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How To Improve Your SME’s Approach To Technology

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |SME approach to technology|How To Improve Your SME’s Approach To TechnologyLet’s face it; almost every business now benefits from modern technology. Sadly, the vast majority fail to unlock their full potential. Given that tech features have become more vital than ever thanks to the pandemic, now is the time to put things right.

Here’s how you can transform your approach to tech in just 10 easy steps. The improvements for your business will be incredible.

Step 1: Invest in a fluid approach

When developing a new IT strategy, it’s imperative that your systems are ready to evolve. Managed services ensure that your hardware systems, data, and software licenses are aligned with your needs. Better still, they can be reviewed and altered at regular intervals as your business grows.

There is nothing worse than satisfying today’s needs but limiting tomorrow’s success. Being ready to adapt is key.

Step 2: Build flexible working environments

Over the past two years, you have probably been forced to embrace versatility. Work from home schemes and other flexible solutions have enabled companies to survive. However, many workers now prefer this way of work. Cloud-computing and real-time team messaging apps facilitate this. It can aid productivity and staff satisfaction.

It will also open the door to using ad-hoc remote workers for short-term agreements and one-off projects.

Step 3: Utilise automation

Automated tech has completely revolutionized modern business. Using equipment that is connected to the Internet of Things promotes fast, reliable operations. Manufacturing plants and warehouses can benefit greatly from this move. However, automation also supports stock management and order fulfillment.

One of the great things about increased automation is that it allows workers to focus on more crucial tasks.

Step 4: Don’t forget the human touch

While automation can make your business run smoothly, you must not forget that consumers expect a human touch. Humanizing the company website is a great starting point. It will make users feel closer to the brand and can remove any confusion. Adding a live chat facility to connect them to a real agent can work wonders too.

Interactions with your brand are supposed to be enjoyable and comfortable. Keep this in mind, and you won’t go wrong.

Step 5: Pay extra attention to maintenance

Employees need the right equipment to complete their jobs to the highest possible standards. Still, it’s not enough to simply ensure that they work well on day one. Scheduling maintenance that avoids unwanted downtime is one of the smartest moves you can make. Not least because it will keep products in good health.

Operational efficiency isn’t only important for productivity speeds. It also prevents employees from becoming disinterested.

Step 6: Invest in your employees

It’s one thing to support your business with the best equipment, but it counts for little if your employees don’t know how to use them properly. Therefore, regular training courses are an essential addition. Aside from making them familiar with new tools or ideas, it ensures that all workers take a consistent approach.

Besides, upskilling your employees keeps them mentally engaged. In turn, they’ll be keen to get more out of the tech features.

Step 7: Adopt eco-friendly moves

While many people assume that technology is an enemy of the environment, it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, using solar energy and recycled materials can have a telling impact. Similarly, opting for paperless tech can cut down on the amount of resources you use. It’s an ideal way to use tech in an efficient way.

Aside from efficiency, corporate responsibility through greener processes will aid your brand image.

Step 8: Look to save money

Every business decision is ultimately a financial one. Long-term savings are often the main incentive for adopting new tech tools in the first place. You can use modern tech to price compare all proposed purchases or service subscriptions. Meanwhile, ideas like 3D printing can save money during prototyping. Embrace it.

By reducing your expenses, you will be in the best position to stay competitively priced. It can often aid your sales.

Step 9: Use tech to form client relationships

By now, you will have embraced digital marketing in one shape or form. Success isn’t only linked to awareness, though. You want customers to feel engaged with your content and loyal to the brand. Using video marketing and social media to provide a look behind the scenes is crucial. Again, it humanizes the brand.

Collecting data on client trends and behaviors will also help you adapt your marketing and customer care efforts.

Step 10: Protect your business

Finally, modern tech doesn’t only create new opportunities. It also presents potential dangers. Managed IT can include cybersecurity, but you must not overlook other dangers. Copyrights and patents are very important. Non-disclosure agreements can also be stored digitally.

Should an ex-employee try to profit from your ideas or innovations, you’ll be able to take the appropriate action with ease.

The Best Business Solutions for Small Companies

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Business Solutions|The Best Business Solutions for Small CompaniesWhen operating a small business, there are a lot of different things that owners need to consider and manage to ensure that it runs smoothly. In fact, there are so many different facets of leading a small business that it can become overwhelming and frankly quite difficult without the proper tools in place.

The best way businesses can deal with these challenges is to equip themselves with the right solutions and software, which can aid in streamlining the business’ processes and can make performing certain tasks a breeze. Here’s a look at the best solutions and software that most small businesses should consider in order to give their operations a boost.

