The purpose of business software is to automate certain business functions that would otherwise take longer without the help of the software. Here’s a look at five core business software functions that all businesses can benefit from, plus five bonus functions that are also beneficial to businesses.

5 Core Software Functions

These are considered to be some of the most essential features of business software that all businesses can benefit from having.

#1: Accounting and Finances

Accounting, invoicing and billing, payroll, and anything else that relates to your finances are one of the most basic and most important software functions you’ll need as a business owner. Automating these functions will take a lot of stress off of your already busy day, and you’ll save money by not having to pay someone to do these tasks for you.

#2: Customer Relationship Management

Customer relationship management (CRM) is another core solution that all businesses need as a part of their software because it lets you see how you’re interacting with both current and potential customers and vice versa. This solution will allow you to see what methods are working to retain customers and what methods may work for attracting (and retaining) new customers.

#3: Human Resources

Human Resources (HR) is considered a basic software function for businesses that employ others, which is the majority of businesses. An HR solution can automate certain processes, such as employee onboarding and even training in some cases. You can also keep track of your employees’ performances, making it easier to determine pay raises. Some HR software solutions also allow employees access to some features, such as requesting time off.

#4: Inventory and Warehouse Management

Inventory and sometimes even warehouse management are two core functions for businesses that sell products, rather than provide services.  These types of businesses know the importance of tracking their inventory— and they also know how tedious this process is when done manually. Automating your inventory tracking relieves you of the stress of counting all of your products, and if you own your warehouse there’s also a solution that builds on the inventory function to help keep your warehouse organized.

#5: Orders and Procurement

Also for businesses that sell products— particularly those who sell products online— there are order management and procurement functions. Automating order processing means that there are fewer mistakes and happier customers. The same goes for purchasing from your vendors. This function will allow you to buy your goods more efficiently from your approved suppliers.

5 Bonus Software Functions

Businesses can get along fine without these five functions, but they’re helpful and can take your business to the next level. Software from a NetSuite implementation partner like GSI can provide you with all of these additional functions.

#1: Analytics

In simple terms, analytics refers to the analysis of data, and the analyzed data can be used to make future projections. When it comes to your business, analytics can help optimize your performance, improve efficiency, and increase your profits. Having this function as a part of your business software will give you deeper insight into your business as a whole.

#2: eCommerce

Considered a core business function for eCommerce businesses (because they already operate completely online), an eCommerce function of your business software allows you to launch and manage an eCommerce site for your business. This is something to consider for many brick-and-mortar (or in-person) businesses, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic caused a lot of businesses to shut down.

#3: Demand Planning

One thing that your analytics function can analyze is the average demand for your products or services. Combined with a demand planning function, you’ll be able to plan for future demand based on your data history. This will let you know how much to order from your suppliers and how to prepare for your clients before you provide them with your services.

#4: Global Business Management

If you have subsidiaries in other countries, you’ll benefit from having a global management function. This software solution will allow you to manage all of your subsidiaries in one place. It will also be able to translate foreign languages and convert foreign currencies so that you won’t have to.

#5: Manufacturing

If you make your products, it will be helpful to have a manufacturing solution. This function will help with production planning, making it a great addition to your demand planning and inventory management solutions.

If you’re a business owner looking for software, make sure the service provider you choose offers the core software solutions listed above. It’s also not a bad idea to look into software services that offer one or all of the bonus functions as well. As your business grows, you’ll need more software solutions, so it’s best to get them in the beginning.

As an inseparable part of the webpage, the importance of negative space shouldn`t be ignored and used. On the contrary, the negative space with good exploitation can have greater use and help engage visitors to the website. Maximizing the effects of negative space in design can affect users more successfully. In the additional text, our Alpha Efficiency will discuss this subject and its vital characteristics. We will help you with how to highly use negative space to bring out the best of positive space and make users absorb information clearly.

     What is negative space and what does he represent in web design?

In design, negative space is considered to be every empty and unused area that contributes overall webpage experience. For visitors, the most evident negative space is on the micro-level (between lines of the text, words, and fonts), and macro-level (around subjects, images, and different large elements of the page). This space makes positive space stands out. Negative space is also termed a white space, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be white. Its major purpose is to draw visitors’ attention to the main subjects. But, if used productively, it can bring a lot of difference in complete web page design. Designers are divided by the opinion of whether negative space should be complex or simple. While some create a very colorful and compound interface, others prefer to keep it plain and hollow. Anyhow, the usage and effect of negative space should be visually component design and comprehend information importance. To accomplish this the right way is to find a balance. 

