101 ways to make money
using business software
There are loads of money-saving and profit-finding tips here.
We'd like you to see details for how you can profit from software systems' immense power.
See the key below to get started.
Key to symbols
Adding to the bottom line
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Savings on labour costs
Savings on administrative costs
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Savings on stock levels
Other financial gains
Indirect benefits
Smaller lead times
Better decisions
Increased accuracy
restructuring benefits
1. Designing the workflows and functionality of your system will raise fundamental questions about company strategy, project scope and operational culture. This will align company strategy with business change, producing project and software savings on wasted resources and improving the chances of success
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2. The design process should visit and consider alternative best practices and approaches for different aspects of the company serving an educational and thought-provoking role. This will help management form better decisions about company operation, providing opportunities to save money and take advantage of opportunities.
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3. The design process will facilitate the formation of a realistic step-by-step plan to implement the system and changes to the organisation’s life. This will save on wasted resources and improve the chances of success.
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4. The design process will naturally direct attention to analysing some aspects of the company and the examination of actual procedures taking place inside the company. Learning about workers’ eye view reality will help management form realistic goals and changes. This will save on wasted resources and improve the chances of success.
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5. The design process usually involves some negotiation between different individuals, teams and departments bringing to the surface internal power lines, operational reality and motivation in workers for improvements. This facilitates management to form better plans saving on wasted resources and improving the chances of success.
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6. The system design process coupled with executive level business change project strategic decisions will help avoid over-ambitious and fruitless steps for the system implementation project. This will save on wasted resources and improve the chances of success.
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Modelling
1. A system can be built so that it represents a kind of virtual replica of important aspects of the company. This model, coupled maybe with forecasts and preset assumptions enables the company to test different scenarios. Based on the insights provided by the outcome, management can choose the appropriate strategy minimising waste and maximising output.
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2. Designing and operating a model facilitates a clearer understanding of inherent relationships between the variables and their likely outcome. The better understanding of the company can lead to better decisions with strategy and in the everydays of business. This saves money on waste and improves opportunities.
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3. Modelling can also give you insights into timelines. How long will it take to respond and raise the question, what will happen in the meantime? This helps management to choose the appropriate strategy minimising waste and maximising output.
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4. Assessing the actual results achieved, against the ones predicted by the model, will help provide early warnings of unforeseen problems as well as enabling the project’s success to be measured. It also helps improve the model, if need be, to have an even better tool for the future.
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Change Management
1. The system can support the introduction of new procedures by guiding staff in the new workflows. This saves on training and can reduce the stress of change.
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2. The Change Management process of a new system installation can be aided by incremental implementation of scope and functionality. The costs saved on staff resistance and the stress of change could easily outweigh the added costs of software development and training.
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3. When planning to reform a business, the software project can give clearer guidelines in tasks and deadlines for staff. This makes it more likely that the change will actually take place inside the company, saving on wasted efforts.
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4. Key influencers of staff can be invited to the design process, making it more likely for them to support the installation of new software and change. This saves on wasted efforts.
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5. The new workflows can be guarded by the system, making it harder or impossible for staff to fall back into old habits. This can cement higher efficiency into everyday life saving on costs and increasing output.
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6. Welcoming feedback from key users throughout the implementation can improve the system and will gain their support, saving on staff resistance.
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7. The system can be used to “communicate” objective goals for departments, teams and individuals. Guiding their attention to key metrics can change their attitude and focus, improving efficiency and alignment with company strategy. This can save on costs and increase output.
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8. A system can deliver information between people and departments drawing attention to otherwise overlooked details. This can save on waste and helps spotting opportunities.
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9. Some “messages”, for example feedback on performance, can be delivered by the system. This takes pressure off management who then can place themselves more into a mentoring role. This can save on labour costs and can reduce stress at the workplace.
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10. The design process can be an ideal way to check whether inputs and outputs of different jobs form an elegant flow, with every stage adding value.
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System Related Operational Risks
1. If the developer is no longer available, or the technology is not supported anymore, installing a new system will save on operational costs an unexpected system failure could cause.
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2. If some or all of the business depends on spreadsheets, their technical limitations, and with increasing size their growing obscurity, can be an impediment, costing the company on lost efficiency. Also, you can miss out on a number of standard software modules with some of their natural advantages and best practices.
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3. If the current system has risky data security problems, either inside the company or to the outside world, the new system can save on the losses of data capital.
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4. An integrated system with just one software house could be cheaper to operate than the combined licence fees paid to several vendors of standalone solutions.
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5. An integrated system can save money on permanent data export-import costs.
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6. Bandaging the old system can cost more than replacing it with a new system.
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Interconnectedness of systems
1. More and more machines are equipped with computers and there is a great variety of sensors. These can be connected to the business software, providing data for monitoring, reports or statistics. The up-to-date information allows for shorter response times saving on waste and gaining on opportunities.
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2. Huge volumes of collected data can be imported from measurement devices into the system, saving on administrative costs.
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3. Measurement devices connected to the system can improve accuracy and be less prone to human error. This saves on administrative costs and the damage caused by inaccurate data.
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4. GPS systems communicating with the central system give up-to-date information about the whereabouts and actions of vehicles and suchlike. This improves monitoring, allows for shorter response times and can provide valuable information for statistics.
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5. RFIDs and other inside GPS devices make it possible to track the location of stock and equipment. This improves monitoring, allows for shorter response times and can provide valuable information for statistics.
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Other System Gains
1. The system can be programmed to do work intensive, monotonous tasks. This saves on labour costs, increases accuracy and frees up staff to do more creative work.
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2. Allowing the system to control some of the workflow can increase predictability in operations and may reduce stress. This could increase staff loyalty saving on hiring and training.
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3. Software has superhuman qualities which should be harvested. Impossible calculations, constant vigilance, never going on holiday, just to name a few. This creates opportunities for work that would otherwise be very costly or impossible.
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4. The workflows, best practices and company culture are all embedded in a fitting system which then makes expansion of the company to new sites, new workers, new countries very much easier. This saves on training and gets the new capacity up to speed a lot more quickly.
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5. An integrated system means any data will only have to be input once, and is already available everywhere where it is needed. This saves on administrative costs and guards against data corruption.
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6. An integrated system also provides common data structure for different departments reducing misunderstandings and making management overview easier.
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7. Software is here to extend our abilities, to be symbiotic with staff, to achieve success. It can look after our interests, guard our resources, alert us when problems arise, For example, the system can have a full role in streamlining and controlling the company in an orderly fashion, and humans then filling in the gaps with the right amount of autonomy and responsibility given to them.
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8. Data which are significant and useful need to be interpreted, organised, structured and presented to provide actionable information - in all of which the system can help. This allows for quicker and better decisions, saving on waste and gaining in opportunities.
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9. The system can purify and prioritise information. The purer, the more relevant that input is, the less that people need to exert themselves on selecting and cleansing it.
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10. In some areas, software itself can do most of the work. This can remove operational capacity obstacles of growth, as software is easy to extend most of the time.
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