the manager always knows when to collect or make payments.

Cash management can also be streamlined so the software keeps track of how much cash is available, its source and where it went. It can not only make things easier but also reduce frauds as anyone who takes out cash will quickly be caught.

Furthermore, financial data can be gathered, processed and presented in an easy to understand manner. Decision makers will be able to generate income statements, P/L statements and balance sheets with just one click. Historical data can also be viewed, which will help you prepare your financials for the future more effectively.

HR Department:

Routinely HR tasks can be automated with the help of a software. You can ask the software development company to add the functions you want it to perform on a regular basis and it will do just that. For instance, you might want to make all employees be on time or else face a penalty. You can provide all employees with digital ids that they will use to log in on the software and it will note their timestamp. This way, if someone arrives late, HR managers will know it by looking at their dashboard that will show information on all employees.

Furthermore, employee performance can also be tracked by providing them with tasks with its brief via HR management software. Once the task is finished, it can be noted in the software and then the performance of employees can be evaluated at the end of the month.

Operations Department:

Every business has several of operations that need to be dealt with on a daily basis and a software can help with most of them. For instance, a software can keep track of the inventory that is available in the warehouse, which can help the production manager keep track of the stock that is available and what needs restocking.

Furthermore, when the sales team is in the field, and they need to confirm the availability of the product in the warehouse, they can just access all the inventory data from their phones and view it. It will eliminate any communication delays and help them secure sales faster.

Historical data of stock sales can also help managers determine the time of year when most products are sold and also when the sales are slow. They can make better decisions based on this data.

Logistics Department:

The main area of logistics is the transportation and it incurs several charges, which might seem small on individual level but they add up to a lot such as fuel, labor, energy, shipping fees and tolls etc. Logistics software can keep tabs on all of these charges so you can minimize the cost where possible and maximize the output.

Moreover, small tasks like making shipment plans, planning loads, and deciding best routes etc. can be automated via the logistics software. Furthermore, it can send notifications to the carriers when the shipment is ready for transportation which will reduce delays as well.

Lastly, it can compare different shipping companies, and their quotes automatically and select the least priced one and reduce the overall logistics cost.

Marketing Department:

According to Adestra, 74% marketers agree that the biggest benefit for using software for marketing is time saving. By automating most of the tasks that consume time like lead nurturing and campaign running can save you money, time and effort. Instead of sending an email to thousands of customers and manually customizing it to fit the state of marketing funnel they are, you can use an autoresponder. It will send timely emails to different leads depending on where they are in the funnel.

Furthermore, you can run better marketing campaigns if you can quickly copy paste then, make adjustments and then split test. Instead of making marketing campaigns manually, you can just copy/paste the existing one, make a few changes and test it. Not only your marketing budget will be reduced, but a lot of your time will also be saved.

by : admin Website Design

Multi-Level Marketing System and Its Benefits – Explained

 

Want to dive into the vast sea of MLM but don’t know what it is, how it works, or what are the benefits? Well, then you are in luck because we will explain all of these things in this guide. Read the content below, and you will have a precise idea by the end of this guide.

What’s Multi-Level Marketing?

It is basically a distribution business model that many companies leverage to get their products out into the market and directly introduced to their customers. Instead of going for the typical routes of offering the products to customers via an online store or a physical retail shop, they get help from sales reps to promote and sell their products.

The sales reps buy the inventory and sell it in their own way, like in person or online. The sales reps are not considered as employees; instead, they are the owners of their business because they are basically purchasing the product and reselling it.

The aspect of ‘multi-level’ means that the sales reps get their own sales reps, train them, and help them start their business selling the same products. This way, they earn a commission when the sales rep under them make sales.

How Does MLM Work?

It’s pretty simple. Let’s suppose someone named Sam starts his own MLM Company, and he has bought some great products to sell. Now, whenever he sells them, he obviously earns a profit. However, to further increase his income, he hires sales reps; Marty and David. He trains both of them and educates about the products.

Now, these two guys purchase products from Sam and sell at a profit. A small chunk of their profit will go to Sam as a commission because he brought them into the business and taught them everything. Now Marty and David can further hire their own sales reps to increase their incomes and the process will be repeated. Here are a few main terms you should know about MLM:

  • Sponsor:
    The sales rep who recruited another salesperson will be his sponsor, he will train and educate the new rep and earn a commission when he makes sales. In the above example, Sam is the Sponsor.
  • Recruit:
    The person who is recruited by the Sponsor, Marty and David are recruits.
  • Downline:
    All the recruits that are brought into the company below a sales rep. So in above example, David and Martin and all the sales reps they will recruit will be Downline to Sam.
  • Upline:
    It’s the opposite of Downline, all the sponsors who came before a recruit are Upline; Sam is Upline to Martin and David and their recruits.

