Business management tools are all the systems, applications, controls, calculating solutions, methodologies, etc. used by organizations to be able to cope with changing
markets
Market is a term used to describe concepts such as:
* Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand
* Market economy
*Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market
Geography
*Märket, a ...
, ensure a competitive position in them and improve business performance.
Overview
There are tools related to each organization's department which can be classified for each aspect of
management
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activities o ...
. For example: planning tools, process tools, records tools, employee related tools, decision making tools, control tools, etc. A classification by function would consider these general aspects:
* Tools used for data input and validation in any department.
* Tools used for controlling and improving business processes.
* Tools used for data consolidation and decision making.
Nowadays, management tools have evolved dramatically in the last decade thanks to fast technology advances, so fast that it is difficult to select the best business tools for any situation in any company. This is caused by a never-ending fight for lower costs and increase sales, the willingness for understanding the customers' needs, and the fight for delivering the products that meet their need in the way they require.
Under this scenario, managers should take a strategic attitude to business management tools instead of going for the latest tool. Usually, managers rely on the tools without any adaptation which leads to an unstable situation. Business management tools should be selected carefully, and then adapted to the organization needs and not the other way around.
Most used
In 2013, a survey conducted by Bain & Company
showed how business tools are used around the globe. These tools reflect how their outcomes contribute to each region's needs, considering the downfall and companies' market situation.
The top ten includes:
*
Strategic planning
Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to attain strategic goals.
It may also extend to control mechanisms for guiding the implementation of the st ...
*
Customer relationship management
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a process in which a business or other organization administers its interactions with customers, typically using data analysis to study large amounts of information.
CRM systems compile data from a ra ...
*
Employee engagement surveys
*
Benchmarking
Benchmarking is the practice of comparing business processes and performance metrics to industry bests and best practices from other companies. Dimensions typically measured are quality, time and cost.
Benchmarking is used to measure performan ...
*
Balanced scorecard
*
Core competency
*
Outsourcing
Outsourcing is an agreement in which one company hires another company to be responsible for a planned or existing activity which otherwise is or could be carried out internally, i.e. in-house, and sometimes involves transferring employees and ...
*
Change management
Change management (sometimes abbreviated as CM) is a collective term for all approaches to prepare, support, and help individuals, teams, and organizations in making organizational change. It includes methods that redirect or redefine the use of ...
programs
*
Supply chain management
In commerce, supply chain management (SCM) is the management of the flow of goods and services including all processes that transform raw materials into final products between businesses and locations. This can include the movement and stor ...
*
Mission statement
A mission statement is a short statement of why an organization exists, what its overall goal is, the goal of its operations: what kind of product or service it provides, its primary customers or market, and its geographical region of operation ...
and
vision statement
*
Market segmentation
In marketing, market segmentation is the process of dividing a broad consumer or business market, normally consisting of existing and potential customers, into sub-groups of consumers (known as ''segments'') based on some type of shared characte ...
*
Total quality management
Software application for businesses
Application software
Application may refer to:
Mathematics and computing
* Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks
** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a c ...
focused on businesses is implementations IT departments use to enhance business
productivity
Productivity is the efficiency of production of goods or services expressed by some measure. Measurements of productivity are often expressed as a ratio of an aggregate output to a single input or an aggregate input used in a production proces ...
, searching for superior performance and devoted to create value and therefore competitive advantage.
It started with
management information system
A management information system (MIS) is an information system used for decision-making, and for the coordination, control, analysis, and visualization of information in an organization. The study of the management information systems involves peop ...
s and extended into
enterprise resource planning systems. Then
customer relationship management
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a process in which a business or other organization administers its interactions with customers, typically using data analysis to study large amounts of information.
CRM systems compile data from a ra ...
was added to the solution and finally the whole package moved into the cloud business management space.
Although there is an actual correlation between IT efforts and the organizations' performance, two elements are key to add value to the sum; these are the implementation's effectiveness and the proper tools selections and adaptation process.
Tools for SMEs
The tools focused on
SMEs
Superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) systems store energy in the magnetic field created by the flow of direct current in a Superconductivity, superconducting coil which has been Cryogenics, cryogenically cooled to a temperature below ...
are important because they provide ways to save money and make the
entrepreneur's businesses more profitable. These tools have different functionalities such as project management, tracking finances, managing projects, sharing documents, connecting and networking with people, managing social media, and carrying out marketing, as well as everyday uses such as word processing or spreadsheets. Their main objective is to help
entrepreneurs perform everyday duties in simple, low-cost ways. The downside to take in consideration is that some of the apps may be unreliable or will require organizations to advertise them.
[{{cite web, last1=Gehl, first1=Derek, title=12 Free Tools for Online Businesses, url=http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/78504, website=Entrepreneur, accessdate=30 October 2014, date=2005-06-27]
References