General

In order to help manage foreign trade enterprises and better purchase foreign trade software that meets their own development needs, we will break down the steps in detail as follows:

1. Foreign trade enterprises need to understand their current level of informatization, the management level they hope to achieve, and the ideal management level they need to achieve for further development in the next 3-5 years.

This stage is very crucial, and enterprise managers need to pay sufficient attention. General enterprise managers may have the following ideas to install a foreign trade management software:

I see that other companies are using foreign trade management software, so I also need to use one, otherwise I will fall behind with the times.

The customer information, product information, emails, orders, and current account information of foreign trade companies are scattered on different computers, making collaboration, updating, and supervision very cumbersome, wasting many business opportunities, and even delaying the smooth development of business. Affected the stability and rapid growth of the enterprise.

With the continuous increase in labor costs, it has become crucial to effectively improve the efficiency of staff and management.

Ensure that business personnel promptly follow up with customers, respond to inquiries in a timely and efficient manner, sales personnel effectively provide quotes, tracking personnel promptly follow up on the execution of orders, document personnel promptly book and declare customs, financial personnel accurately register current accounts and expense information, quickly conduct profit analysis, automate the generation of financial analysis data, and management personnel can understand abnormal information in the business process in real time, And business development trends.

Liberate the work of management personnel, freeing them from the mundane tasks of daily management, giving them more time to consider the cultivation of the market, customers, and employees, in order to achieve innovation, upgrading, and leapfrog development of the enterprise.

The old management software has not been upgraded for several years, unable to adapt on demand, unable to expand its functions to meet the growing management needs of enterprise development, and unable to support new systems.

The old management software only supported the management requirements of a few departments in enterprise management, such as the sales department, the procurement department, or the finance department. Enterprises do not have a unified, integrated, and collaborative business management system.

In the era of mobile internet, old management software does not support fully popular smartphones, tablets, as well as new Windows systems and Macs.

Through this stage of analysis, we can understand that foreign trade enterprises need to purchase or upgrade foreign trade management software mainly to: in the era of constantly rising labor costs, maximize the work efficiency of employees and management personnel, better improve the performance of the enterprise, service quality, and seize business opportunities.

2. How to select a model: Determine the current situation, problems, and expectations of the enterprise's informatization. Foreign trade enterprises need to understand the current mainstream foreign trade software offerings and software products.

Due to the fact that foreign trade management software is primarily a software product and a technical product, the architecture of the software product itself is very important, just like the foundation of a house. For example, iPhone and Android, the two most popular operating systems, may both have similar functionality due to different technical architectures. iPhone always needs to run smoother, more stable, and faster than Android. The rollers manufactured by Chinese companies can only slide for 20 seconds, while the rollers in Germany can slide for 3 minutes. China can easily launch rockets, while India's rocket launch success rate is very low, but China cannot manufacture aircraft engines. Technology is like this, it's there, not transferred by human thoughts.

Regarding foreign trade software, there are mainly C/S, B/S architectures, as well as cross platform B/S architectures, and native programs for mobile apps. Regarding the pros and cons of architecture, software vendors from different camps will tailor their own sales strategies based on their own technical characteristics.

Here we only want to state objective facts:

C/S structured software emerged around Windows 95 from 1990 to 1995, replacing the DOS batch processing program before C/S (this type of application program withdrew from the mainstream 20 years after the invention of computers in 1970).

The B/S structure software became popular in 1998 with the emergence and popularization of the Internet. After 2003, due to the popularity of Java/J2EE, it still entered the mainstream. Since 2005, almost all national systems, such as banks, electricity and taxation, have been built on B/S.

The most important Internet Standard, HTML 5, was released in 2008, Apple released iPhone in 2007, and Android in 2008, pushing B/S to a new stage of cross platform development. During this period, all Alibaba's product lines, including Taobao and Baidu, most of Google's product lines, Apple's iCloud, and Tencent WeChat, to traditional software companies such as SAP's high-end product NetWeaver, Yonyou's high-end products such as Yonyou NC, NC Cloud, Kingdee's high-end product lines such as EAS, and Kingdee K/3 Cloud, all shifted to B/S architecture or cross platform B/S architecture.

Therefore, the above objective facts clearly indicate that C/S architecture software is an antique of the last century, just like landline phones or fax machines, it will not disappear, but has just withdrawn from the mainstream.

At present, all foreign trade software companies with C/S structure claim to also support B/S structure, which indicates this trend. However, foreign trade software companies with C/S structure have encountered historical burdens and challenges in compatibility with old program logic when developing B/S, a brand new program architecture.

3. Contact a foreign trade software company, provide product introduction materials, provide demonstrations, explanations, and answer questions. The most crucial thing is to provide a trial.

Contact at least a few software companies and focus on 2-3 software companies.

How to determine which foreign trade software is good, foreign trade enterprises can only contact the software company one by one, request detailed product introduction documents, and agree on a demonstration and explanation time. And provide Q&A explanations for any questions raised during the demonstration process. Preliminary evaluation of the software's compatibility, as well as understanding the features and advantages explained by the software company.

4. Try foreign trade software products.

Trying out software products is a very important step. Through general demonstration, explanation, and trial use, foreign trade enterprises can determine which foreign trade software is good for themselves.

Because by trying out the software, at least it can be confirmed that the business personnel of the software company have implemented the verbal instructions in the software during the demonstration and explanation process, that is, the consistency between the verbal instructions and the standard software products.

Generally, companies that have not used software before feel that each product is similar when listening to software companies explain their products at the beginning. However, unlike drugs or perfume, software is difficult to experience before sales.

And software products can be experienced, as long as you have enough patience, you can experience many details and questions of the product, and then consult with the software company on how to meet the requirements, how to meet the key points of your management, and the particularity of your industry.

After a few days of careful trial, enterprises can quickly understand the characteristics and blind spots of software products from different companies:

A. The degree to which this software meets the company's current needs is: 60%, 80%, or more than 90%. The software meets the company's level in the next 3 years, the company's level in the next 5 years, and the company's level of demand in the next 10 years.

B. Is the software supporting mobile devices such as iPhone and Android at 100%, 95%, or only 5%, as advertised by the software company, or is it just an unfulfilled gimmick? If a foreign trade software company with a C/S structure also claims to support the B/S structure, it is necessary to try the B/S structure to see if only a few modules support the use of B/S below, whether the functions are complete and consistent, or only 20-30% are consistent. Can daily use be mainly based on the BS structure, supplemented by it, or just an unrealized gimmick?

C. Remote access speed, especially with a business data volume of over 5 years? Can the printing format be 100% consistent with the format used in daily life, or 80% consistent?

D. Some of your own simple requirements, the rapid adjustment ability of this software, and the degree of the ability to respond to needs? And potential expansion requirements in the future, demonstrating the software's scalability.

5. Determine the cooperative manufacturer of foreign trade software and confirm the business terms.

By comparing the features, advantages, alignment with one's own business processes, as well as the stability, functional integrity, and scalability of products from various software manufacturers during the trial process, a specific software product can be selected for purchase.

When determining business terms, it is important to pay attention to the list of functional modules for the selected foreign trade software. Due to the activation of special functions and industry characteristics, as well as the scope of implementation initialization, payment methods, deployment methods, maintenance terms, upgrade adjustments, and other items. It should be clearly reflected in the contract.