Luckily, with the right software solutions, you can structure and fine-tune your startup from launch to scale. These types of organisational tools can help you in many different aspects of your business — boost productivity, meet your deadlines, and improve internal communication between your team members. 

In this article, we’ll explore five cutting-edge software solutions that can transform your tech startup and make it more agile. From employee scheduling to customer relationship management (CRM), these solutions can take your business to the next level. 

Let’s dive right in! 

Project management software

The first type of software that should be a part of every startup tech stack is project management software. Its main role is managing tasks, deadlines, and team collaboration — software helps you organise your workflow, prioritise tasks, and keep track of progress.

For example, Spekit —  a digital adoption and enablement tool — struggled to track projects and goals because each department used a different platform. To solve this issue, they upgraded to ClickUp. Their software allowed them to have better organisational transparency by using just one tool with multiple functionalities (such as mind-mapping, documents, and Sprints) instead of various tools scattered all over the place. 

Some other great project management software solutions for tech startups include Asana, Trello, Monday, and Notion — there are really a lot of options to choose from. Of course, depending on the nature of your tech startups, you can also use more niched project management tools like Jira which are great for DevOps teams. 

Employee rota software

A powerful staff rota software can help you manage your team's schedules and assignments and avoid scheduling conflicts, ensure adequate coverage, and optimise your team's productivity.

Implementing a rota app is a must, especially if you’re a tech startup working with remote, dispersed teams in different time zones. Here’s why:

• improves staffing and allocates workload
• manages shifts from different devices
• finds last-minute replacements
• monitors attendance and breaks
• allows your staff on-the-go access to their schedules on mobile and other devices
• schedules in-house staff, freelancers, and contractors simultaneously.

Most tech startups consist of engineering, IT, marketing, sales, and customer support teams.  To stay on top of the competition, all of these teams need to work in an agile, synchronised, and streamlined way. Staff rota apps are an excellent solution for this purpose, especially if a large portion of your team is working remotely or with a hybrid schedule. 

Customer relationship management software

Next on our list is CRM software which helps you manage your customer interactions and improve your customer relationships. Its key role is to keep track of customer accounts, data, interactions, and feedback.

According to a recent Fortune Business Insights report on Customer Relationship Management Market [2022-2029]:

“The global customer relationship management market is projected to grow from $63.91 billion in 2022 to $145.79 billion by 2029, at a CAGR of 12.5% during the forecast period.”

This forecast helps us understand the increased demand for CRM software, which shows that organizations find it increasingly useful on a larger scale. To understand it best, look at your CRM tool as an assistant that will aid you in making customer-centric, personalised decisions. 

CRM helps tech startups in a number of ways:

• Centralizing data: all customer data in one place makes it easy to access and track. This helps to improve customer service, as representatives will have all the information they need at their fingertips.
• Automating tasks: tasks such as sending follow-up emails and generating reports can be automated and free up employees to focus on more important tasks, such as developing new products or services.
• Tracking sales: tracking leads and opportunities helps to close more deals which can lead to increased revenue and growth.
• Improving customer relationships: tracking customer interactions, providing personalized service, and offering rewards and discounts help with building stronger customer relationships.

In the process of launching or scaling your tech startup, you’re typically pitching your unique selling proposition to investors, reaching out to potential partners, recruiting qualified talents, and juggling different tasks and teams. A CRM will interconnect all of these aspects of your tech business and give you a much better insight into your client and customer accounts. 

Some great examples of CRM software for tech startups are Salesforce, Pipedrive, Freshworks, HubSpot, and Zoho. 

Communication and collaboration software

According to the report The State Of Workplace Communication In 2023 by Forbes, poor communication affected productivity in 49% of workers. Furthermore, the same report states: 

“Nearly 50% of respondents reported that ineffective communication impacted job satisfaction while 42% said it affected stress levels.”

Evidently, in the process of building a remote team for your startup, efficient communication channels are number one.

Let’s take Up, Australia’s most popular digital bank, as an example. They used Slack not just as a communication channel but as a collaboration platform that makes the entire organization faster, more agile, and ready to pivot. 

For instance, by connecting GitHub and Slack, Up’s customer support team could now easily see when the engineering team solved a problem. Their engineers are also happy to be able to see pull requests and code directly in the Slack channels. 

Some other examples of communication and collaboration platforms often used by tech startups are Microsoft Teams, Basecamp, Google Workspace, and, of course, video conferencing tools like Zoom.

Time-tackling software

Many tech startups have a workforce dispersed globally, which means many of the employees work remotely or at least on a hybrid schedule. Without proper tools, tracking the work progress of your remote staff and the hours they’ve worked would be practically impossible.

Time-tracking software is one of the best ways to measure the productivity of remote employees, especially if you’re juggling multiple projects and teams.

In the case of tech startups, time tracking is of utmost importance since it will help you understand your team’s performance and productivity, while at the same time calculating the profitability of your overall project. 

Here are some specific examples of how time-tracking software can help tech startups organize:

• track time employees spend on different tasks, such as development, testing, and customer support, and identify areas where employees are spending too much time and make changes to improve efficiency
• track time employees spend on different projects, such as product development and marketing, and identify potential problems early on and make changes to improve the chances of success
• track time employees spend on customer support tickets and improve customer satisfaction by identifying areas where employees can improve their response time and resolution rates.

Wrapping up

Adopting the right software solutions is vital for the success of your tech startup, regardless if you’ve just launched or you’re aiming to scale and expand. Considering the ever-increasing need for efficiency, collaboration, and productivity in startups, the five solutions mentioned in this article can be an excellent stepping stone. 

However, keep in mind that technology hasn’t reached its full potential yet — it continues to evolve at a fast pace. As a result, the tools at our disposal will also advance and become more sophisticated. 

If your goal is to be ahead of the curve, don’t stop here. Instead, continue to research and explore better software solutions to simplify your work. This is the best way to remain competitive in industries like tech or SaaS.