As technology has evolved over the years, so has the business world. In fact, business practices are often propelled by specific digital tools. For that reason, you may be looking to gather some of those tools together for your own company.
The question, though, is this: Which tools should you use? There are a lot of business tools out there, but you don’t want to spend more on those tools than you have to. But maybe you’re unsure which tools are most useful to an industrial company like yours.
If so, don’t worry—we’ve got answers for you. On this page, we’ll go over six types of software for industrial companies. Keep reading to learn more!
6 types of software to include in your industrial company tech stack
There are lots of digital tools out there, but six types in particular deserve to be included in your company’s technology stack. Those six types are:
One of the most essential tools for any business is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform. A CRM exists to help you gather, store, organize, and analyze customer data. It also enables you to manage your sales process, marketing outreach, and other interactions with leads and customers.
By tracking and analyzing your CRM data, you can learn a lot about your target audience and customers. For example, you can hone in on the demographics most likely to buy from you. Then, you can reoptimize your marketing and sales to better target that audience.
CRMs also enable you to make your sales processes more efficient through improved organization and automation.
Some examples of CRM platforms include:
Nutshell
Insightly
Copper
2. Project management software
Another essential type of industrial company software is a project management tool. Project management software, as the name suggests, allows you to keep track of different projects that are in the works at your company.
You can use this software to prioritize different projects based on due dates and urgency. You can also track which employees are responsible for which individual tasks and how long it takes them to complete those tasks.
Some examples of project management software include:
Asana
Trello
Monday
3. Time tracking and billing software
It probably goes without saying, but you need some way to pay your employees. You likely also need some way of tracking how much time they spend working. That’s where time tracking and billing software comes into play.
With this software, you can track how much time each employee spends on the clock and how long they spend on different projects. That means that you can track the progress of individual employees and get a feel for which tasks are the most time-consuming across the team.
Some examples of time tracking and billing software include:
FreshBooks
Harvest
Hubstaff
4. Manufacturing execution system (MES) software
For many businesses, a manufacturing execution system (MES) is one of the most important industrial company tools. This type of software works across your business to streamline your processes, with a particular focus on tracking product development and purchases. It can do things like:
Provide quality data checks
Track product, inventory, and order details
Dispatch fresh orders to employees on the shop floor
And more!
Using an MES, you can much more easily keep track of what’s happening with your product inventory.
Some of the best MES tools include:
Kinetic
Katana Cloud Manufacturing
PINpoint MES
5. Material requirements planning (MRP) software
Material requirements planning (MRP) software is another type of tool that you’ll want to include in your industrial company tech stack. As an industrial business, you may purchase and sell a lot of different parts, and those parts can be a lot to keep up with. An MRP platform helps you manage them.
Using an MRP, you can track quantities of raw materials and finished products alike. You can also use this software to schedule product production and deliveries, as well as to maintain inventory flow.
Some examples of MRP software include:
MRPeasy
Katana MRP
SAP S/4 HANA
6. Accounting and financial management software
Finally, it’s critical that you keep track of your company’s finances, and the best tool for doing that is an accounting and financial management platform. With this tool, you can track various financial data, including:
Payroll
Taxes
Subscriptions
Budget
Using accounting software saves you a ton of time and effort that you would otherwise have to put into painstakingly creating spreadsheets to track all of this data. It also reduces the chance of human error since these platforms allow for a certain amount of automation.
Some of the best financial management tools include:
QuickBooks
FreshBooks
Xero
Building your industrial company tech stack
Most of this page has focused on the tools you should include in your industrial company tech stack. But how do you go about putting that tech stack together? How do you choose which tools to include for your business’s unique needs?
The best advice for putting together a tech stack is to treat it like a toolbox. When you get a toolbox, you fill it with different tools—a hammer, a wrench, a saw, etc.
On the one hand, you want to ensure your toolbox has everything you need on the job. You don’t want to keep running back to get more tools you didn’t pack the first time. At the same time, you don’t want to weigh the toolbox down unnecessarily. You wouldn’t include two identical hammers, for instance.
You should take a similar approach with your tech stack. Be sure to include all the tools you expect to need to manage your business, but avoid getting duplicate tools that do the same thing. That will just increase your expenses unnecessarily.
Nutshell can fulfill all of your industrial company’s CRM needs
If you think back to the beginning of this page, you’ll recall that the very first tool on the list was a CRM platform. If you’re looking for a CRM that meets your business’s needs, look no further—Nutshell is the perfect solution.
Nutshell offers top-tier features like sales automation and advanced reporting, along with providing excellent customer service. On top of all that, it’s also very affordable. That means it’s one of the best CRM options available.Interested in seeing what Nutshell can do for your business? Just start a 14-day free trial today!
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