Tips For Weathering And Thriving In An Economic Storm (NAPSA)—Somesimple do’s and don’ts about technology can give a big hand to small business, no matter what the economic climate. The problem: A lot of software solutions can help in automating one area of a business, but can often create new problems by not integrating well with other parts of a business. Following these simple do’s and don’ts can help small companies streamline their entire operation, take advantage of the Internet, and—perhaps most importantly— raise their overall bottom line. *DON'’T buy a bunch of incompatible software to run your business. That’s the advice of John Zambrzycki, vice president of operations at Mountain Buggy, a small business that imports rugged baby strollers. They use the Oracle Small Business Suite to take orders over the Web, and the orders automatically flow into the accounting componentof the Suite for easy processing. In fact, they use the Oracle Small Business Suite to run their entire company, from inventory management and sales to employee management. *DO use software that’s simple, speedy and straight-forward. Technology can save you the cost of hiring employees to managethesoftware or input re-input data from one system to another. A recent study found companies using the Suite saved $17 for every $1 they spent on the Suite itself. This remarkable return was driven by reduced need for clerical staffing, software support and maintenance, as well as increased productivity from using the one Me. The right software can help make big changes in a small business. integrated solution. Oracle originally made a name for itself providing database software for Fortune 500 corporations. Now the company is also addressing the needs of the more than 7 million small businesses nation- wide. “Small business is half the economy, and it’s really underserved,” noted Evan Goldberg, who runs the Suite effort. “They usually have to manually input items like sales and invoices, and up to now, they have never had a system available that can provide them with a complete and up-to-date picture of their entire business like the Oracle Small Business Suite can.” Goldberg notes that the software is designed especially for small businesses to be easy to use and easy to get started with, and the hosted solution lets companies access their critical information securely from anywhere, eliminating the need to managecostly software solutions in-house. For more information, visit www.oraclesmallbusiness.com.