What Kind of MLM is Legal?

Many people are scared of getting into MLM because they have heard horrible things where people lost a lot of their money, and to be honest, they are not wrong. The problem is that when the sales reps get greedy and try to sell every kind of product, even if they are not good ones and focus on hiring recruits irrespective of their skills then the MLM turns into a scam. People who come in the last usually lose their money this way. So the ingredients of a legal MLM are:

  • Excellent quality of service/product
  • Focus on sales instead of blind recruitment

Remember, the money primarily needs to be made from the sale of quality products rather than form the recruitment of other people. This is the crucial factor that makes the MLM legal.

Benefits of MLM for Your Business:

As discussed above, you will be provided with tons of insights regarding how your campaigns when and also which leads are the best. It can even rank leads and give them scores based on how they performed.

So the next time, when you are creating another campaign, you can use this data to better prepare yourself, and instead of wasting time on unimportant leads, you can follow quality ones. This can help you turn your sales funnel into a money-making machine.

Benefits of MLM for Your Business:

  • Increase in Sales:
    One of the main benefits of MLM is that many businesses prefer it because of fast paced sales. So you can have some pretty good clients and won’t run out of business if you maintain a good standard.

    Furthermore, if you promote god quality products, more people will be interested in joining you as sales reps.
  • Low Risk:
    There will always be risk when it comes to opening up a business. However, the level of risk is minimal with MLM because you will not need high capital to get started. Just some initial amount to get a few pieces of products to sell, have a customized system for MLM developed from a software development company for your ease and that’s pretty much it.

    It all comes down to your marketing skills, the more you sell, the more you make and the more sales reps will come to you.
  • No Need to Hire Anyone:
    The beauty of MLM is that it is a self-sustaining model where the people selling products under you will earn their own bread and butter and you will get a small amount of commission from them.

    Meaning not only you don’t have to pay them; they will pay you back instead. This is a great way to earn pretty good residual income without much overhead costs.
  • Live with Freedom:
    People who do legal MLM can go to any part of the world and run their business from there. You don’t need a brick and mortar institute especially.

    Just having an MLM software or web application will help you keep tabs on inventory, sales and commissions.

Over to You:

If you are ready to dive into the sea of MLM and build a legit and legal business that sells quality products and become a reason for jobs for many sales reps then you can start with our help. We provide MLM software development service where we can do both; either make a customized system or do a clone system of a tried and tested MLM software.

 
by : admin Website Design

Software Security And Firewall – 5 Must-Have Security Levels

 

So you are getting your software developed but worried that it might become a victim of attackers and hackers? Every business owner that relies on software for most of their work and data storage is afraid of data leaks that can put them and their customers in jeopardy. However, if there are hackers, then there are security measures as well that you can take to protect your software.

Whether you are getting a customized or a clone system developed, implementing safety features is a MUST, so you don’t fall victim to the hackers waiting to get access to your personal data. Have a look at the 5 levels of security you need to protect your software below:

5 Must-Have Security Levels in a Software’s Customized Systems:

  • Script Variable and Parameter Passing:
    When you set passwords in your server or database for your employees to access, you need to be very careful about their encryption. You don’t want those passwords to be discovered by anyone, or else, it can result in a security breach.

    The problem is that by default, the passwords will be saved as ‘plain text’ in the scripts so when you enter the password, it can quickly be caught by someone with a bit of knowledge in coding. The password goes to the bot for authentication and if it is not encrypted, it can be read during the transit.

    So the basic step of securing your password is by encrypting the string value using PowerShell which obfuscates it and protects from people with wandering eyes. A professional software development company can help you with the security of not just your password but also the username so both of them are well protected from prying eyes and hackers.
  • Cloudflare and SSL Certificate:
    Even if you have secured the password and user id, it is still going to be vulnerable because advanced hackers can use SQL Injection to access the database of your software. The SQL injection allows attackers to change the queries made to the database which means they can easily view data, modify it or delete it which can cause changes to your app’s content or make it behave differently.

    This means things like passwords, personal user details and credit card information of app users stored inside can be compromised and used by attackers. This can even result in heavy lawsuits against you. So to protect yourself and the users of your app, you need CloudFlare set up. It basically protects your app against attacks like SQL Injection that can result in a data breach.

