“Business management tools are all the systems, applications, controls, calculating solutions, methodologies, etc. used by organizations to be able to cope with changing markets, ensure a competitive position in them and improve business performance.”
– "Management". Business Dictionary. Retrieved 28 October 2014.

Business Management Systems (BMS) are great! They offer you the tools and strategies to document your business processes and define the way you work. They are a standard method to achieve consistency and quality in everything you do.

What is a BMS?

“Business Management System (acronym “BMS”, also know as BM System) is a set of tools for strategic planning and tactical implementation of policies, practices, guidelines, processes and procedures that are used in the development, deployment and execution of business plans and strategies and all associated management activities. Business Management System provides a foundation for successful implementation of both strategic and tactical business decisions regarding current activities, processes, procedures and tasks for the purpose of meeting existing goals and objectives of a profit organization and satisfying customer needs and expectations.”
– MyManagementGuide.

The major idea of BMS is to provide management staff with tools for planning, monitoring and controlling management activities and measuring business performance, and to implement continual improvement processes within an organization. The business management system idea identifies the principles of the successful organization’s existence and it’s closely linked to business success criteria.

What kind of tools are part of a BMS?

There are tools related to each organization's department which can be classified for each aspect of management. For example: planning tools, process tools, records tools, employee related tools, decision making tools, control tools, etc. A classification by function would consider these general aspects:

Tools used for data input and validation in any department.

Tools used for controlling and improving business processes.

Tools used for data consolidation and decision making.

Nowadays, management tools have evolve dramatically in last decade thanks to fast technology advances, so fast that it is difficult to select the best business tools for any situation in any company. This is caused by a never ending fight for lower costs and increase sales, the willing for understanding the customers' needs and the fight for delivering the products that meets their need in the way they require.

Under this scenario managers should take a strategic attitude to business management tools instead of going for latest tool. Usually managers rely on the tools without any adaptation which leads to an unstable situation. Business management tools should be selected carefully, and then adapted to the organization needs and not the other way around.

Why Do I need a Business Management System?

When a business is small, everyone knows everything about how it operates.

A team doesn’t need to document what they do, because they just ‘know’ how to do it. And they work so closely together, they can always adapt and improvise to meet new challenges. But as a business grows it becomes more difficult, in fact, impossible to work like this. And the same happens if you work from remote, without staying all in the same location.