Operations

Best Business Management Software

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Poor business management can destroy everything you’ve worked for. You need structure and a plan that makes your day-to-day operations successful. That’s why there’s software for the incredibly broad category of business management. Insightly is best for most of you to start with, as its beginner-friendly interface teaches you how to manage people, goods, and operations even if you know nothing about growing a business.

The Best Business Management Software for Most

Insightly Logo

Insightly

Best for most

Build relationships with your customers every step of the way with a CRM designed for the beginner in mind. Learn how to integrate sales, marketing, project management and more even if you know nothing about growing a business.

Insightly shows you how easy it is to put your company’s vision into action. You can avoid the hard knocks of learning on the job by learning how to manage your business the right way from the start.

Insightly removes that step of falling face-first into mistake after mistake. You’ll be better at time and calendar management, budgeting and expenses, and business intelligence through the Insightly platform. They make managing your business turnkey simple. And that’s not even the best part.

The 5 Best Business Management Software Services

  1. Insightly – Best business management software for most
  2. ProofHub – Best collaborative project management software
  3. Bitrix24 – Best category-specific business management software
  4. BlueCamroo – Best for small businesses
  5. Frank – Best architecture and engineering business management software

When It Makes Sense to Invest in Business Management Software

If you want a concrete plan on working with customers, creating leads, a budget, invoices, and managing reports you need business management software. 

Knowing how all of the areas of business management interlace with each other gives you an advantage over those who don’t. You are more effective because of how well you planned.

Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.

Have you heard that before?

Whether you have a large business that is improving its efficiency or you are a startup searching for its best operational practices, business management software can put you in the best position in the race towards the top. 

#1 – Insightly — The Best for Most

Insightly Logo

Insightly

Best for most

Build relationships with your customers every step of the way with a CRM designed for the beginner in mind. Learn how to integrate sales, marketing, project management and more even if you know nothing about growing a business.

Insightly makes the process of managing your business dead simple. It utilizes a unified CRM platform so you don’t have to juggle multiple platforms to be effective. Perfect for most business owners that wants to stay organized and reduce errors when dealing with customer data.

The resource center offers easy-to-follow videos that teach you how to create custom fields for records, use the innovative mobile app, master workflow animation, and much more. 

Today, customers will jump ship if they feel poorly treated. Insightly begins at the start of the customer journey, giving the full view of your customers’ buying experience, helping you deliver an experience tailored to them. 

The easy-to-use marketing engine offers an intuitive journey builder and an intelligent dashboard so you can see your ROI and analytics to make real-time adjustments. 

Being able to build customized campaigns, review reports, and test your content design will quickly bring your best ideas to light.   

Beginners and experts alike can take advantage of the marketing platform to attract your ideal customer and grow your business fast. Here are some of the integrated benefits you receive with no software to download:

  • Professional email and newsletter builder
  • On-target segmentation
  • Intelligent campaigns
  • Journey builder
  • Enterprise-grade dashboard
  • Embedded forms
  • Analytics and reporting engine

And what good is modern business management software if you can’t work from any device anywhere? Every Insightly plan comes with full support for its Android and iOS apps, real-time sync so changes made on one platform are updated instantly on all others, and mobile contact, calendar, and note synchronization.

Insightly also includes security built right into the software—two-factor authentication, encryption, EU/US privacy shield, and GDPR compliance is standard issue. 

Pricing for Insightly comes in three flavors. Plus, for $29 per user per month, only includes project management and collaborations features. The Professional plan is just $20 more to unlock all the sales tools Insightly includes, as well as lead generation and management. You can even unlock telephony for an additional fee.

The top-tier plan is Enterprise at $99 per user per month. Beyond the Professional feature set, it also includes automations, the full array of integrations, and deeper customer relationship tools that are great for maintaining them beyond the initial sale.

Being a beginner in this scary world of business is tough enough. Insightly takes away the insecurity involved with business management with its one-stop-shop platform.

Get a free demo of Insightly today.

