Here’s an object lesson in the dangers of relying on your industry jargon when chatting with customers (or prospects). The software my company develops is known as ERP, or “Enterprise Resource Planning”, software. At least, it’s known as that by those of us in the business software industry, and by both technical and management people at larger enterprises.
- ERP? Accounting Software?
But to most people who own, or even work at, smaller owner-managed companies, “ERP” is a meaningless acronym. Many would refer to this type of software as “accounting software”, despite the fact that it does a while lot more than accounting. So perhaps companies like ours should refer to their product accordingly. However this may be just as bad, because many will assume that an “accounting software package” does not include inventory management, purchasing, order processing, etc.
So what should we call it? Business Software? Too vague. Inventory Management software? Too narrow – that implies no accounting functionality. I honestly do not have the answer.
Please leave your suggestions in the comments section below.
[...] Food Distribution Software: Not What You Think? What’s in a name? Particularly when we use industry jargon, that question may be beyond Bill Shakespeare. (See the previous post on ERP and Accounting Software.) [...]
cheers for this cool post.