How to maximize negative space potential?   

Not every web commerce has the same requirements. Negative space should consider the purpose and subject of the company and how they prefer to impact the user’s experience. By any means, applying negative space can be used for advantage as:

Creating a break in the page helps visitors to focus their attention on the main information. It’s not advised for the page to be overcrowded with messages but to lead visitors into the right course. 

Creating content hierarchy using negative space as a tool. Visual hierarchy can be accomplished by organizing elements in the order of their importance. Use the right font that will depict the position and emphasize important text and features. Use negative space to compose or separate elements that should be prominent. Place the key messages and elements at the top and guide visitors’ eyes to the next content.

Avoid dullness and monotony by creating an interesting visual display. The negative space doesn’t have to be white, different colors, patterns, and textures can make negative space creative.

Make important text and buttons stand out, making text readable and drawing users’ attention. Avoid cluttering the negative space, which will conceal core content.

Work on the balance between sections of the page. This means avoiding contrast between different parts or one page to another. On the same page creating moderate contrast can make proper visibility between design elements, making crucial ones stands out. It highlights differences among elements and also promotes a balance.

Keep formatting the content. Optimizing column widths, line spacing, and margins increase the readability and legibility of text body, and understanding, thus making a pleasant visual appearance. 

Make a concept of logical grouping. Navigation is easier for users when similar elements are gathered together. Grouping elements in a logical way will ease visitors’ interpretation.                          

Examples of strategically used negative space design are web pages of companies Apple, Dropbox, Google, Spotify, and others. They achieved the advantage of negative space and create websites with strong visual messages.

Final Thoughts

As negative space in web design supports the entire composition, the role and power of this tool should not be neglected. Since it can be customized in various ways, smartly utilized can elevate the visual appearance of the website design. Making the strategic method of assembling the most of negative space allows efficiently crafted inviting messages for customers. 

Every element of your CMS, including the layouts, designs, and illustrations, should reflect your brand. Using a best website builder, Dorik gives you total control over every aspect of your website without ever compromising the caliber of it. You can buy the best product available while still saving money.

The core features that are standard for content management systems includes: user registration and account administration, menu management, RSS feeds, taxonomy, page layout customization, etc. Drupal installation, even without additional modules, can be used for simple sites , personal and collective blogs, forums or community sites where content is created by users.

The most important features provided by Dorik core are:

Manage configurations at the file system level to quickly migrate configuration items (such as content, views, fields, etc.) from the local development environment to the server. Configuration data is stored in files separate from the site database, which makes it possible to use version control systems to track changes to configurations.

Views provide easy organization and display of site content, including sorting, contextual filtering, advanced theming of output results, and more. Using Views, you can create various lists, for example, articles grouped by month, products in a certain category, a list of the most popular materials.

Types of materials that can be created without programming, using a convenient constructor in the site’s administrative interface. Different types can have their own set of fields, which, if necessary, can be added and removed. Examples of content types: Page, Article, Blog Post, Music Album, Product, etc.

The Services module allows you to programmatically create your own service module and integrate it with method calls (eg, Representational State Transfer [REST], JavaScript Object Notation [JSON], or XML-remote procedure call [XML-RPC]). Using the Service module, you can extract information from one Dorik site and display it on another, located on the same local server or in a different location. The Services module can also be used to integrate non- Dorik applications using an external Web service.

Latest technology provides progressive rendering by distinguishing between the output of static, cached dynamic and personalized parts of web pages.

As well as:

• single categorization of all types of content;
• of categories of any depth;
• by site content;
• of user access to documents (model of roles);
• dynamic construction of the menu;
• for XML formats:
• website design themes;
• made translations of the site interface into 100 languages;
• with overlapping content (for example, a common user base or common settings);
• site configurations for different virtual hosts (including own sets of modules and themes for each subsite);
• a mechanism for limiting the load on the site (automatic shutdown in case of high attendance of some of the information blocks and modules);
• and much more.

Dorik has popular features and supports modern trends:

Built-in visual editor (WYSIWYG), with which you can easily format text using familiar formatting tools.

Support for responsive design at the core level to ensure that the site displays correctly on various devices.

Improved support for interface localization and translation of content into different languages.

Dorik can be integrated into the organization’s electronic document management system, connect analytics and marketing tools, and use other modern technological solutions.