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It's All About Collaboration

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It's All about Collaboration

It's a theme heard all too often in businesses about having to cope with a "frustratingly disconnected" working environment. This is the result of multiple software applications and users operating independently with no existing network or using a network dependent system that is inadequate for your business needs. To date software solutions have not been able to keep up with the evolving needs of businesses by offering them a solution to allow their internal operations to collaborate in a productive manner. 

Business managers often have only two choices to make when choosing a solution for your business

  1. A system that allows all users to share information through a dedicated network or internet connection (at the risk of loosing the connection). For example: Act Databases, Gold Mine, SAP etc.
  2. Have a system that allows all staff to reference their material in an offline manner (making collaboration far more complicated and difficult to perform). For example: Microsoft Outlook, Intuit QuickBooks.

Until recently there hasn't been a 'third alternative' outside of the aforementioned choices available to business. Tradepoint software provides a third alternative to industry standards and completely outdates the need for both types of solutions, giving businesses a choice that steps outside of this paradigm altogether. Before we move on, let us briefly explore the benefits and difficulties of both "old type" systems.

Antiquated and Expensive

The first type of system we mentioned was a network dependant type solution. This is the same system running almost every medium and large business across our nation and the world. The advantage of this system is that it is possible to easily share information with other "connected" users in an integrated fashion; however there are many downfalls to this type of solution:

  1. If the main communication hub went down for any reason, the whole company would go down with it. Obviously there is huge risk here.
  2. If one of the satellite main servers went down, the entire division would be paralyzed until the connection was re-established.
  3. Expensive to create because of the demand of high powered servers.
  4. Expensive to maintain because of high bandwidth connections needed to communicate information between locations and often ecommerce sites.
  5. IT staffing costs are often a drain on profits.
  6. Off-site users such as sales personnel are disconnected from the system unless they have some sort of connection to the system such as in a hotel room or at a customer's location. Tele-workers are also left out in the cold or have to use complex systems such as VPN's or other difficult to administer gate-ways to the central database.

Not to mention this system type is:

  1. Costly to create and expand.
  2. Time consuming to administer.
  3. Always frustrating and productivity draining when things go wrong.

Frustratingly Disconnected

The second type of system allows users to work autonomously in a "disconnected" state having no dependency on a central server connection. This type of solution is still being used heavily for small and growing businesses. It is cost effective to setup and allows users to freely work offline. This type of architecture does however have severe limitations as a company expands:

  1. Sharing of data and managing data gets exponentially more complex as more users try to "integrate" and share information with one another.
  2. Constantly CC'ing emails quickly becomes time consuming and a drain on resources.
  3. Sharing data and keeping information up to date at multiple locations is also extremely frustrating and often confusing.

There is a far better way to manage your information and data than the two aforementioned types of system integration. A new way that is not only cost effective for even the smallest of businesses, but scalable, flexible, powerful and fast.

Common scenarios often echo these frustrations:

  • The Productions department cannot communicate to the sales people directly to ensure accurate and timely quotes for orders.
  • Customer Service is not able to communicate directly with sales people regarding orders, the status of accounts and in some cases does not have a complete list of who the company's clients are.  As a result the sales people often have to do more account maintenance instead of sales.
  • The affiliate network of a busy website often cannot track and communicate directly with the company that owns and operates the website creating a situation in which tracking affiliate sales causes delays and mistakes in commissions payments.
  • The accounting department utilizes their own  accounting software separate from the other applications employed in a company. They cannot communicate directly with sales, customer service or production resulting in duplicity of efforts, adjustments in incorrect invoices, and a great deal of frustration for small errors that should not have to happen in the first place.
  • Contact with customers happens through multiple points and with multiple applications employed within a single company that can mean duplicity of efforts, increased data entry, overlap in communication and errors in customer service.

These are just several situations that often come to the surface when addressing customers' needs for a software solution. Tradepoint Business Management Software allows the different aspects within their business to collaborate rather than frustrate the daily operational processes for their businesses.

One such situation can be seen with one company that has multiple software applications utilized in accounting, customer service, manufacturing and sales. The internal processes are very well developed to adapt to the differences however, a considerable impact can be seen in sales since it drives the business. All of the sales people use their own contact management and email management applications therefore even multiple software applications are used within the sales force.

Several situations are a result of this. The first being there is no master list of existing clients or new clients. As a result, follow up customer service and future marketing endeavors is very difficult without the customer information being in one place. The customer service staff is dependent on the sales people to follow up on additional efforts and consistency in communication with customer support is often hard to achieve. The most detrimental effect is the efforts of the sales people focusing on additional responsibilities as well as sales.

Tradepoint Business Management Software offers a comprehensive solution addressing every aspect of this particular situation.

  • The Customer Relationship Management component within Tradepoint is linked to every aspect of the software including email, schedule, document management,  manufacturing and conatins built in accounting software.  
  • The node synchronization allows for remote users to access all of their information without an internet connection and then when an Internet connection is available synchronizes and updates all of their work so others have access to and communications and changes throughout the software. This gives Tradepoint the ability to be an internal collboration tool for employees and also provide an online collaboration tool for businesses that utilize any one of our Web modules
  • Productivity can be taken to a new level when all of this information is shared. Different people in different capacities of a company can do the job they were meant to do instead of their job plus additional responsibilities as a result of a disparate software environment within a company.

Another instance can be seen with a high volume website that has a well established affiliate network for sales in addition to the direct sales through the website. They currently have several different software applications implemented to address accounting software needs, email, database management, Ecommerce and customer relationship management needs. In addition to this, each affiliate has their own software separate from each other. The biggest issue with this scenario includes tracking sales, commissions and providing adequate customer service to people who have purchased their services. The result is a situation where tracking revenue has become a big questions mark.

The Tradepoint Business Management Software solution embodies a complete solution to this specific set of issues as well as addressing additional collaborative issues. Aspects of functionality that provide a specific solution to this scenario include:

  • The Online Business Edition Web Module includes a login section that can be used by affiliates (and customers) by allowing only pertinent information specific to the affiliate or customer such as orders, invoices, customer information and sales.
  • This rich interface allows online collaboration and affiliate sales can now be tracked in a timely manner and updates customer information to provide continuity in customer service.
  • This also maximizes sales efforts by providing a venue for current information that can be used for future marketing efforts.

The effects of a software environment with little or no collaborative functionality are stressful, frustrating, and most of all expensive. These are just two examples of companies struggling with the process of how to have the different aspects of their business collaborate in a more thorough, unified manner.

Tradepoint Business Management Software offers a software solution embodying a comprehensive intuitive approach to collaboration. Tradepoint Business Management Software allows all of those specific situations where something "couldn't" be done to be situations where something "can" be done.

If you or your company would like to find out more how your organization can benefit from the collaborative functionality in Tradepoint Business Software, please contact us! Ask for a free Needs Evaluation and demonstration today!

Jennifer Pardee

Business Consultant

jpardee@tradepoint360.com

918-708-1768 direct


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