#2 – ProofHub — Best Collaborative Project Management Software

ProofHub Logo

ProofHub

Best Collaborative Project Management Software

Keep your projects and team collaboration on one platform, eliminate unnecessary emails, increase team accountability and maximize collaboration with a suite of communications tools sure to eliminate any project delivery confusion .

ProofHub is loved by over 85,000 teams and businesses around the world. And for good reason. 

Big names like Nike, Netflix, Tripadvisor, and even NASA use this project management platform to coordinate some of the most crucial projects you could imagine. 

It gives businesses a place to manage projects of all shapes and sizes and the ability to easily collaborate in a way that gives your team the highest probability of eliminating disconnect along the way. 

ProofHub’s state-of-the-art software is both easy to understand and easy to implement. As a business owner looking to plan, collaborate, and organize more with your team, that makes it a fantastic choice for you if your business revolves around teamwork and deliverables.

Find weak links and increase positive project outcomes with:

  • Gantt charts 
  • Kanban boards
  • Proofing
  • Discussion boards
  • One-on-one and group chat
  • Project templates 
  • Calendar
  • Workload reporting 
  • Time sheets
  • Project overview 
  • Project progress reports

What’s great about creating custom workflows is that you can add as many stages to a project as you want. You can assign teams to each stage and automate notifications between them when tasks progress. 

Another great feature is file version control. Often, remote workers can become confused on which files to update. This allows people to work on their own copy of a document and add in their adjustments later on without worrying if they are working on the most recent version. 

The pricing is extremely affordable for the level of quality software you have access to. 

There are two pricing plans that offer flat pricing with no per-user fee for ProofHub’s all-inclusive services. The Essential plan is $45/month billed annually and the Ultimate Control plan is $89/month, also billed annually. 

There is an option to pay by the month. However, it entails a higher monthly fee. 

If you are a project manager looking to improve your project delivery and communication amongst your team, ProofHub can do that—virtually overnight. 

#3 – Bitrix24 — The Best Category-Specific Business Management Software 

Bitrix 24 Logo

Bitrix24

Best Category-Specific Business Management Software

Optimize your business management efforts by selecting the exact category you need business management for. Take your projects and communication to the next level with cloud based tools that improve time tracking, conversion rates and real-time support tailored to your business model.

Bitrix24 is a comprehensive, customizable business management tool that helps your company elevate its performance with multi-level services. 

It gives your business unlimited potential with a CRM, project management tools, a contact center, and communication software that unites you business in all areas. 

With cloud-based and on-premises business management flexibility, you can select your style of software based on: 

  • Your role, such as marketing, HR, project management, or customer service.
  • Your industry, be it retail, travel, transportation and storage, or legal. 
  • By need, whether your chief concern is mobility, communication, productivity, or management
  • By tool, such as telephony, CRM, calendars, a website builder, or a contact center
  • By business size, whether you’re a solo entrepreneur, small business, or large enterprise 

The Bitrix24 app catalog provides a marketplace that allows for chat bot inclusion, specialized SMS messaging to keep in touch with customers on the go, and free CRM backup capability, among many other helpful additions. 

The free mobile and desktop app also gives you 24/7 access to oversight, reporting, and analytics from anywhere you may be. 

Another reason why we love Bitrix24 is all the free features you receive. You can set up a free account and use it forever without penalty, and the free plan is better than some of the paid providers in the space. That’s why over 8,000,000 organizations have chosen Bitrix24. 

Just some of the features in its free plan include:

  • Communication
  • Chat and video
  • Calendars
  • Social intranet
  • Email
  • Gantt charts
  • Workload management
  • Time tracking 
  • Project workgroups
  • External user collaboration
  • Lead management
  • Sales automation 
  • Email marketing 
  • Online payments
  • Product catalog

And so much more. 

Pricing beyond the free forever version is very affordable as well.

For the cloud-based service, the first tier allows for two users at just $19/month. From there, cost scales upwards for larger teams, all the way up to the Professional plan to accommodate unlimited users for $159/month. That’s still incredibly reasonable for the literal hundreds of features and tools you get.

The on-premise version of the software only needs a one-time purchase, which ranges from just under $1,500 for up to 12 user licenses to upwards of $50,000 for a large enterprise with unlimited users. 

