13 Types Of Business Needs To Improve Business Operations

Updated 30 September 2022

Companies often have a specific goal or ambition that they want to achieve through a variety of practices and processes. Business needs can help a company determine how to achieve specific goals that contribute to its overall mission and vision. Understanding business needs can help you analyse how a company is currently performing, which can help you determine how to improve business operations to increase revenue, sales and customer satisfaction. In this article, we review what business needs are and list 13 types of business needs to consider when assessing what a company might require to achieve its goals.

What Are Business Needs?

Business needs are the resources or methods organisations require to reach their business goals. You can identify an organisation's needs through analysis and critical thinking. Identify where the business is at, what it requires to achieve its goals and if there are any challenges it is encountering that may prevent the company from improving. Understanding the target objectives can help you make decisions to maintain the efficiency of the business. Here are a few questions you can ask when determining the needs of a business:

What are the goals and objectives of each area of the business?
How do you envision the results or outcomes of the goals and objectives?
Is the business encountering any challenges? How can you resolve them?
How do the goals of a department differ from current practices?

13 Types Of Business Needs

There are many types of business needs that a company can address to meet its customer's demands and expectations. Here is a list of 13 types to consider within an organisation:

1. Applications

Companies can add applications to their software to help increase productivity. Applications can include having programs with project timelines on them so employees can monitor their progress, which allows them to stay on schedule to meet their deadlines. Other types of applications can include email programs for employees to communicate with each other and with clients. There are many free applications you can use and others you can pay for depending on what the organisation requires.

2. Infrastructure

Infrastructure refers to the buildings and systems for a city, state and country. A company's infrastructure can include its physical building, software and systems, like its computers. You can also consider systems such as IT services, transportation and energy that can help the business operate more smoothly and efficiently.

3. Products and services

Products and services give value to customers. If you want to improve the company's offerings, you could ask consumers what they might like to see from the business. You can do this by sending out surveys for them to take anonymously to share their opinions. This can help you understand what current and potential customers want and can provide insight into how a company can distinguish itself from competitors.

4. Processes

There are several processes you may use in a business, such as processing orders, creating products and shipping the products to customers. Businesses that do not fulfil sales can use processes such as scheduling appointments for their clients and ordering supplies for their offices. Processes help keep a business organised for employees to follow a routine. Creating a routine using processes allows employees to help their company achieve its goals.

5. Marketing strategies

Marketing strategies are helpful for companies that want to grow. A marketing strategy can comprise how you plan to make consumers aware of a business and what it can offer them. In this strategy, you can include social media accounts, email marketing and digital or print advertisements. Creating a marketing strategy can help achieve business needs, especially if you want to increase revenue and new potential leads. Potential leads are consumers who are likely to purchase a product or service from a business.

6. Customer experience

A positive customer experience can help improve a business. Customer experience includes customer service in-store, online or over the phone. Satisfied customers help a business achieve its goals because a happy customer is more likely to return to the company. They may also recommend the business to their friends and family, which can help increase the company's brand visibility and revenue. Brand visibility is how many consumers know that the company exists and what it does. To improve customer experience, you can offer more training to employees in areas like customer service, conflict resolution and problem-solving.

7. Talent and knowledge

Companies rely on employees with certain talents and knowledge of different business tasks and operations. This helps a company maintain a certain level of productivity and can ensure that the company meets customer demands and expectations. A company that has the talent and working knowledge they want in employees can better meet established goals and objectives that contribute to meeting the company's vision and mission.

8. Data and information

Data can help a company identify improvement opportunities and better serve its customers. Companies often have several different types of data and information they gather, maintain and analyse to provide insight into business operations. For example, a sales department might gather customer demographic information to better understand its consumer market. Some common types of data a company might gather are:

Personal data: This type of data might include demographic information, which can help a company adjust its offerings to meet specific customer needs.
Engagement data: Companies that have an online presence can understand more about consumer interests by analysing engagement data with certain web pages and content.
Behavioural data: Behavioural data analyses how current and potential consumers might interact with a company's products or services, which can help a company adjust its products and services to meet developing consumer needs.

9. Organisational culture

A company's culture can influence business operations, consumer trends and employee attraction or retention. Transforming the organisational culture to reflect a diverse, positive, inclusive and open-minded company can help them gain the attention of potential customers or employees. The ways to influence change in organisational culture include leading by example, improving open communication, having the right team and ensuring that the business defines its company values well.

10. Business relationships

Companies have a variety of business relationships with key stakeholders, such as customers, employees, investors and business partners. Developing strong relationships with different stakeholders can help a company retain its workforce, gain investor support for financing business operations and increase customer sales. Some ways to help develop business relationships include building trust, providing high-quality customer service, focusing on the relational value of the partnership and putting customers first.

11. Standards and practices

Standards and defined business practices help a company deliver a consistent product or service to its customers. This also helps a company maintain its efficiency in providing services or manufacturing products. Companies often have standards and practices to address a variety of business operations, such as:

Sales
Services
Manufacturing
Research and development
Marketing
Procurement

12. Machines and tools

Machines and tools are items a company uses to provide services or manufacture products. These items vary between industries, companies and business practices. For example, a construction company might use hand tools like a hammer or spanner to achieve its goal of building a house. This differs from a retail company that might rely on computers with specific software to complete sales transactions.

13. Systems

Systems often use software to help a company automate processes. This can help a company reduce production times, streamline productivity and increase customer satisfaction. Automation systems can also improve product or service quality and increase revenue. Employees can benefit from automated systems because they can allocate their time to other tasks that help a company. Some automation systems companies use are:

Fixed automation: This type of automation completes a single set of tasks, which is useful in manufacturing operations.
Programmable automation: Programmable automation completes a variety of tasks and commands based on the input from a computer program, which is ideal for manufacturing companies that produce similar product types.
Flexible automation: Similar to programmable automation, this type of automation completes commands based on computer program inputs, but this is based on human-operated computer input instead of automated computer input.
Integrated automation: This type of automation relies on little input from outside sources and can design, produce and test components and products.