Some years ago we had two off the shelf software programs that we wanted to ‘talk together’; to be able to harvest/use information from one to another.
We paid someone, if I recall correctly, to write a “bridge”. I think it worked.
But in the next year I will be looking for a software program for my [small] business. I’m a contractor so I need estimating software, and service management software among others. Here are my questions:
I’ve yet to see a program that truly meets my needs. Can I hire a programmer to ‘modify’ or change a program to better suit our needs? Or…is the underying code hidden and inaccessible?
Can I integrate this software with other off the shelf software? An example: We get a new customer and the service man goes out and captures information like address, names, model & serial numbers etc etc. If entered into the service management software can it be automatically exported to the accounting software (like Peachtree) and to marketing/contact management software for emailing/mailing lists etc?
Not likely. Big businesses do that sometimes but it is usually a bad idea even them. The main problem is that even though you can buy software, you will usually not have access of license to change the source code that created it. The source code gets compiled into a binary file that the computer can read but humans cannot.
That idea is probably out.
You probably can do this. It may have that functionality already and a power user might be able to corral them together in a way that works for you. The most important thing is to get software that meets your business in the first place even if it costs a little more. Custom development is very expensive even for modest projects and it is prone to failures.
Exporting data from one package to another is generally not a big deal however and that functionality often exists already.
Both these Q’s are totally dependent on the software and what you want to do with it:
I alot of cases software is a proprietary “black box” that cannot be altered or changed. At the other end of the spectrum if the software in question is Open Source you have complete access to source code and can taylor to suit your needs (though you are bound by the open source license agreement). Much software falls somewhere between the two where the core application itself is a “black box” but the software can be customised and expanded by writing plugins.
Nowadays this is likely to be possible, there is alot technology (such as XML) specifically designed allow difference kinds of software to commincate. This kind of thing is the “bread and butter” of IT consultancies.
I’m a small contractor (less than $2M) and I’d like to grow my service business. (and our design build business later) An off the shelf software program is fine for now and the forseeable future. I like Peachtree as I’ve used it in the past.
But I’d like to implement service management software (SM) to handle calls, schedule work, maintain information etc. The receptionist/dispatcher would enter information into the SM software as calls come in. She schedules, plans etc.
That same information is needed by the bookeeper for accounting purposes in the accounting software .
And…I’d like to mine that information for an e-newsletter, sales leads, direct mail etc in some contact management software of some sort. In that respect, maybe the importing/exporting process goes both ways----if someone responds to direct mail for example, it would be nice if the contact manager could export the information back to the SM/Accounting software once a ‘prospect’ becomes a ‘customer’.
I’m on a limited budget. Is this doable? Any suggestions?
All that can certainly be done. It is just a matter of cost. The systems that I work on cost millions of dollars and sometimes they can’t even do all that stuff so they get someone like me to make it.
I think the most important thing is to get the system that is closest to your total needs when you buy it. You won’t be able to mess around with the core system every much.
As a general guideline, your main system should be able to export out information to other applications but the reverse is generally much more difficult so I wouldn’t count on that.
The mailings and things are pretty routine and easy to set up.
In general, commonly available packages for what you’ve mentioned (accounting, contracting, service management, contact management) are fairly cheap and work pretty well for a small business.
And nearly all of them have an export function that will create a file of names, addresses, emails, etc. Then you could merge those files to create the general email list for your newsletter, etc. The export files are likely to be in different formats, but not too hard to merge manually. Or there might be programs available to do this automatically. Or you could probably hire a programmer to create a merge-match-dedupe program to do this automatically for you. That’s a limited, specific task, and shouldn’t cost too much.
You & your staff would still have to enter the information multiple times into the different programs. But for a small business, that’s not too hard. And you may not want all the info in each program. For example, do you want the customer file of your accounting program filled up with every sales lead you get? For the ones where you do want matching info, most of these packages also have an import function that can load this info.
If you have a programmer create a program for you, you might have them add a ‘Master Contact Report’ to it, producing a report that everyone in the office can use to make sure they enter the names the same in each program, same address, etc. That’s very helpful in a small office.
For a small office like this, I’d suggest staying with the commercial packages that are available. They’re widely used. because they work pretty well for lots of people. Getting into customized software can quickly cost a lot of money, and create a lot of distraction from your basic business. Don’t do it unless you are big enought that you have to.