If you want to set up a specific management plan for your business, Bitrix24 has everything you need to get started today. 

#4 – BlueCamroo — Best Business Management Software for Small Businesses 

BlueCamroo Logo

BlueCamroo

Best Business Management Software for Small Businesses

Take customer relationship management into your own hands by building your platform with a intuitive project management website builder. This fully integrated platform allows you to also use its unique user-role subscription model to give each user special functionality within the CRM not available to others.

BlueCamroo offers unique project management capabilities. As a small business owner there is value in tracking your customer journey from the first contact through special offers and onward into upselling opportunities. 

The integrated free CRM makes this possible through marketing automation and social monitoring, allowing you to work with your prospects closely and optimize the buying journey. 

Another feature we love for your small business is the website builder. 

This simplified drag-and-drop website creator lets you build as many websites, landing pages, subpages, and ecommerce stores as you want. 

And if you are a digital marketing agency, having the ability to create unlimited websites improves your lead base by offering website services at no extra charge.  

For workflow tracking, project managers and team members that wish to keep an eye on performance can easily sign in to the intelligent business dashboard and manage, review, and correct parts of the campaign that need to be tweaked. 

BlueCamroo’s integrated ticketing system helps you respond to customers accurately and in a timely manner. You also can upgrade your customer service by giving customers their own portal for even more personalized and attentive care. 

All of this is available on a single platform, making it a wise choice for small businesses seeking efficiency. 

Look at some other features you can take advantage of with this business management software:

  • Discussion forum
  • Capture and reuse customer questions for your customer support staff
  • Social network extended support for complaints made on social media
  • Client and employee time tracking
  • Sales dashboard
  • Automated invoicing
  • Workflow automation
  • Social scout to find new leads and track trends
  • Web to lead opportunity forms that bring leads directly into your CRM
  • Project Templates

With all of this included and more, you would expect to pay a hefty fee, but the pricing for BlueCamroo is surprisingly affordable.

The Foundation plan is always free for life, allowing up to four users. The Complete plan, which offers the best value, costs just $41/month per user.

You can add extensions onto the free plan that focus on sales and marketing or customer support, ranging from $8 to $21/month per user.  

This affordable and robust business management software makes overseeing the ins and outs of your small business easy.

#5 – Frank — Best Architecture and Engineering Business Management Software  

Frank Logo

Frank

Best Architecture and Engineering Business Management Software

This business management software specializes in supporting your engineering or architecture firm with project management services. Simplify accounting, staff and time tracking, and your daily activities in a central location, improving consistency and results for your business

Frank is built for the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industries. What makes this business management software so unique is the specialization for projects, account management, and contractual deliverables specific to these fields. 

These highly technical fields of business require accuracy at every turn, so being organized and managing the details is what counts. Project performance software exclusive to Frank keeps an eye on your project every step of the way and gives you access to key performance indicators. 

As a construction firm, for example, you are going to always be focused on planning and budget. Frank’s cost control capabilities allow you to keep your expenses and budget on track in real time during your project. You’ll immediately notice any deviation early on, so you can make adjustments immediately to get back on track. 

Security key system access keeps folders and files like blueprints and drafting documents only accessible by those who should have access to them. 

Plus, Frank’s document management helps you create critical business documents efficiently and share any documents with anyone inside your contact database. And because Frank is cloud-based, you can access your documents from any device, anywhere.    

Frank allows your AEC firm to work smarter with these tools:

  • Custom workflows
  • Project phases and management
  • Accounting capability and integrations
  • Sales and marketing management
  • Personal task organizer dashboard
  • Centralized communication platform
  • Lead generation
  • Expense management

Frank manages to simplify your teams workflow by integrating all of your reports, accounting information, and project documentation in one place. 

Also, they help you build your business with a qualified record of vendors housed in the Frank platform, which is a very critical part of any engineer or construction firm’s success. 

Pricing is not listed on the website, however it does explain that it’s one price for an all-inclusive package. 

If you are a new construction company or an engineer with a growing business, this is a great fit to keep all your data in one place while also building your business with the custom sales and marketing platform that Frank provides. 

