'Complete' business management software for a client

[LordX]

I had a potential client come in today, and ask me something that I haven't really been asked before.

He was looking to see about getting a 'suite' of apps that handle everything for him. He was considering 'Zoho Apps' - which I had never heard of.

Right now he is using some accounting program, which doesn't play nice with other programs etc etc.

He does water filtration sales and service - and wants something that tracks everything he does for his customers, and also helps with accounting etc. So if he pulls up a client, he can see dates of visits, what they bought, notes etc. instead of just dollar values.

As a computer tech, this is a little out of the scope of the services I provide, and is more business administration...

Does anyone here know of good solutions? And who could I refer to help him get it all setup and configured.

 

[Markverhyden]

You could spend months on this. What he is asking for has been around for years. Named under various acronyms like LoB, CRM, etc, etc.

A quick Google search of "water filtration lob app" yielded https://www.servicefusion.com/water-treatment-business-software as the third hit. Google for Business may have options.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I tend to avoid recommending software to clients......I don't want to recommend something that they will spend a LOT of money on, a lot of time learning...and..end up not liking it.

Usually the "trade magazines" that they get in the mail..and the "trade shows" that they go to for their business...will have representatives of software that caters to them.

That said, some popular ones I see...
ServiceTitan
Jobber
ServiceMax
FieldPoint

...there's quite a few others.

 

[Diggs]

Do some research on ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems. Here's an article that compares some of the free ones. (Long ago I was part of the selection team for a mid-sized company.)

 

[Sky-Knight]

It's called... Microsoft.

I happen to agree with Satya Nadella's recent comment that SaaS is dead. Because AI will become the business logic layer, I can build an agent that connects PowerBI to whatever data source I want in a few queries.

It's not so much of a stretch that a collection of those agents can be reasonably constructed to replace any CRM / ERP on the planet... and that's just the low hanging fruit.

I'm currently eyeballing our PSA.

All this insanely expensive, poorly supported software that keeps our data locked up in proprietary data storage formats is for the birds, it's always been for the birds, and it will always be for the birds.

But that's the five to ten year view... today? OP's customer needs to research applications.

The rest of you... you're self employed people, you're charting your own courses and futures... for the love of all that is good and right in this world...

STOP BEING CTO'S FOR FREE!

This is a core business decision, it cannot be made correctly by a technical asset. Especially one from outside the organization with incomplete optics on how the organization functions, and what its goals are. This is squarely the responsibility of the owner, and if he wants to push that responsibility onto someone else, two realities assert. First, he should be paying for that service, and Second, anyone providing it is well advised to replace the revenue this opportunity provides because it will not be around long.

 

[LordX]

Thank you all for the suggestions. I certainly agree that this is above the scope of what a computer tech should do - and I told the customer that.