Choosing Business Systems That Grow With You, Not Against You

As a business, the tools you use are important and that’s why you should be exploring systems and software that scale with your operations, rather than creating any friction. This is helpful for long-term success and to keep everyone within the business happy in their roles.

There are a number of key considerations to make when it comes to picking the right systems for your business and its needs. This guide will explore what those key factors are for choosing scalable systems and how to make sure it maximizes your success as a company this year.

Assess your future needs

The first step in the process for selecting your software and system is to look at what your future needs look like. Avoid selecting systems that are based solely on current requirements. Think about where your business is likely headed and the potential for increased data volumes, new functionalities and user counts.

Prioritize flexibility

It’s helpful to look for systems that are modular and that can be easily adapted or expanded. By allowing the opportunity to implement new features as your business evolves, it means you’re less likely to encounter issues along the way.

Some business systems will certainly be more flexible than others, and it’s finding the right ones and having a willingness to shift to one that will if you suddenly outgrow the current software that was implemented.

Integration capabilities

It’s beneficial to ensure the new system is able to integrate smoothly with any existing or future software ecosystem in place.

If you don’t have much in the way of integration, then this can quickly lead to data silos and a lot of manual workarounds that are required, which may end up hindering your growth as a result.

Vendor scalability and support

It’s important to choose a vendor that has a history of supporting companies as they grow. With that being said, you should be looking to provide different tiers of service, a clear upgrade path in what you require for capacity purposes, and a reliable customer support service, too.

Your vendors are something that will truly make or break your company, and if there are any weak points in the chain, you should work to rectify this problem as soon as possible. From a practice management system to distribution services, every vendor you select is influential to your success, so make sure you’re picking and reviewing this as often as possible.

Total cost of ownership

It’s highly important to consider the total cost of ownership beyond the initial purchase price. Evaluate all of the costs from ongoing maintenance, to training, and other potential upgrade costs, too.

A system that seems cheap to begin with might not be so cheap when you add up all the costs, and as you scale up.

Every system and tool is important for a business to have, so with that being said, make sure to select your systems carefully.

Allen Brown