    Furthermore, you can get an SSL certificate for your app which will add an additional layer of security during the exchange of information between users and the app. This is especially necessary for ecommerce apps where the transfer of credit/debit card information happens every day. According to GlobalSign; 85% people avoid shopping from platforms that are not secure, so getting an SSL certificate is a must for you.
  • Hide the Origin IP:
    Once again, CloudFlare will help you here. You will have to ensure that your original server’s IP address is not exposed to the public. Because if it is, then it will make the job of hackers a lot easy. They can just directly target your server and send requests from different machines or bots and take the server of your app down. This will obviously result in your app not being available to the end-users and you will lose business.

    So we suggest that you use the ‘Orange Cloud’ feature of Cloudflare to add layers if front of your origin IP and not leave it exposed to hackers.
  • Security Settings in Server’s Operating System:
    This is something you need to do to secure your servers from anything that is being downloaded from the internet. A lot of viruses can be installed in the servers without you knowing and they can then disrupt your whole server database or steal important data.

    Till now, you were doing things that protect your servers from external factors like attackers and hackers but what if a virus escapes all of these things and enter in your servers? Well that’s where the firewall will protect it.

    You need to enable the Firewall system in your server’s operating system and regularly update it to ensure full protection against existing and upcoming threats.
  • Hardware Installation:
    Everything we were doing till now was based on software and applications, but if you want to add a final security layer to your software’s servers then getting a physical firewall is mandatory. It is a device that is connected to the network and positioned between the computer and the uplink.

    It will inspect the traffic that enters or leaves the server computer and grant or deny access based on its credibility.

 
by : Priscilla Ng Ecommerce Tips, Software, Website Design

Why is CRM Important for a B2B Business?

The most important and perhaps the most challenging part of running any business is to get clients. And clients are captured with the help of data, knowing who wants what helps businesses hit the right spot of their potential customers.

A B2B CRM solution can help businesses do just that. It can help you make more data-driven decisions, improve your marketing and sales campaigns, and help you optimize your funnels better.

However, the B2B CRM solutions should be programmed by a software development firm to fit your particular needs instead of using a clone system that many businesses are already using.

So What’s B2B CRM Anyway?

Short for Customer Relationship Management, CRM is all about the ‘customers come first’ approach. It is a management strategy where data is collected in order to better understand customers’ needs and provide them with maximum value. Furthermore, it allows businesses to know exactly what their customers want, which means they can upsell their products and ultimately increase their revenue.

There are many B2B CRM software solutions that can help the sales team collect heaps of data from different communication channels where they interact with their clients and then analyze it. All of this data is stored in the company’s database and can be accessed by the sales and marketing teams for their existing and upcoming campaigns.

Furthermore, B2B CRM is also about nurturing your relationship with your clients. You can stay in touch with them from time to time, help them out whenever you can, offer discounts or freebies, and earn their loyalty.

Why Your Business Needs CRM?

The basic idea behind any sales cycle/funnel is to take the customer through the journey of several steps, starting from increasing brand awareness and then ultimately making the sale. Do you know that for every dollar spend on CRM, $8.71 is earned back? (Source)

Although it can be a very challenging process, with the help of CRM software solutions, you can find out what a particular set of customers need at a specific stage. This makes things easier. Here are a few core advantages of using B2B CRM:

Highly Targeted Campaigns:

The launching of any marketing campaign is already pretty tough, but what if you need to run more than one of them? What if you sell three types of soaps; Beauty Soap, Antibacterial Soap, and Acne Soap, and you need to promote them at once? The target market for all three of them will be different, right?

So how will you keep track of potential client data, and who needs which soap? This is where B2B CRM software will help you. By collecting, analyzing, and organizing data of different types of customers via your multiple communication channels, it will help your sales team keep track of who is who and what is what.

 Detailed Analytics:

Once you have concluded a marketing campaign, how will you find out if it was a success? Well, that is where CRM will help you out as well. It will analyze the data of all your sales campaigns and will provide you with detailed reports and insights on things like:

  • Which campaign yielded the highest ROI?
  • Anticipation of sales for next quarter
  • What are the best and most qualitative leads?
  • Which of your actions impacted the sales decision of lead?

And so on. Well-developed CRM software usually has a dashboard where all of this information can be accessed with just a few clicks.

You Can Make More Data-Driving Decisions:

As discussed above, you will be provided with tons of insights regarding how your campaigns when and also which leads are the best. It can even rank leads and give them scores based on how they performed.

