Having a “tech stack,” used to be the exclusive opportunity of big business. It was considered a luxury—something that could give you a competitive edge. It’s not like that anymore. Now, tech is a basic requisite for staying competitive in almost every industry.

It doesn’t matter how small your business is. There are digital technology tools out there that can help you accomplish tasks more effectively. And while the price tags can be daunting, keep in mind that people don’t acquire software for fun. When you choose correctly, the product will pay for itself in the long run.

In this article, we take a look at how you can maximize productivity with the right software for your small business.

Understanding Software Costs

Software primarily operates within a product niche known as SaaS (software as a service). Essentially, the software company retains ownership of its products, and they lease them out to you at a specified monthly cost.

The Netflix app on your phone or television is an example of a SaaS product.

This represents a large departure from the 90s model where you would pay a large upfront cost, and then effectively own your software for as long as you decided to keep it.

You may wind up spending more for SaaS in the long run than you did for legacy technology. However, there are benefits.

• Accessible sticker price: Because digital technology products are priced monthly, the actual cost is very small. When you were paying for software ownership, the companies would price it based on their desired ROI. For SaaS, they understand it could take a year (or even multiple years) to hit that number. It’s the difference between paying monthly for your Netflix or paying for ten years upfront.
• Free updates: Because the business retains ownership of its product, it will also offer periodic free updates. These (typically) allow you to pick up new features without a price uplift—though sometimes scheduled payment increases are deliberately timed to correlate with updates.

The bottom line is that SaaS as a pricing concept makes it easier for even small businesses to get the tools that they need.

But what tools might you need? Below we highlight a few common product categories that can help you get set up with a good tech stack.

Marketing

Marketing technological solutions can be very simple— the analytic feature that is available on most premium social media accounts— or quite detailed. To market effectively, you need to be able to acquire and process customer data without interruption.

Look for tools that make it as easy as possible for your marketing team (even if said team is just one person, even if you are that person) to step in the customer’s shoes and understand their perspective better.

Financial Technology (FinTec)

The tech industry does love its abbreviations. FinTec is any technology that helps you with your financial operations. Actually, there is a secondary category known as RevOps, which helps with revenue operations, but let’s keep things simple, yeah?

FinTec needs can range pretty significantly based on the size of your business. In pretty much every situation, however, you want something that will simplify your income reporting process, and allow you to make at least rudimentary revenue forecasts. These are assets that every business needs to set its budget or pay its taxes.

Data

Ah ha! I know a thing or two about SaaS.

Oh my! You should have spoken up earlier.

And I know that all of the product categories described so far produce and process data. This person who keeps referring to themselves in the first person plural doesn’t know what they are doing.

Almost any software tool that you acquire will indeed have data-taking capabilities. However, unless you are careful, they will wind up in obscure little pockets within your business. Industry types refer to this concept as “data silos.”

Data silos make it difficult for different departments within your business to collaborate. Companies that want their business to be more data-fluid invest in a product called a Single Source of Truth. The Single Source of Truth compiles information in a universally accessible location for everyone within your business who needs it.

So, if sales wants to use historical transaction data to fine-tune their approach, they can do so. The information will be right where they need it without the need to call up the billing department.

There are a few different ways to get a Single Source of Truth. However, one of the key factors that you need to keep in mind is….

Integrations

When digital tools work together it is referred to as an “integration.” Separation within business departments is largely imaginary. There are many situations where multiple branches of your company will need to work together on a project. When these circumstances pop up, you want to make sure that the tech isn’t getting in their way.

Technology that integrates well provides the data-sharing functionality described above. It also allows other forms of higher collaboration that can take your business to the next level.

Unfortunately, putting together a well-integrated tech stack can sometimes feel like assembling a jigsaw puzzle without even knowing if you have all the right pieces.

There are professional consultants who can help you choose software tools that will be right for your business. Their services are available at a one-time cost that more than pays for itself in the long run with improved functionality.