What to choose for small business management automation?

Question

Business Informatics

The question, of course, is not new, but, in general, the essence is this:
There is a commercial organization. We are engaged in sales and purchases , services , production and, in the future, rent. That is, four branches of direction. A cash register in excel, an "organizer" on paper stickers, we calculate/draw something in programs, but there is no automation, in terms of the fact that you need to gut folders for a certain month to find the right deal/receipt. Also, the activity of sales managers is not visible, the production workshop is not connected with the office, there is an additional remote office that is controlled only by the team view, the purchasing department fills the client base again in Excel, the foreman fills the work crew there, in general, everything depends on that we need a toolkit to automate all of this.
I am responsible for all this, as an admin, and last week I stormed Google; kilograms of information, picking different crm from Amo to Bitrix24 and megaplan, I don’t understand the root of evil, what where, how and where to tie it so that everything works like a Swiss watch, you understand me)
With my mind, I understand that I need to set 1s, but which edition, cloud or box, and which crm to choose already on the basis of this, or vice versa, first crm, and then integrate 1s, in general, my kettle is specifically boiling, help with advice, comrades, someone went through this stage and learned from experience, every opinion is important, preferably detailed and competent . Thanks in advance

Answer 1

From the bottom of my heart I advise you to steer away from this topic.
As I understand it, you are the admin on whom this happiness was charged.
The problem is that the task was set as usual, namely in the worst way: "you programmer, automate everything ... There is no money, but it is necessary that WOW."
Briefly, the matter is this:
1. We need an analyst. Which will analyze and describe how your processes are arranged, collect requirements for new organization systems, and the like.
2. Need a consultant-adviser-expert (preferably several). He will look at the happiness that the analyst gave out and suggest a direction (for example, as Konstantin Nagibovich wrote above). A few are needed in order to level the tunneling of thinking (and almost everyone has it).
3. We need an integrator. This is already figurative, because here you can write off both PMs, and proggers and managers. They implement it all, implement it, finish it with a file, make instructions and all that.
Well ... Let's say item 2 can be more or less blocked by intuition, gigling, toastering and the like.
Well ... Let's say item 3 will be supplied by the software vendor.
But actually the first point is the foundation. Having messed up everything here will go down the drain if it doesn’t fall apart.
Your boss wants to solve a big problem with small forces, and this is understandable. We all want to buy cheap high-quality comfortable car (shoes-refrigerator-home...). But this does not happen.
Most likely you think that there is some magical software (preferably free) that you can install and happiness will come. But here's nothing. You will either have to pull an owl on the globe - that is, adjust the business to the program - or do it for yourself.
It’s very difficult for you, because you usually don’t say “miracles don’t happen” to your boss. Something that will automate purchases, sales, services, production and rental at the same time? Well, well ... You will be shown some kind of cloud harvester like the same Amo, MegaPlan or something like that and you will follow their rails.
Another option is to find an inexpensive supplier-developer, they will sell you something that will "completely comply with the TOR" (they will write it themselves, right?), They will withdraw money and put something absurd.
You are an IT specialist and it is easier for you to imagine that software is not magic. Well, you can’t approach the choice of a house as “ a house for a large family, so that one floor can be rented out, somewhere to store seasonal tires for money, leave a couple of rooms for a pizzeria and ... ” We need a project with reference to the area, take into account what is electricity, gas, transport accessibility and a lot more. This is a big job.
Continuing the analogy - these cloud harvesters are an opportunity for you to drive into a kind of hangar with partitions that take into account the interests of the majority of businessmen spherical in a vacuum, and inexpensive development is to weld several railway containers in a bunch and finish with clapboard.

Answer 2

In your case, I would choose to develop a 1C system from scratch.
Here are the developments of a system for a company with a bunch of Wishlist, distributed employees, etc.

Answer 3

Choose an integrator of any CRM/ERP, etc.

Answer 4

The box solution will not work. Don't make the #1 mistake - don't get fooled by boxed advertising. Popadalovo will be specific. You can argue.
Definitely custom solutions and preliminary analytics, but these issues will not be resolved without separate funding. The issue price is around $5k, 1-2 months. If less - see paragraph above.
Into the furnace. It will be specific...

Answer 5

Perhaps you yourself have complicated the question posed. The correct answer would be "Everyone (well, it's clear that almost everyone, in fact) uses 1C, only sometimes it has to be finalized, the volume and cost of refinement varies from several thousand to several million rkbl. Experts in the implementation of 1C will be able to evaluate"

Answer 6

The creation of a normal internal document management system is an internal project, which takes both time and money.
1. The workflow of document movement is compiled,
2. The requirements for the BP of the future system are formalized in the form of a scheme
3. All information is agreed and the TOR is compiled
4. Encoded.
Better - no one will do, and even more so ready - you will not find.

Answer 7

But I do not share the universal love for the invention of bicycles. Especially in small businesses.
A typical boxed solution, indeed, may not meet all the nuances. But for business efficiency, this does not matter much. It is enough that 20% of operations are automated, which will help you save or earn an additional 80% of money. The Pareto principle has not been canceled. Everything else does not have a significant impact on the business. Yes, you will still have to do something manually, using Excel, and something will still not be convenient for someone. But people get used to it very quickly and stop worrying about it. With satisfactory functionality and cost of ownership, pay attention to the update frequency, customization flexibility, extensibility, interfacing, export / import of information, data storage reliability, fault tolerance.
And one more tip:Before proceeding with automation, put things in order in the organization, optimize business processes. Find out exactly where you are losing money due to lack of automation. There is nothing more expensive and meaningless than trying to automate chaos. However, many do just that.