In today’s unprecedented world, there is a seemingly endless amount of things to do to keep your business growing and maturing to its full potential.
Business owners can often feel pulled in many directions managing everything that goes into running a business. The best way to maximize your time and productivity is to automate key components of your business technology, allowing you to focus on your core business strengths.
Here are our top ten ways to automate your business technology:
- Track your time
Using time tracking software has evolved far past the days of micromanaging employees. When used consistently, it can be a great source to know where you’re spending time, and by whom. There are many tools out there and they can be great tools for process improvement and productivity.
- Collaborate through the cloud
Keeping everyone on your team informed with access to the latest versions of company documents couldn’t be more important. Tools like Sharepoint allow your team to securely store resources and collaborate on across the entire organization, keeping your team working at their highest level.
- Use instant team communication software
In the time of global pandemics and remote work, it’s never been more critical for your team to keep in touch quickly. Team messaging and video software like Microsoft Teams lets everyone in your organization keep in touch by sending quick messages or starting video calls. Even better – Microsoft Teams integrates with existing Office 365 tools to keep the tools you need right at your fingertips.
- Set up Cloud-based Collaboration
Gone are the days of sending documents back and forth via email for group editing. In a recent Forbes survey, over 90% of leaders agreed that cloud-based collaboration improves efficiency. Storing documents – whether Word, Excel, Powerpoint – in the cloud allows for real-time editing and can automate the back-and-forth collaboration that used to be the standard.
- Have Secure Password Management
It may seem trivial, but you can spend a lot of time logging into your tools – finding passwords you’ve written down on a post-it, remembering the right combinations, and typing them in. Using a secure identity management system like Azure is key. Using single-sign-on and 2-factor authentication speeds up your access to critical tools, while also keeping your platforms secure.
- Set up a robust customer service platform
Your employees no doubt spend countless hours supporting routine customer requests and issues. Whether you receive 10 or 10,000 support requests, your customer service department can benefit from setting up an automated process to help your customers help themselves. According to Bain, customers are 4 times more likely to switch to a competitor based on service, so there’s no time to waste.
- Enhance your social media presence
Having a unified, robust way to reach your customers is critical. Coordinating and simplifying your branding and content across multiple platforms will help make your brand more cohesive and your message more impactful. Level up by using tools to automate posting and increase engagement with your customers. If you don’t have the experience internally, there are many small business digital agencies that you can outsource to without breaking the budget.
- Digital financial collaboration
It’s more important than ever to keep a sharp eye on your income and spendings. Capitalize on your existing cloud tools and share your financial reports digitally with your external accountant – real-time monitoring can help you reduce costs and increase net income.
- Manage your projects
Having so many business automation tools and processes can get overwhelming on top of your daily tasks. Using world-class task management software can help you automate tasks and keep projects on time and budget.
- Training!
Any business automation tool will fail if the people and processes aren’t in place. The number one way to keep your business automated is to properly train your people on the right tools and processes. Get in touch today to get the training, governance, and best practices you need to take full advantage of automating your business.