Trello

Trello is a brilliant and easy-to-use management software that can be used to manage not only personal but also team projects. It’s a visually focused software, which helps in its usability and it organizes things such as schedules and tasks effectively, so that an entire team is on the same page.

The main gist of how this software works is that a team can create a ‘board’ for each task or project that needs to be completed and then stick to that ‘board’ little cards, which detail the individual tasks that each member needs to do to contribute to that task. It’s super simple but it’s that simplicity that makes it really useful and easy to keep a business more organized.

TurboRes

For small businesses that require staff to travel to different locations to attend meetings or hold events, managing the business travel can be a tricky and time-consuming endeavor. Things such as booking transport, accommodation as well as expenses like food can be a hassle, not to mention that a lot of money can be lost through these expenses.

Getting TurboRes Business Travel Solutions is a great way to improve how your business handles travel, as the service will help you better manage your accommodation and also help you keep costs down when sending staff away. It’s really important to manage your travel effectively as a business, as not doing so can be a huge strain on a business’ resources, so that’s why getting a solution like TurboRes is a great idea.

Canva

Canva is a cloud-based graphics design suite that can allow users to create stunning visuals, whether that be images for social media, brochures, and flyers or whatever else you may need good graphics for.

Canva is a great tool for digital marketers as it’s super easy to use and allows creators to build stunning visuals really quickly and doesn’t require the steep learning curve that’s associated with Photoshop. What’s even better about Canva is that there is a robust version of it that is entirely free to use, meaning that businesses can save a lot of money using this service to enhance their digital and print visuals. It has a variety of different styles, illustrations, fonts, and more, meaning that you can create a unique and interesting piece of artwork that will differ from your competitors’ collaterals, making Canva a great business solution.

5 Topmost Software That Helps You In Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Entrepreneurship | Business Software | 5 Topmost Software That Helps You In Business

This is 2020, and the world has entered into a new decade, unlocking new windows to the trading world. People nowadays are indulging in various kinds of businesses and earning quality money. Youth is much more interested in becoming an entrepreneur than doing nine to five jobs. Many people are providing guidelines to business, even this, has become a business. People conduct public speaking seminars to spread awareness about entrepreneurship and unique ways to enter into the trading ball.

As you must have experienced, how every field is progressing with time and doing wonders to support each other. IT has embellished business and granted some modern ways to set your feet in it. There is now numerous software that helps in making things easy for an entrepreneur like deputy software. This software enables you to perform better and efficiently. They lessen the risks and present you with a proper platform to execute your plans without any haphazard. Here is a list of top-five software that you can use and grow your business. This list will help you to pick suitable software for your business. Have a look and follow the list,

Deal with Accounts

If you are commencing a business and don’t want to squander your precious time in 2+2=4 (accounts), what will you do? You should hire a person who can solve the account operations. However, after establishing a business, you will realize that you cannot afford to make a mistake in fiscal matters. You will also discern that human beings are not imperiled to commit mistakes. Therefore, what can be the after course? We have a quick account fix for you. You should borrow some help from the IT Department and lift your accounting matters to accounting software.

Presently, you must be wondering what kind of software you can use to handle the finance of your business? You should download QuickBooks software. Do you know anything about this magical wand named QuickBooks? It includes some very convenient features that you need to make things easier for you.

  • You can trust this software with all your business secrets.
  • It will aid you in tracking the cash and provide you with receipts.
  • It creates the invoice and any other business form that you may want to send and receive.
  • You can easily analyze the performance of your business by tapping the screen.

Website Building

As the internet is touching higher skies, every business needs a website. You cannot start a business venture without establishing a website and for that purpose; you need a website building software. People these days ask for the website first because it has turned into a matter of authenticity. The easiest and accessible website building software is Word press. It is free in the beginning and later offers discounted plans. Its features are striking as mentioned below,

  • It offers 300 themes to set up a domain. You can design it by yourself with eminent features.
  • It deports your posts to other social media platforms such as twitter.
  • It is SEO trained and increases the readability of your content.
  • You can dig the stats of the visitors that look into your website.

Digital Marketing

After expanding a topnotch business, you need to spread its name around the town. But how are you going to do this? What are the modern ways of marketing? You know the moves, don’t you? You have to acquire digital marketing software and lift your business through innovative techniques. We suggest you involve ‘Intercom’ in your business. You must be pondering what Intercom is and what it does? It is upscale software that helps entrepreneurs to grasp clients and engage with them. The features it comprised are stated below,

  • Intercom procures clients through artificial intelligence-based chatbots and generates faster links.
  • It forwards convincing emails to the people who sign up and transform them into clients.
  • It has a help desk that allows its members to get help at any moment.
  • You can depend on them with all your clients.

