Operational efficiency is important for every company. If you’re a small or medium sized business, it’s likely that you run on limited resources anyway. For larger companies, inefficiencies over a period of time can be costly.
Below are ways that your company can achieve efficiency, get rid of those unnecessary tasks, increase customer satisfaction and remain competitive. Let’s go…
Invest in networking technology
Proper network infrastructure has the following benefits:
Eliminate operational silos
Lack of a good communication network results in corporate silos as employees find themselves working on similar projects. If teams are connected, they will keep each other informed on the day to day reducing the risk of duplication of tasks. Easy.
Fast and seamless communication and problem solving
Faster interaction through voice, video and email will be easier. Teams can discuss deals with prospects and close them in real time. Customers can place orders and have them fulfilled with speed.
Customer queries can be jumped on right away without wait time minimizing any damage to your epic reputation.
Employees will work even when out of office
Travel time can result in a lot of downtime. This doesn’t have to be the case as long as your employees are equipped with the necessary gear to enable them to work on the go. Ensure that they have that sweet laptop and are connected to the network and they’ll be rockin along in no time.
Eliminate the need for unnecessary travel
There are software solutions that can allow interactive one-on-one training sessions and video conferencing, making travel expenses unnecessary. With a good internet connection, you can take advantage of these solutions.
Employees can then redirect the time they’d have spent travelling to other tasks. Winning!
Use web-based apps to manage your projects
Projects have a lot of moving parts and they also require collaboration with team members. Attempting to manage all of these parts with a paper-based system can lead to miscalculations, missed tasks, missed deadlines, lost opportunities and a whole lot of paper everywhere. Argh!
Web apps come in handy as they will keep every team member connected, allowing them to access and work on projects from anywhere in the world. It’s as easy as that!
You can get software customized for your especially for your company, whether you need to work on simple tasks or have to collaborate with others on complex projects involving multiple clients there is software out there!
Invest in mobile applications
Smartphones and tablets are smaller, lighter and far easier to carry than laptops, making them more preferable to use while in the field. By investing in mobile apps, you’ll make it easier for employees to make sales demos, collect data and complete orders while on the go.
By using GPS on mobile, you can locate team members and assign them tasks around their location. GPS also allows you to collect geographical information about your customers, which is useful for route-mapping.
Automate
There are various ways you can automate your business, let’s take a look…
- Process automation
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- You’ll serve more customers in the same amount of time. For example, with automated check-in at airports, customers don’t have to wait in line for an attendant to serve them.
- Ability to process data faster and retrieve information easier.
- Reduction of overheads by eliminating the need for physical employees.
- Automation reduces repetitiveness, makes it easier to complete tasks in a shorter time and eliminates mistakes in task performance.
- It’s easier to maintain records and keep them up to date. To update manual records, you have to search through file cabinets – Yes, they still exist!
- Better preservation and safety of data, through cloud storage.
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- Meeting scheduling automation
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- In a typical work setting, scheduling a meeting can result in a lot of needless email exchange. If you are trying to organize a meeting among a number of participants, the number of emails you get with suggestions for alternative times can be a lot to process.
- You can solve this problem easily with an automated scheduling assistant to manage the communication.
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- Expense automation
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- If you are using spreadsheets as your billing tool, it’s no doubt challenging and time-consuming for you to track your expense receipts, invoices, order approvals, travel expenses, among others. It’s also hard to keep track of spending, orders and inventory.
- You can improve efficiency of these processes with tools like ezpsa.
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- Reception automation
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- First impressions matter. But though most companies know this, their reception sign-in process, which is their first point of contact with customers, still involves pen and a sign-in book.
- If your system still involves pen and paper, it’s time to go digital. Not only will this make the sign-in process easier for visitors, it will also leave you with reliable visitor data in digital format, improve security at your workplace and give your company a good image.
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Upgrade your hardware
A computer that might have been cutting edge a few years back might be obsolete and ineffective today. Old computers are low on processing power, memory, graphics abilities, storage and in their ability to be upgraded.
With an underperforming computer, it can be difficult to take advantage of new and advanced software solutions.
You should have a plan in place to upgrade your machines every few years to keep productivity high.
Conclusion: What next for your business
Maximizing efficiency and increasing productivity in a company is not difficult or costly in this day and age. With the right software solutions, your company can eliminate a lot of unnecessary headaches, save costs, improve its image and increase revenue.
Contact us to help you with software solutions that will bring efficiency to the operations in your company that might be running inefficiently.
