Between meetings, projects, deadlines and many more responsibilities, as an entrepreneur or SME company owner, you are constantly pulled in a thousand different directions, making it difficult to concentrate and ensure that you are spending your time wisely and productively. But thankfully, the invention and innovation of apps, short for “applications”, whether for desktop, web or mobile, has forever changed and enriched how businesses across all industries are functioning today.
Thus, with the upcoming year approaching, it’s important to constantly be at the forefront of new technology and keep up-to-date on emerging trends if you want your business to stay on top or thrive in the long term.
What are the must-have business apps to look for in 2023? Discover more in this new blog post. Happy reading!
Understanding Business Applications
A business application refers to a set of programs or software designed to help business owners and leaders improve their functionality and foster efficiency throughout the organisation. Business applications can be built in-house or obtained as off-the-shelf solutions.
There are three main classifications of Business apps which are:
- Internal Applications – are core apps utilised in the organisation, such as the HR System and Internal ERP system.
- B2B Applications – are apps utilised between partners such as suppliers or resellers and can be accessed using dedicated lines like, for instance, bulk order submission web service.
- B2C Applications – these are apps utilised for general applications, which are usually browser or web-based, like e-Commerce apps or customer loyalty apps.
Benefits of Business Applications
Indeed, it’s evident that business applications offer a wealth of advantages to companies of all sizes. Here’s a list of the benefits:
- Time and cost-efficient
- Eliminate complicated processes, increase productivity and reduce human errors
- Ensure that all your business data and customer information are stored securely and protected from breaches and unauthorised access.
- Nurture better work relationships and collaboration among your employees and stakeholders
- Provide actionable insights through analytics to help you achieve a lucrative business
- Improve customer service
- Boost customer engagement, satisfaction and loyalty
- Foster overall business health
7 Must-Have Business Apps For 2023
1) Finance and Accounting Apps
Moolamore
Got cash flow problems? Want easy access to funding so you can reach your business’ financial goals? No matter your financial worries, Moolamore is the best accounting and cash flow management app built to provide brilliant solutions at your fingertips!
It is simple, user-friendly and loaded with world-class features such as comparative and flexible date range analysis, real-time financial forecasts, scenario builders, multi-currency conversion, multiple accounting software consolidations, and so much more. With Moolamore, you can guarantee that your business will run like a well-oiled machine—healthy, safe and future-ready for ever-lasting stability!
This app offers a 30-day trial at no cost, but you can choose a pricing plan (from Freemium, Standard and Enterprise) that best suits your needs and your finance team.
Other examples:
- Xero
- MYOB
- QuickBooks
- FreshBooks
- Oracle NetSuite
2) Project /Task Management Apps
Asana
Produced by a San Francisco-based company of the same name, Asana is an easy-to-use mobile and web task management tool that can help you and your team manage your projects efficiently. With this app, you can also get real-time status updates and visual highlights to see where everyone’s work stands and determine projects at risk. To delve more, some of Asana’s excellent features include task cards, workflow builder, calendar, timeline, lists, forms, boards, and integration capability to 100+ apps relevant for collaboration and coordination.
Other examples:
- Trello
- Monday.com
- Notion
- Nifty
- Zoho Projects
3) Time Management Apps
RescueTime
With RescueTime, you’ll get an accurate picture of how productive you are with your time when working. This app can track what your tasks are for the day and alerts you if you are distracted or multitasking at once. Hence, if you really need to concentrate, you can turn on its focus session feature, and it will automatically block your biggest distractions like Instagram or Facebook Messenger.
Other examples:
- Connecteam
- Clockify
- TimeCamp
- TMetric
4) Social Media Management Apps
Hootsuite
This app can help you save time with your social media marketing because instead of logging into each network and posting there one at a time, with Hootsuite, you can simply plan, advance schedule and syndicate all social posts from a single dashboard. Moreover, Hootsuite also has an analytics feature that can provide in-depth analysis and reporting so you can better understand your brand’s social media performance. Currently, this app supports Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Google+ Pages, WordPress blogs, Foursquare, Mailchimp, Evernote, Flickr, Storify, Slideshare and more.
Other examples:
- Buffer
- Planoly
- Sprout Social
- Meta Business Suite
5) Email Marketing Apps
Mailchimp
Email marketing is the key to helping you reach more clients and stay in touch with your customer base. So, if you want to leverage email marketing, you need a comprehensive email service provider (ESP) like Mailchimp.
With Mailchimp, you can build professionally designed custom email templates through its drag-and-drop email builder, manage your mailing lists, send newsletters and automate your entire marketing campaigns. Likewise, since Mailchimp is a web-based application, you won’t need to download and install heavy software on your device because you can utilise this app like a website on any web browser.
Other examples:
- Constant Contact
- MailerLite
- Sendinblue
- Sender
6) Communication and Video Conferencing Apps
Google Chat & Google Meet
Since remote working is the new norm, most companies and individuals of today rely more on chat services and virtual meetings. And Google has its own communication and video conferencing tools, which are Google Chat and Google Meet—formerly part of Google Hangouts (Hangouts Chat and Hangouts Meet).
To elucidate further, Google chat is a secure communication app that enables easy and convenient business communications within the Google Workplace ecosystem. With Google chat, you can collaborate with your team via text as well as share documents. On the other hand, Google Meet is a safe and high-quality video communication service where you can make an audio call, video meet and present decks on any device within your organisation. All you need to do is get a link and share it with your team members.
Other examples:
- Microsoft Teams
- Slack
- Zoom
- Viber
- Skype
7) Graphic Design Apps
Canva
In the form of a web-based app, Canva is an easy-to-use graphic design tool that enables beginners, non-designers and even professionals to create designs efficiently and quickly, with the help of ready-made, “drag and drop” templates, icons, fonts, colour palettes, shapes and texts.
Other examples:
- Affinity Designer
- Figma
- Pixlr
- Crello
- Vectr
- Photoscape
- Adobe Photoshop
Wrapping Up
In retrospect, here are the must-have apps that will cater to your specific business needs—from finance and accounting to project management and everything in between. Utilise these apps and let your business thrive in 2023 and beyond!
Grow More with Moolamore! With this powerful cash flow solution, it’s never been easier to scale up your business at a touch of a button! Schedule a demo with us!