Project management

Everything has been going through a proper discipline but do you retain any idea about your team? How are you going to manage people with inconsistent behaviours, nature, and backgrounds? This whole team management fiasco will exhaust you but wait; we are here so why fear? We have an idea for you to get an instant update about your team members. Get Trello. Don’t know Trello? We’ll never leave you clueless. Trello is a software that promotes companies to manage their projects without any hurdle. It works in a very trendy manner. You obtain this first, make a card, include your team in that card and ask them to update it. Simple, isn’t it? Take a look at its impressive features,

  • You can avail Trello for almost every nature of tasks; family trips or high-end professional projects.
  • You can add attachments, comments and due dates to whatever task you are heading towards.
  • It provides you with a butler. Surprise? Not the real one. Butler boosts productivity through automation and formulates principles, commands, and buttons for your card.

Hiring and human resources

Last but not the least, the field of human resources is extremely important for any business. You cannot hire any Tom, Dick, and Harry without knowing their background. Recruitment CRM carries significance in every kind of business and an ideal relationship between employees and employers. With the uprising scope of the human resources department, candidate relation management (CRM) has taken place in the corporate world to hire suitable candidates. There is software that performs this high-end duty, but smashfly is the best of all. You will believe us after knowing its features,

  • It provides your team with talent acquisition software that helps in analyzing the skills of the suitable candidates.
  • It has an AI-based chatbot that heightens the probability of identifying the candidate through conversing them. Moreover, it schedules meetings for you.
  • It helps in organizing recruitments events without bearing any difficulties and leaves an unforgettable image on candidate’s minds.
  • It enables you to forget about paperwork and turn everything in digital.

These are some easy to use software that enhances the probability of your growth. You should utilize this software and enter into a rapid version of corporate. This is an era of technology boost so gain as much as you can. You are required to decide whatever software your business needs. This is the time to move forward keeping in mind the progressive technology and the fast world. Be smart and watch your step!

4 Reasons Your Business Should Move to Office 365

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Office Technology|4 Reasons Your Business Should Move to Office 365Lots of companies are still using outdated technology, despite there being plenty of new solutions and platforms that can fully transform and improve the way that they work. There are a number of reasons why many are resistant to change, including the need to re-train staff to learn how to use new technology, and the belief that it will be a struggle to migrate data from one platform to another. In many situations, though, the pros far outweigh the cons. In this article, we’re going to explain why an Office 365 migration is a good idea for your company, no matter its size.

1. No Need to Worry About Maintenance or Servers

Office 365 is fully hosted in the cloud, so there’s no need to worry about investing in local servers or performing maintenance either. The Trust Center that comes with the platform ensures that your data remains in safe hands too. Cloud services are becoming increasingly popular with businesses of all sizes, as they offer so many benefits that you just can’t get from hosting software locally. Plus, the software can also be seamlessly linked with many on-premises solutions if needs be.

2. It Can Grow with Your Business

One of the best things about Office 365 is that you only need to pay for the programs that you plan to use. And, if at any point, you think an additional program could help your business, you can easily add it to your subscription. The same goes for data storage. Unless you need tons of storage right away, you can simply opt for the cheapest plan, and increase it later on as your storage needs grow. OneDrive offers a large amount of storage for a very affordable rate too, so you’ll never be left struggling for space again.

3. Take Advantage of Updates and Features as They’re Released

If you currently use any Microsoft Office products, you probably choose to invest in the newest version a while after they’re released. This could be for cost reasons, or simply because you don’t have the time to re-install the software on all your devices. With Office 365, this is no longer a worry. You will instantly have access to the latest updates and features the second they’re released, and won’t be stuck in a cycle of waiting for the next large update to launch.

4. Workflows are More Collaborative

Office 365 is designed to make collaborating on documents easy. When all of your devices have Office 365 installed on them, colleagues can quickly leave comments, make edits, and access documents in real-time. This completely eliminates the need to email documents between different departments, download them, make edits, and then email them back. Not only does this improve efficiency, but it means that different team members can collaborate on one document all at the same time.

Office 365 is the number one product when it comes to data and security. Most large and medium size business owners prefer Office 365 migration services from a reliable cloud hosting provider which provider impeccable support. If you value your business, want to improve efficiency, and want to spend less time performing server maintenance, migrating to Office 365 is definitely something you should consider.