With the spread of mobile devices and advances in IT technology, many “business applications” have been released that help improves business efficiency and reduce management costs.
It is not a dream to improve business efficiency and reduce operating costs of a company if a business application suitable for the company can be introduced.
This time, we will introduce in detail the types of business applications, how to select them, and specific development methods.
table of contents
- 1. What is a business application?
- 2. What are the types of business applications?
- 3. How to choose the most suitable business application system
- 4. How to install a business application system
- 5. How to develop a business application?
- 6. What is the programming language used for business application development?
What is a business application?
A business application is a program developed to efficiently process a company’s business on a computer and is also called a “business application” for short. Some system development companies develop for the general public, while others develop apps that meet the needs of each individual. When developing a business application, it is important to consider the functions and ease of use that will appeal to the user. Therefore, flexible thinking from the user’s point of view is required.
What are the types of business applications?
| type | Main uses |
|---|---|
| a production management system | Manage material costs and delivery dates in the manufacturing industry. |
| Sales management system | Manage product and service names, codes, prices, etc. |
| Warehouse management system | Manage inventory of goods and materials and prevent excess inventory and out-of-stock. |
| Order management system | Manage customer orders, product shipping status, etc. |
| Finance/accounting system | Responsible for accounting work such as preparing income statements and financial statements. |
| Personnel payroll system | Responsible for personnel management such as employee salary calculation and attendance management. |
| Information system | Email software, groupware, in-house SNS, etc. |
Various operational efficiency and automation are indispensable for the development of corporate activities. This time, we will introduce the types of business applications that are indispensable for companies to do business.
● Production control system
A production control system is a system that can manage the purchase of raw materials or materials and production planning. After determining the specific order volume and expected sales volume, make a plan and analyze the results of each process. By introducing the system, you can grasp the amount of inventory to be secured, so you do not have to worry about excess inventory. In addition, since the amount required by the customer is estimated in advance, it also helps prevent sold-out. It is also a great advantage for companies that the cash flow is stable because there is no wasteful inventory or out-of-stock.
● Sales management system
As the name implies, a sales management system is a system that manages the sales of goods and services. Register product names, codes, selling prices, and inventory status to reduce the data entry work performed by employees. It is also a big point to prevent human error and trouble by automating management. In addition, the sales management system can centrally manage quotations, invoices, and purchase information on a case-by-case basis. Since you can issue quotations and invoices for each business partner, you can avoid invoice omissions and invoice errors. The advantage of introducing a sales management system is that the accumulation of customer data makes it easier to make orders and sales forecasts.
● Warehouse management system
The inventory management system controls the number of products produced and the cost. Since you can check whether the inventory stored in the warehouse is the appropriate quantity, you can prevent excess inventory and out-of-stock. If inventory or shortage occurs, management costs will be incurred accordingly, but it is possible to reduce management costs by introducing an inventory management system.
● Order management system
The order management system is responsible for managing a series of operations in ordering. The basic task is to confirm the orders received from users and inform the shipping management system. Adjust inventory to avoid inventory shortages and excess inventory. In addition, sending an order confirmation email and shipping email to the ordering party is one of the functions of the order management system. You can also check the products and information that users want and make new proposals.
● Finance/accounting system
The finance/accounting system automatically creates balance sheets and income statements by entering expense and sales figures. Work speed can be expected to improve because the work is completed only by checking for deficiencies without the need for detailed settings. In addition, since it is possible to analyze and forecast the financial situation, it is indispensable as data when considering and deciding management policies. There is also a system that automatically reflects processing changes due to law revisions if updated.
● Personnel salary system
A major feature of the personnel payroll system is that employees can calculate payroll smoothly. Until now, payroll calculation has been a time-consuming task because it is necessary to check the working style and number of working days of each employee. By introducing this personnel payroll system, payroll calculation can be made more efficient, which leads to reduction of work man-hours and prevention of input errors.
● Information system
An information system is a system for smooth business operations and refers to a system that can streamline specific tasks. The main information systems are tools such as mail software, groupware, and schedule management. By introducing it, employees can communicate with each other and work efficiency will be improved. A major feature is that even if the system stops for some reason, there will be no major problems in the business itself. Although there are bottlenecks such as delays in communication between employees and the inability to share schedules, the communication system can be temporarily replaced with another tool, so corporate activities can proceed without much impact.
By the way, as a way to divide the above business applications, there are cases where the systems that are necessary for the execution of business are classified into two types, the “core system” and the systems that are not necessarily necessary are the “information system”. In addition, depending on the business application, there are many “comprehensive business applications” that are equipped with multiple system functions mentioned above.
How to choose the most suitable business application system
Here, we will introduce how to select a business application system to facilitate business. Please check the following items when choosing a business application.
