Whats the most useful software tool you use?

[PugwashEQ]

There is such a plethora of software tools nowadays.

Which do you absolutely swear by? what new ones have made a difference to your life?

We're rocking Xero (compared to when i started my first business 20 years ago, this is an incredible step forward)

Also use a piece of online presentation software call beautiful.ai

CRM wise I stumbled across one called apptivo which at £8/month is an absolute bargain!

 

[fisicx]

Adobe Brackets

 

[AllUpHere]

I don't think I even know what a software tool is.

 

[gpietersz]

Specific to my work: Spyder, Eric, Komodo Edit, Git Cola (and git, and Fossil), Terminator

General desktop: Thunderbird, Zim. Konqueror (and KDE in general). Kate, Pidgin. I used to love Lyx when I wrote longer and more elaborate stuff, but these days its mostly letter so back to a work processor.

Self hosted server stuff: Mail in a Box, Jitsi

Third party server stuff: Bitbucket

Personal stuff: Akregator, Quod Libet and, most importantly, Battle for Wesnoth!

DO web browsers count? I use several.

Adobe Brackets

Not the sort of answer the OP expected, I bet. Nor are mine.

I suspect, apart from some common and obvious things, everyone will have different choices.

 

[ffox]

There is such a plethora of software tools nowadays.

Absolutely. But, accounting packages, CRM software, ERP Software all aim to do one thing. That is to get you to focus your data collection, data creation and data transformation into the package at hand.

Ask yourself, to what software package does a customer name and address details belong?

A customer contact record has a place in CRM, it also has a place in accounts, especially if you are using accounts to process orders or invoicing.

Customer contacts also has a place in the contact software of each sales persons email/contacts software, be it G-Mail, Outlook, Exchange, Thunderbird or any other.

So, how many duplicate records do you want to keep? And, more importantly, which of those records is the main source of accurate data.

IT users in any organisation should update record in one place and one place only and that should be the definitive source of information. If duplication of data needs to happen it should be unidirectional - from the primary data source to the consumer package.

Whatever software packages you choose you will need to define which packages are primary data sources, and which packages are data consumers.

In answer to your question - Office 365 and G-Suite are platforms that provide the means for you to categorise and control data flow throughout you business.

 

[simon field]

Minecraft cheats?

 

[Mr D]

View.
Great piece of software, ended up doing some of my GCSE assignments on it.
More modern software has more tools, still mostly use the stuff I learnt to do on View.

 

[gpietersz]

@Mr D what is View?

Software tends to suffer from bloat - adding features rather than improving what is there. Its easier to sell features rather than reliability or usability.

It is not helped by people's tendency to now want to learn something new, so they end up learning one or two very complex things instead of a several simple things.

 

[estwig]

I don't think I even know what a software tool is.

The OP when he drops a link!

 

[AllUpHere]

The OP when he drops a link!

You are so cynical. Maybe he just likes talking about software.

 

[estwig]

You are so cynical. Maybe he just likes talking about software.

and tools, who doesn't luv a good tool!

 

[AllUpHere]

and tools, who doesn't luv a good tool!

Don't you think your tool has got you into enough trouble recently? How's the computer?

 

[Mr D]

@Mr D what is View?

Software tends to suffer from bloat - adding features rather than improving what is there. Its easier to sell features rather than reliability or usability.

It is not helped by people's tendency to now want to learn something new, so they end up learning one or two very complex things instead of a several simple things.

A great word processor from 36 years ago.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Before retirement it was Sage and Sellerdeck

 

[estwig]

Don't you think your tool has got you into enough trouble recently? How's the computer?

My paranoia is justified...........

https://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/...crubbed-of-malware.408070/page-4#post-3041335

 

[Ian J]

There is such a plethora of software tools nowadays.

Which do you absolutely swear by?

Microsoft Office 2003

 

[gpietersz]

@Mr D wow, that is so old and obscure it is not even on Wikipedia's list of word-processors!

What platform did it run on?

I am sure there is someone somewhere still using it though.

 

[Mr D]

@Mr D wow, that is so old and obscure it is not even on Wikipedia's list of word-processors!

What platform did it run on?

I am sure there is someone somewhere still using it though.

Acorn Electron.
I learnt how to use a word processor on that. Made a difference to most of my GCSE assignments.

 

[Financial-Modeller]

In terms of Return on Investment, Excel, with workbooks on OneDrive.

In terms of quickly impressing upon clients the value of their own data, Power BI.

In terms of reduced frustration, LastPass.

 

[NickGrogan]

Windows.

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Microsoft Office 2003

Me to office 2003

 

[Naheed Mir]

Well, for me, the best software tool that I use is Linx. It is the best software development tool and a low code tool to develop and automate back-end applications and web services. The tool stimulates the design and automation of custom business processes.

 

[James Akcela]

Surely has to be MS office, many have tried to emulate, but its the gold standard for business document creation.

 

[fisicx]

Surely has to be MS office, many have tried to emulate, but its the gold standard for business document creation.

Can’t see why I need to pay for something when there are plenty of free alternatives. For many small businesses the number and variety of documents need are very small.

 

[James Akcela]

I’ve heard of this product. Can’t see why I need to pay for something when there are plenty of free alternatives.

Yes, lots of free challengers out there, very few in my experience have ever come close. I can hear audible sighs when someone sends through a non-microsoft version of a word document. It's £8 a month per licence, from which you get a plethora of other benefits. Maybe some industries will accept alternatives, in mine, just pay for Microsoft.

 

[ffox]

Maybe some industries will accept alternatives, in mine, just pay for Microsoft.

