You can have the best computers in the world and without the software, your have nothing. The hardware is there to run the software! The software is there to help you run your business.

Software comes in all price range. Most of time, you get much better quality when you buy more expensive software, but, not all the time. Some software are not very well behaved and can cause a perfectly working computer to operate unreliability.

What software should I buy?

There is no simple answer. You need to work with someone who knows the software you want to install well. You may be working with more than one company to have the expertise you need. You should also make a detailed list of the feathers you need and then the feature you want. You don't want to find out your accounting package cant handle multiple warehouses like you need after you are $50,000 into the project.

Make a complete list of all the things you want your systems to do for you. A list like:

Accounting

Contact Management

Desktop Faxing

e-mail

project management

desktop Publishing

Your list will be much longer and remember, it should be generic in nature. Then make a list of features you need for each function in the list.

Lastly, get with your consultant and figure out what packages will work together. You don't want to have a customer list in the fax software, another customer list is accounting, another customer list in e-mail and yet another in your contact manager. Wouldn't it be nice to have all the packages work together so you have one customer list!