| We all know that India is one of the largest manufacturer and exporter of software in the world. We Indians have contributed massively to the IT Industry. Large number of softwares used in the world are either fully or partly developed in India. Though we have the largest software developing work force, when it comes to software consumer market India is lagging far behind. Software consumption and utilization in India is not in equilibrium with the development. The reason behind this is Indian entrepreneurs mentality towards software. Businessmen in India are still reluctant to adopt and use software in a professional way. Though some of them use it, they do not do it in an efficient way. Many people just keep track of their income and expenses with their check book and the receipt box. There are also those that use spreadsheets and templates to organize income and expenses into different categories. When that is done, they still need to generate financial statements which will involve yet another spreadsheet.
Recently, I met a young entrepreneur who owns a multi-crore manufacturing unit and exports his products to other countries. He has a hi-tech unit running and one fine day somebody suggested to him to go for an ERP software. He came in contact with me and we had a long meeting discussing an ERP package where I explained to him the benefits of using a software and how it can help him to earn more. After a long discussion he told me to make for him an ERP within the price range of Rs15000 to Rs.20000. I was taken aback by his words. No ERP in the market can be developed within this price range. ERP costs Lacs of rupees. I told him "You own a multi-crore industry and you want to spend just Rs. 20,000 for an ERP package.". He said "yes, at present I use a small account package which is sufficient for me and it doesn't add anything to my business growth, I just want because everybody talks about it. I have purchased most modern electronic machines from abroad and so I want to have latest ERP solution. Otherwise I have my staff to write all stuff in copy books". And then he said, "I have no time to sit and use software, but when people ask me about it, I can't say no". Similarly, I met another businessman who was a successful trader. He uses very famous accounting software Tally. But the funny thing was, he had one accountant to enter all transactions into Tally and one accountant who used to write the same accounts in registers. I asked him "why you do duplication of accounts. You already had a very stable and rigid software in your desktop." His answer was "What if computer fails or Tally files get corrupted. To avoid this, I do double entries in registers". I told him to take regular backups and keep them safe. To my surprise he said "I don't trust backups". Then I told him to stop using software an |
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| d write your accounts only in registers. Atleast, it will save his time and cost on resource. He replied, "Everybody a now days talks of computers and software, so I got one for me". There are many strange thoughts in people's mind regarding software.
Many important institutions have implemented world class software solutions like banks, government departments, and educational institutes etc. none of them ever reported any kind of data loss or data corruption because either they take regular backups or software has inbuilt capability to take regular backups. Even if any software fails, which happens in extremely rare cases, Data is never lost and can be retrieved from hard drive. The advantages of software are ample if you use it efficiently. Software by itself will never grow your business, unless you use it in a proper way. The simplest way to handle your business finances is to purchase a financial software programme to organize all of your income expenses. You will only need to enter the data once and be able to generate professional, comprehensive financial reports.
With the data stored in any software various kinds of reports, graphs and other analyses are prepared. These analyses help any organization big or small, to get clear picture of their accounts, inventory, customers', feedback, sales etc. Graphical charts depicting sales, revenues, or any other information are used to study past experiences and based on the statistics future planning can be done for improved business. If we utilize data properly for various analysis it will help to take proper decisions and in turn help you to grow your business. The similarity in both the cases above was none of them ever tried to take out reports and use software in a proper way. For them, it was just like an advanced typewriter used to print bills and receipts and dump data inside an idiot box ! In India, even today very few of entrepreneurs use software efficiently. For some of them it is a trend in market to have sophisticated software, just like a prestige issue and for others software is just waste of money.
There are numerous advantages of commercial software in your business. When you own and operate a business, every single minute counts. It is important to find software that can assist you in time management, preserving energy, and increasing your overall productivity and efficiency. The next advantage to implementing the use of commercial software is that it can completely automate business. Now, you may be wondering what this means. I mean "automating" is a really peculiar term when it comes to business, but it is actually a very relevant term that you should seriously attempt to work towards. Automating business means that you basically put it on a type of "auto pilot" where you let it work for you. This is completely awesome method of allowing you to have more time for all of those other business endeavors that you have. When this happens, it means you using your Software in true sense and not for prestige. |
