Are You Slowing Your Business Down?

The answer to that question is probably yes if you aren’t using technology to modernise your business.

We get it, though – technology just isn’t your ‘thing’. But if you want to stay ahead of your competitors and get more out of your staff, embracing business-boosting tech is essential.

The good news: you don’t have to be a technical whizz to upgrade your processes and operations effectively. You just need easy-to-follow advice from an expert source – in this case, that’s us.

Here are simple but game-changing technologies that will help you not just survive but thrive.

Max Your Squad’s Productivity Level

Bye Bye Email

When it comes to your teams’ productivity, communication is everything.

Even if you have the best and brightest by your side, without the right technology, you may as well be working with a team of sloths.

Take communicating solely via email. Sending updates and sharing news in this way is slow and tedious.

Think about all those emails you receive daily and how many slip through the net … the chances of you missing an important message increase stratospherically when your inbox is overflowing. The alternative?

Hello Push Notifications

Whether your teams use their own devices or a company mobile, they can all connect seamlessly via push notifications.

Depending on the phone you have, you’ll need to download an application to enable push notifications (Like the Pushover app for Apple devices). The messages appear like texts but differ in that you can opt-in or out of receiving them. They also have a restricted character limit which ensures only concise messages can be transmitted.

Push notifications reign supreme over email because they’re much easier to view, access and respond to resulting in dramatically higher click-through rates than emails. This empowers your team to communicate effectively, minimising misunderstandings and boosting their productivity.

Dynamic Communication with Microsoft Teams

Think of Microsoft Teams (included in the Microsoft Office 365 package) as a suped-up chat room. You can create multiple channels per project and invite relevant team members to specific chats. Giving them a secure space for open discussions streamlines communication and speeds up project completion.

You can also integrate Office 365’s applications and other third-party apps into Teams. This gives you and your colleagues access to files and notes pertinent to a specific project without ever leaving chat, supercharging productivity.

When Spreadsheets Slow You Down

Don’t get me wrong, spreadsheets DO have their place in your business’ operations. But if your teams are relying on one for project management at scale, their productivity will take a hit.

First of all, to access a spreadsheet you have to manually find it. Then you need to work out which team member last edited it. Sharing updates on projects in this way is a real exercise in whodunit.

Enter Project Management Systems

What you need is a system that lets you manage all your projects from one place, send progress updates with the click-of-a-button and easily view all the information you need.

Asana, Base Camp, Microsoft Project and Trello are great examples of project management and communication systems. Using them, you can store all the necessary files for a project and access them easily.

Plus, for each project, you can create tasks and assign them to the responsible team member. With the right set-up for whichever system you choose, your team members will be nudged when you create a task for them and you’ll be notified when a task is completed. You gain a super-easy way to check-in with your team regularly and ensure your employees are on the ball.

Galvanise Your Operational Efficiency

Time Wasting Tasks

How much of your time goes down the toilet on repetitive tasks? If you’re a CEO, it’s 25%, according to the Harvard Business Review. Think about the loss you’re making from all that wasted time!

The same goes for your employees. If they’re being held back by monotonous duties (like inputting data, creating workflows, posting on social media and sending invoices) you’re losing precious time and brain power.

Harnessing simple technology to automate certain tasks is how you get that time back.

Microsoft Office 365 to the Rescue

Contained within Microsoft Office 365 are legendary efficiency boosters. For example, using Microsoft Graph, you can automate data collection, such as storing survey response data, saving your team from dreary admin.

The king of automation is Microsoft Flow, an application designed to specifically help you automate workflows. It gives you the ability to schedule emails based on data changes, streamline manager approvals, quickly respond to process requests, capture tweets and add them as leads to Microsoft Dynamics plus much more!

Everything in One Place

Sensitive business data. Onboarding guides. Client overviews. Marketing collateral. How do you store this information? If you’re using My Documents, you’re way behind the times.

Microsoft SharePoint acts like a wiki for your business. It gives you a secure, cloud-based intranet (aka your business’ own private network) where you can store everything and anything your employees need to work optimally.

It saves you heaps of time by giving you the power to easily onboard new staff, update client data, share access to passwords for your systems and broadcast company updates – all from a single, secure point.

From Technophobe to Tech-Pro

You see, implementing new technology into your business isn’t something to fear. And there are a lot of ways to make modernising your operations and processes easier.

If you don’t fancy tackling this on your own, we can help. Whether you just want to talk it over or enquire about our IT support services, simply give us a call on 0161 359 3689 or email
us at info@san-it.co.uk.