Methodology for Choosing the Best Business Management Software

As we sifted through the best management software providers, we did our best to focus on the major features that would benefit the majority of small, midsize, and large business owners. 

What made the cut were the platforms which offered features that would give you the best impact in the shortest amount of time. 

The methodology listed below will help you when choosing the services best for your business. 

Managing Workflow (Automation)

When you run a business, tedious daily tasks suck the energy right out of you. It not only makes you tired, but also makes your business inefficient. 

This list offers business management software options that focus on automating payments, email campaigns, invoicing, lead generation, reporting, and more. 

Adding automation services to your business frees up time for you to focus on other important tasks, like closing sales and growth management.

Understand that when you are selecting a provider, it’s important to know what automation services are offered and if they align with your business model. 

Automating confirmation and welcome emails, for example, is a boon. Usually integration software for email automation comes standard, but some business management tools don’t offer this service, especially if they specialize in, say, social media business management.

If you run a digital marketing agency, going with BlueCamroo is a wise choice because it specializes in website building and email marketing alongside standard business management features.

Lead Generation Management

This is a big one, if you have no leads, you have no business. All five software providers on this list offer lead generation as part of their standard services. And that’s something we recommend you pay close attention to as well. 

Not having a lead generation tool as part of your business management software forces you to seek an outside provider. While that is not against some unwritten rule, it is more work for you. 

Having everything as part of a single platform promotes simplification and that almost always leads to better performance, more time saved, and increased revenue.

Scheduling and Project Management

Being able to create a project, communicate with team members, and collaborate easily reduces confusion and enables team members to do a better job on the task at hand. 

The business software providers on this list do an excellent job of offering you all the tools you need to organize, plan, and deliver projects in record time with impeccable accuracy. 

Some platforms also extend the power for you to manage client scheduling, as well as employees. ProofHub shines bright in the project management space. So, if that is where you currently fall short in your business, hop over to their website and snoop around.

Good planning leads to even better results, and having an iron-clad schedule with the ability to make adjustments on the fly for meetings or other important tasks that come up will give you excellent control over your priorities. 

We recommend you keep scheduling software and a robust project management platform in mind if you are a project manager or executive who is responsible for the outcome of campaigns, or if you handle product launches that have multiple employees working on different areas of that overall project. 

Collaboration Tools

We all have been there—you need to get in touch with someone in the office to make an adjustment to a document, a design, or something else. You ping them on Slack or email them and you get nothing. 

They don’t see your email until the end of day or you have to walk over to ask “hey, did you get that email I sent?” That’s a waste of time and often slows the progress of a project. 

Using business management software that gives you multiple ways to collaborate with team members in or out of the office provides you with the ability to prevent mistakes, confusion on expectations, and deadlines from being missed. 

This works especially well for call center supervisors, project managers, remote workers, and mobile employees that use a designated app specifically for collaboration and communication . 

When you think about your business needs, keep this in mind—it’s just one reason why cloud-based business management software is so popular.   

Business Intelligence

Access to a personal business dashboard is a wonderful feature to give you detailed reports and insight into analytics. 

Being able to pull out your phone while you’re out and check on performance, attendance, revenue, and engagement is priceless. Having the ability to see what your customers are saying or review common questions they are asking gives you incredible power to create the customer experience they expect. 

In fact, BlueCamroo has a feature that allows you to keep the common questions your customers ask, then inform customer support about them, making them aware so they can better service your customers in the future. That is the power of business intelligence software.

Insightly Logo

Insightly

Best for most

Build relationships with your customers every step of the way with a CRM designed for the beginner in mind. Learn how to integrate sales, marketing, project management and more even if you know nothing about growing a business.

Summary

Do you need business management software? That depends on various factors, but if you are a business owner that wants to have a clear plan, understand how to improve daily, collect leads, automate mundane daily tasks, and have a tangible structure for your business, we’d say yes. 

Picking the right software for your business can be difficult but it doesn’t have to be. Now you have help, and we’re here for you whenever you need it. 

Use this methodology to guide yourself toward what works for your business and we are confident you will find the best choice you could make. 


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