● Is it excellent in operability?
When choosing a business app, choose an app that is easy to use even for people who are not very good at operating IT tools. Be sure to check the lightness of the operating speed. It takes time to launch the application ・ If the screen operation is not smooth, the user will feel stressed. One option is to use a free trial to check the operability of the app. Please also check the maintenance of the manual that describes the operation method and whether you can receive support from the company that provides the application.
● Do you have the necessary functions?
It is also a big point that business applications have the functions that the company wants. Understand your company’s needs and check if they have the features you need for your business. Some of them are free business apps and systems, but some types have only basic functions, so it is recommended to choose one that has functions that are indispensable for business and that lead to efficiency. is.
● Is it the optimal environment for using the app?
Check if the business application can be operated not only on the PC but also on the smartphone or tablet. When working on the go, if you can operate it with your smartphone, you can work efficiently. Also, check if the app system you want to install is suitable for the OS or version of your PC. Please note that the business application may not be available on older versions of the device.
● Is it a perfect security measure?
Security measures are indispensable for business applications to install on your company’s PCs and smartphones. Although many business apps have countermeasures such as information leakage and hacking, there are cases where some apps have security drawbacks or the company’s security rules and app usage conditions do not match. In addition to security measures for the app itself, you should also check your company’s terms and policies for protecting personal information.
Specific introduction method of business application system
After choosing a business app, first, contact the company that provides the business app you are looking for. The sales staff of the company visits the company and confirms the issues and requests of the company to be introduced. After that, the sales staff grasped the business flow, explained the functions of the app, and demonstrated the product. It will suggest the most suitable plan that can solve the problems of the company, so select the usage plan referring to that story.
After ordering, all the people involved in the project met to introduce the system. After reconfirming the content at the time of proposal, we will share the procedure and schedule of installation work. The system developed based on the detailed design document is checked for ease of use in test operation. By testing, check if there is any discrepancy in the data specifications or screen display. After the system is ready, we will explain the operation to the users. You can receive generous support so that you can use it smoothly even after the operation.
Depending on the company, there are cases where the function explanation and plan presentation are done online, and the introduction procedure may be different, but the basic flow is almost the same. Even after the introduction has been completed on a sunny day, it is still good to collect feedback from employees regarding the usability and usability of business applications. The collected impressions and dissatisfaction points will be useful as materials for considering plan changes.
How to develop a business application?
If you say that “the optimal business application does not exist”, you can create your business application according to the business content. If you want to develop the most suitable business application in-house, you need to know the application development procedure and the programming language to be used. There are roughly two types of application development procedures, “waterfall type” and “agile type”, but this time, we will briefly introduce the waterfall type procedure, which is simple and easy to understand.
● ① Create a blueprint for the app
First, let’s plan the blueprint of the application to be created. By clearly determining the purpose of use and required functions, the development process can proceed smoothly. It’s important to clarify your needs at this stage, as if you’re obscuring what your users want, you may end up with an app that you don’t need.
● ➁ External and internal design
In external design, the environment required for application development, such as screen design, platform selection, and programming language to be used, is determined. It is a process to check the implementation functions such as the movement when the button is pressed and the conditions at the time of login in detail. After completing the external design, we will decide what programming to implement. Since it is the programmer who implements the designed content, it is important to create a design document that they can understand at a glance.
● ③ Execute development/testing
The programmer will code according to the design document using a programming language or framework. Once the implementation is complete, start a “unit test” to see if the code works as designed. The movements when the process succeeds and fails, and whether the necessary data is registered are clarified in detail. After the unit test, an “integration test” is conducted based on the usage procedure. From the same point of view as the user, check if the specifications are as expected.
● ④ Actual operation
After the test process is completed, we will perform migration work to switch the system for business operation. It is important to constantly check the operation of the system so that business efficiency can be improved. Based on the above process, you can develop and install business applications on a sunny day. After introducing the completed business application, it is not uncommon to receive feedback from users and modify the functions.
What is the programming language used for business application development?
There are several types of programming languages used to develop business applications, and the characteristics differ greatly depending on the language. For example, “JavaScript” is a language suitable for creating websites and games, and can be used to achieve dynamic movements. The object-oriented programming language “Ruby”, which was born in Japan, is attractive for its readability and versatility with simple code. It is used both at home and abroad because of its excellent development efficiency. In addition, “Java”, an object-oriented language suitable for large-scale development, can develop systems that do not depend on the computer’s OS.
In addition, “Python”, which is used in the development of well-known Web applications, is also a language used for business applications. Compared to other programming languages, the major feature is that the amount of code is small and it is easy to understand. Among SNS, “Instagram” collects instructions from young people, and “YouTube” which is familiar as a video sharing site is developed by Python.
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