There are very few businesses that don’t use some kind of software. Databases of customers or clients, billing systems, Point of Sale software, internal and external scheduling and communication applications, and more. Most businesses actually use multiple pieces of software throughout the course of a day.
The software choices your business makes will determine how efficient and effective you are, how empowered or frustrated your staff feel, and how well you’ll serve your customers, not to mention how much software expense you incur to run your business. You’ll need to find the systems and solutions that bring you the most gains in a wide range of areas, and cost you the least in dollars, time, training, and effort to use.
You know your business. When deciding on what software solutions your business needs, it’s often best to consult with a professional that knows the strengths and limitations of different types of software solutions. Your combined expertise is likely to find the best answer or answers. Here are some of the software solutions you may look into together.
Open Source Software
Open Source Software (OSS) is software with source code that anyone can inspect, modify, and enhance. This means anyone with the skill to improve (or try to improve) it is free to do so. The most well recognized OSS are probably Ubuntu Linux, WordPress, Mozilla Firefox, and OpenOffice. Open Source Software is often, but not always, cost-free to use. It can also be less user-friendly than software that was developed with a larger budget, but not always.
Proprietary Software
The term proprietary is derived from the Latin word proprietas meaning property. Proprietary software is software that is owned and maintained by an individual or a company (usually the one that developed it). There are almost always major restrictions on its use, including that you can’t alter or share it. Well-knows proprietary software includes Windows, Internet Explorer, and Dropbox.
Cloud Based Services
Cloud based services are not a category defined by how the software is created or maintained, but by how the data is stored and accessed. Instead of loading the program into your computer’s memory, you access it and the data you store there, through the internet. Popular cloud-based applications include Dropbox, Google G Suite, Office 365, and Slack.
Grundig IT knows software, and we pride ourselves on our wide base of software skill and knowledge. We love helping dentists, chiropractors, veterinarians, and others that need software to manage their patient records and practises. We also get great satisfaction out of helping stores, restaurants, and other businesses that need to schedule staff, monitor inventory, and do other tasks to keep business running smoothly. No matter what kind of business you have, we have the technical background to tell you if the software you’re considering is up to the challenge, or to steer you towards better options you may not know about. Contact Grundig IT today for software consulting services.
