As your company grows, it’s only natural for you to want to expand your market. Eventually, you’re going to want to take your business global, but you’ll need the right tools to do it. Although international business fell in 2020 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, restrictions are lifting and world trade has quickly rebounded, making now the perfect time to consider globalizing your business. In this article, we’ll cover the different types of software you’ll need if you want to globalize your business and how to choose the right solutions.
Using software to create a global business strategy
- Business intelligence software for forecasting and insights
- A CRM platform with artificial intelligence
- Accounting software that supports international business
- Compliance management software to track regulations
- Supply chain management software for product-based businesses
- Marketing automation software to grow your customer base
Business intelligence software for forecasting and insights
In order to grow your business, you need to have an idea of what’s working and what you’ll need moving forward. Business intelligence software can provide these insights and use historical sales data to forecast future demands. These platforms give you a bird’s-eye view of your entire business, so you can make better use of the data you have.
You’ll be able to see which products or services are performing well or any bottlenecks you’re experiencing that could be eating into your revenue, and you can run “what-if” scenarios to determine the best course of action. Business intelligence pulls from existing data and uses algorithmic models to help companies decide what they should do next.
A CRM platform with artificial intelligence
Customer relationship management (CRM) software is crucial for keeping your customers organized and engaged. Businesses looking to go global should consider choosing a CRM software with artificial intelligence (AI) that can engage with customers without employee input to lower operating costs and improve customer satisfaction.
Many AI-powered CRMs include smart chatbots, allowing your customers to get answers to their questions no matter what time of day it is. This is a major help for businesses serving consumers in multiple time zones because your business hours may not always coincide with when they need help.
Also read: Market Intelligence Platform Drives Success of CRM
Accounting software that supports international business
When you globalize your business, you’re likely going to be enacting transactions in several different currencies. You need an accounting system that can make sense of the different exchange rates and organize your ledgers into a single currency.
Depending on where you’re doing business, you also may run into some different laws or regulations that you need to consider. Your accounting software should automatically check your books against these rules and flag anything that may need to be adjusted.
Compliance management software to track regulations
Different countries and regions have different rules and regulations surrounding data privacy, facility safety, and labor laws. Compliance management software helps you identify these different rules depending on which countries you’re doing business in, and it highlights areas where you may need to make adjustments. It provides a centralized location for policy documents, making them easily accessible, and provides an audit trail to track project progress.
Compliance workflows, alerts, and reporting track tasks associated with meeting different regulations and provides status updates to ensure your team is completing them. If anything gets missed, the system will alert management, so they can fix the issue quickly.
Supply chain management software for product-based businesses
If you’re a retailer or some other kind of product-based business, you’ll need supply chain management software to keep track of your inventory, deliveries, and warehouse conditions. These tools can help you ensure you have the right number of each product on hand, optimize your shipping process, and get products in your customers’ hands faster.
Consider choosing a platform that integrates with your IoT devices, so you can get real-time reporting on the conditions in each of your warehouses, including temperature and moisture. This will help you ensure that your stock is kept correctly and you won’t have to deal with damaged inventory as often.
Also read: Retooling Supply Chains After COVID-19
Marketing automation software to grow your customer base
Marketing can be one of the most difficult parts of growing your business. Your campaigns require constant attention, and it’s sometimes difficult to tell how well each one is performing. Marketing automation software takes some of the work off your plate by allowing you to set up a marketing campaign once, usually through email, and then automatically adding customers to the campaign as you acquire them.
Many platforms will optimize email send times based on where your customer is located to increase the likelihood that they will open the message. Additionally, the email each customer gets can vary depending on the actions they’ve taken with your company. For example, you might set up an email to automatically send if a customer leaves something in their cart overnight, encouraging them to come back and make the purchase.
Choosing the right software for your growing business
Growing a business is hard work, but it can be a lot easier when you have the right tools in place. A business intelligence platform, CRM, accounting system, supply chain management tool, and marketing automation software are just a few examples of some of the solutions you need to globalize your business. Take a hard look at your processes and determine what you need to optimize most in order to reduce operating costs and speed up your business. Then, you’ll be able to determine which tools and software can help you achieve that.
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