It is obvious which software systems you require for your business, or is it?

For example, every business has some sort of an accounting system, order tracking, stock management, etc. But have you thought about what additional systems you can add to boost productivity or improve revenue?

Here is an example: suppose you operate a retail chain of stores. What is the optimal balance between the number of cashiers and the length of the customer queue?

The accounting system cannot tell you that. To determine this, you would need a system to measure the length of the queue and the number of persons who enter the store. The optimal point is where the cashiers are not standing idle and the queue is not too long.

This min/max mathematics can be done for any cost analysis. A business consultant can help you determine which cost areas to study.

The rote, ordinary, daily grind of administering a business is made easier by computer software. Without it, businesses would be run with clerks wearing green-shaded hats making entries into heavy double-entry ledgers. Shipping companies would fill out bills of lading by with a pen.

To think that any of this was once done by hand makes the points that most companies do not think much about software except when it does not work. But a properly conceived system need not be consider a sunk cost with no possible payback period or return. A business can conceive of and install a system to drive down operating costs and boost gross margins.

The optimal business system is one that you design and build yourself. Of course you can purchase word processing software on the internet, but for logistical, financial, industrial systems, you are much better off hiring a software development vendor that works as your partner and drives your business forward.