So the next time, when you are creating another campaign, you can use this data to better prepare yourself, and instead of wasting time on unimportant leads, you can follow quality ones. This can help you turn your sales funnel into a money-making machine.

Makes Marketing and Sales Departments Collaborate:

The two hands of any business that help it collect the profits are the sales and marketing departments. However, in many business environments, they are not directly working together, which can compromise the company’s potential to reach more potential clients and nurture the relationship with the existing ones.

With the help of the CRM system, you can align both of these departments as all the data from both sides will be fed inside the CRM software. So whenever any department needs to know something about a campaign or a lead, they can just access the data from a dashboard.

Over to You:

Make sure to hire a professional software development firm to make you a customized system of B2B CRM based on your needs and the marketing channels you use to interact with your customers.

It will not only make it a piece of cake for clients to reach you whenever they want, but your sales and marketing teams will be able to make better data-driven decisions.

by : Priscilla Ng Ecommerce Tips, Software Customization, Website Design

Why Should You Sell on Ecommerce Marketplaces Besides Your Own Store?

Wondering if you should have your ecommerce store developed? Maybe you want to replicate the look of online marketplaces like Shopee using the clone system website and sell from there? Well, you can do these things, but you still need to sell on these marketplaces as well.

This is because the annual sales of Malasia’s ecommerce market jumped by 47% from 2014 to 2017 and expected to further grow at a rate of 24% per year by 2021 (Source).

So this means if you can not only sell from your brand website but also from ecommerce marketplaces and grow your business in the next few years.

5 Reasons You Need Ecommerce Marketplace Besides Your Own Website:

Access to Their Customer Base:

Do you know that in just Q4 of 2018, Lazada received 183 million visits, and Shopee received 147.6 million visits? (Source). This is huge for businesses looking to get more customers and ultimately increase their sales. By creating on your store on platforms like Lazada and Shopee, you will be able to access an untapped market of customers who are purchasing online. Even if you have your own separate website where you sell online, by not working on these marketplaces, you are leaving some serious money on the table.

Plus, as mentioned at the start of this article, the ecommerce market of Malaysia is on track to grow further, and this growth is not going to stop in the coming years. This means if you make a store now, it will grow with time, and you will receive even more sales and customers in the future.

Fulfillment Benefits:

Ecommerce marketplaces like Lazada have their own fulfillment programs as well. This means the hassle of packing, shipping, and dealing with product returns will not be your problem. You just need to send your product inventory to their fulfillment centers, and that’s all, they will pick, pack, and ship it whenever someone orders.

This type of freedom allows you to put your store on autopilot and make money even while you sleep. Although they charge some fee for doing this, the peace of mind and freedom is still worth it.

Marketing Opportunities:

One of the benefits of selling on online marketplaces is the marketing tools they offer that you can leverage to get ahead of your competition. You can use PPC advertising to put your product right in front of the competitor. When people search for a product that you sell, your product will be on top, which means more chances of getting the sale.

Furthermore, there are make campaigns like Black Friday deals, daily flash sales, and many more that you can enroll in and further grow your sales.

Enhance Brand Visibility:

If you are just starting out on your journey to becoming an online brand, you high brand visibility. And places like Lazada and Shopee offer this kind of opportunity. By using their platform and their credibility, you can entice and attract more potential customers.

This basically means you don’t have to spend thousands on marketing to position your brand in people’s minds. You can just start a store on the ecommerce marketplace and get benefit from their credibility and trustworthiness.

Access to Other Countries:

You are not just limited to selling in your own country when you sell on ecommerce marketplaces. If you want, you can make a store in other countries as well where the marketplace exists, send your inventory to their warehouse in that country, and immediately start selling.

For instance, Lazada allows for selling in 6 southeastern countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, and Singapore. You can sell in all 6 of these countries if you want.

Why Do I Need My Own Website When I Can Sell on Ecommerce Marketplace?

Now that you realize the benefits of selling on the ecommerce marketplace, you might wonder, why do I need to have my own website? Well, that is because you can channel the customers from those marketplaces to your own brand website.

The benefit for this will be that when people start buying directly from your website, you won’t have to pay fees that you do when selling on ecommerce marketplaces. So you will have more profit per sale. Plus, you can build your own customer base using social media and get more sales on new products.

Over to You:

You can have your own customized system of ecommerce website developed and also an ecommerce app from a software development company. But if you go just one step further and also start to sell on ecommerce marketplaces, you can have access to a bigger customer base.

Plus, you can eventually get the people buying from you on the ecommerce marketplace to visit your website and grow your personal customer base.