Productivity. Your company needs it. Your employees are measured largely by their ability to effectively turn their effort into a tangible product or service that creates revenue. In short, it means everything to your business. Why then, if it is so necessary, is it so hard to get the people you depend on to realize just how important their productivity is to the success of the business? This month we will talk about what makes a business productive, and what technology will mitigate the major barriers to productivity.
The modern business has a lot of moving parts, and for the most part they are all trying to do more with less. This is because the cost of running a business, and the margins that result from that cost are lower than ever. The lack of available capital is felt in some places more than others. Technology is one of the places where a business may cut corners from if it doesn’t have the liquid assets required to get the job done properly. It’s also a place where investments are made to help facilitate additional productivity through automation and enhanced efficiency. Since technology can both be the problem and the solution to your organization’s productivity strategy, let’s take a look at three technology solutions you can invest in to help you avoid barriers to productivity.
Customer Resource Management
Management software can go a long way toward removing one of the major barriers to productivity: multitasking. Most people are under the impression that if you are good at multitasking, you are more productive, but studies show that this is not true. When multitasking, it makes pretty good sense that you are not as focused on a task as you would be when you are, well...focused directly on that lone task.
The Customer Resource Management (CRM) provides all the good of “multitasking” with actual boosts in productivity. This comes from the automation that is built-in. Instead of dividing your attention from one task to the next, the CRM will provide a profile for every task set out and integrate nearly every part of your business in the process. By using a CRM and focusing on one thing at a time, you will get the benefits that even expert “multitaskers” see.
Cloud-Hosted VoIP/Email
Hosted telephone systems are all the rage these days. In fact, most people who have home phones are using the VoIP system that comes through their cable modem. For the modern business communication in extremely important. There are now VoIP systems made for business that offer many of the communications tools that a business could need. Not only can a VoIP solution come with calling options that allow for desk and smartphone use, they also come with conferencing and instant messaging options that allow your workforce to meet in multiple ways to facilitate the communication the modern business needs.
In the same way where a comprehensive, cloud-based telephone system can be an important addition to your business’ communication strategy, so is a powerful email system. A cloud-hosted email system provides fast syncing and can come with integrated messaging and other productivity tools. Most enterprise-level email providers can be structured as a cloud-based tool so getting the one that is right for your organization is important.
Mobile Device Management
Today’s business just can’t forbid their staff from using their smartphone during work hours, unless they want to increase their human resources budget substantially. People are going to use their phones, but dictating HOW they use them can be where you can keep them from being a distraction. Some companies have outlined policies that give people short breaks for their calling, messaging, and social media--while others have drafted policies that are more liberal and straightforward--getting to a place where smartphone use isn’t presenting constant distractions is difficult. The answer is BYOD.
One thing is clear about smartphone use, people would rather use Wi-Fi than use up their data. With a thorough Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy that includes expectations outlined in ink and fueled by a comprehensive mobile device management tool, you can create a system that makes administrators cognizant of employee smartphone usage without making declarations against the use of them. After all, you may need them to use them at some point. With the MDM tool, you also get the added advantage of protecting your business from security issues that may be brought onto the network by people.
Productivity fuels your revenue streams, and technology can help your business improve theirs. For more information about what other technologies can be used to improve productivity, call us today at (215) 853-2266.
