Image by: Osman Kalkavan
By Michael Sterling
Business is changing fast, and we all need to catch up. The tech evolution is picking up speed quicker than anyone had predicted it would, so it’s time to try and be a part of it. Business apps help not only the consumer, but your company as well. With an efficient tool in your hands, it’s impossible not to provide good business.
Here are a select few which are sure to change the landscape of business in the coming year:
#1) Desk.com
All business owners know that customer service is huge, and in 2014 it’s going to climb even higher as one of the most important things a successful company needs, especially since consumers have many more options than they used to.
Desk.com is a pretty nifty business application that combines all your channels into one accessible location, providing tools for your staff to deliver support with ease. In essence, it’s a help desk solution focused on the ever changing support environment where customers are not only talking to you, but about you – to each other.
The greatest thing about social media is the communication, and desk.com gives your customers that same experience, only in a more real-time way. This is one app all business owners are going to be crawling to next year.
#2) Financial Force
FinancialForce.com is the #1 cloud accounting app on the sales force platform, and for good reason. It’s an innovative financial management system that goes well beyond simple bookkeeping and transaction processing to know, in real-time, what’s going on with cash flow, sales, and billing.
In this day and age, having a visual representation of what your money is doing is crucial. Often times, our minds are focused on other things that simplifying our spending helps us register it easier.
With bars, graphs, and pie charts that are continuously changing (based on your second-by-second spending), you and your accountant will always be able to spot a mistake before it arises. When it comes to money, there’s no better luxury than that.
#3) Office 365
As business owners are continuing to redefine devices used to connect on servers, more of them are predicted to opt into making the move to the Cloud. Office 365 will most likely become the norm as more companies realize the cost of savings in having their apps supported by outside providers for a lower monthly fee.
As the years progress throughout the decade, more consumers will be moving to their smart phone. This also means more CEOs will take advantage of doing business in a mobile-preferred workplace.
Office 365 has had a great track record of being able to immediately find and download solutions to problems without having to pay a team of software developers to create one, which also eliminates the need to pay tech support personnel tin install and troubleshoot the software.
#4) Shopkick Local
Reward programs are blossoming as one of the most beneficial tools for business owners not only because of its ability to create loyal customers, but also for its convenience. With Shopkick Local, consumers don’t need to bring their wallet into your store, instead they simply present their smart phone app and use it as their credit card and/or coupon.
For local businesses, there is no better way to build consumer loyalty and exposure, especially since Shopkick Local displays local and smaller shops alongside major retailers – putting you side-by-side with giant corporations for the customer to do the choosing.
#5) Clarizen
Clarizen has consistently been ranked one of the top project management tools. Being an all-in-one solution, it’s hosted entirely in the cloud and doesn’t require an IT team to manage it or a server to host it. Plus, it works across all platforms, languages, and currencies, coming with dedicated assistance and integrates with popular business solutions.
After having won the 2013 SIIA CODiE for project management software, Clarizen has been working hard to meet the demands of smart phones and continual upgrades in today’s tech evolution that it’s nearly impossible not to be up to date if you’re sealed in with this software.
This is definitely a one-stop shop since it works great with iPhone and Android devices, and also includes dozens of tools every business owner needs to get the job done with very minimal micromanaging.