And in many instances you don't have to pay at all. MS Office browser based apps are free to use for anyone with a free Microsoft account (.hotmail.com, .outlook.com, etc)

 

[Bob Morgan]

Q: Whats the most useful software tool you use?
A: OpenOffice! - No Charges!

 

[James Akcela]

And in many instances you don't have to pay at all. MS Office browser based apps are free to use for anyone with a free Microsoft account (.hotmail.com, .outlook.com, etc)

Indeed, but come on, £8 a month per employee?!?! For me it's the peice of software I use the most and the most useful, in that it allows me to do my job.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

Blackberry Hub I still run this on my android phone as it is the most effective tool to organize and respond rapidly to our customers while on the move !

Old skol but still perfect

 

[Clinton]

I can hear audible sighs when someone sends through a non-microsoft version of a word document.

Hmm. It sounds like you're making stuff up.

I use LibreOffice and regularly send people docs and spreadsheets. Nobody has complained, nobody has had problems opening my files, nobody has had issues with even the formatting of my files.

What file format are these files you complain about? And what problem do you have with them?

Yes, lots of free challengers out there, very few in my experience have ever come close.

Please share this experience. Which "challengers" have you tested and in what way did they not come close?

It sounds clever to say that the mass market product is the best and that it is the gold standard. But it's not clever, it's simply being one of the sheep.

It also says you're willing to waste nearly £100 a year per employee (unless your business really, really needs some Microsoft specific functionality). Or in your words, "£8 per month per employee?!?!?!?!?!????!?!?!?!?!?!?"

 

[PugwashEQ]

Lots of new software i'd never even heard of.

We use Office 365, but mainly because everything we do is in the cloud now- so our files are in sharepoint, we use teams for meetings and client collaboration and outlook works best with Exchange 365.

having used Open office and Libre office i certainly wouldn't keep using MS office if i was only using word, excel and powerpoint.

 

[gpietersz]

I use LibreOffice and regularly send people docs and spreadsheets. Nobody has complained, nobody has had problems opening my files, nobody has had issues with even the formatting of my files.

Me neither, not ever, in about 20 years.

Not had any problems opening incoming documents either

You can get slight layout differences, which you can between different versions of MS Office either

It also says you're willing to waste nearly £100 a year per employee (unless your business really, really needs some Microsoft specific functionality).

Its odd how small businesses are notoriously stingy, but happy to splash out on monthly subscriptions.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

Its odd how small businesses are notoriously stingy, but happy to splash out on monthly subscriptions

This is because things change rapidly and I myself would rather have a monthly subscription for something that can be changed tomorrow than be stuck with something that is no longer suitable for my business
Sage is a good example

 

[Clinton]

This is because things change rapidly and I myself would rather have a monthly subscription for something that can be changed tomorrow than be stuck with something that is no longer suitable

LibreOffice is regularly updated. Besides, how do requirements for a word processor change from year to year? Tax software, yes, as tax rules change. But an A4 is a A4 and has been an A4 since paper was invented. What on earth are you on about (given gpietersz and I were talking about office software)?

Face it, you update your office software because you were groomed to believe that "things change rapidly" and you need to keep up to date.

 

[fisicx]

I send out quotes and invoices. I can do this with libre office. It’s all saved locally so no need to be connected to create and access documents. When people send me specs I ask for a pdf. That’s about as complicated as it gets.

 

[billybob99]

G Suite. Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Forms do the job for me. Works offline, always in sync across devices.

If my laptop went t!ts up today, I wouldn't be sweating over backups or lost files.

 

[Financial-Modeller]

FWIW I reviewed MS Office, G Suite and Libre Office in 2016 for a client, considering moving away from Microsoft.

At that point Google was perfect for 90% of people, 90% of the time, and given the speed at which Google was moving, it seemed wise to assume that G Suite would soon surpass MS Office.

Libre Office was great for simple stuff on a standalone basis, but didn't offer the cloud-based collaboration etc that the client wanted at that time.

The client remained with MS Office, and one consideration was the cost of training tens of thousands of users to migrate stuff across to something else, particularly those using access databases etc.

Personally I consider a new MS license every three years or so (I'm using Office 2016) money very well spent, and use features in Excel that are not available with the other options.

Also, offering to deliver tens of thousands of pounds worth of work to a client, whilst scrimping on freebie office alternatives would send out entirely the wrong message and I would probably lose work through not using the market leading software that is used by most larger organisations.

Given the other significant costs of doing business, I find it surprising that variation in cost in the region of £100 per user per year is a driver for office software for any organisation.

 

[Clinton]

...tens of thousands of users

£100 per user per year

So let's say 30,000 users x £100 per year since 2016.

He's spent £1.2 million.

A million here, a million there, it soon adds up to some serious money.

It's a shame he didn't design the business from ground up to not be reliant on that Microsoft spyware.

 

[Clinton]

£1.2? Sorry, can't edit the above post now to remove the decimal.

But seriously folk, follow that link to the Microsoft spyware article! You need to know how you're being exploited.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

LibreOffice is regularly updated. Besides, how do requirements for a word processor change from year to year? Tax software, yes, as tax rules change. But an A4 is a A4 and has been an A4 since paper was invented. What on earth are you on about (given gpietersz and I were talking about office software)?

Face it, you update your office software because you were groomed to believe that "things change rapidly" and you need to keep up to date.

I think it is all to easy to class software as the software you would find in a business university lecture

I from my own experience can only talk about our industry and we use a good freight program that could never be replicated by a one off purchase