Any business needs to stay abreast of the latest technological developments; this is to help keep you competitive in the marketplace and to save your valuable time. The right technology can handle the daily routines allowing you to focus on growing your business. The following tips will help you to get the most from the technology currently available:
On-Premises Technology
It has been common practice for each business to purchase a variety of servers and desktop computers to store all their information and programs. This can have serious financial implications to any business and is no longer necessary. Most, if not all of these issues can now be handled by moving your data to the cloud. This will make your business more mobile and involve less financial outlay.
New Projects
Just as you need to move your systems to the cloud you should also ensure all new programs are cloud based. This does not prevent you from keeping some of the software locally but the cloud will increase your mobility and responsiveness to any issue. It will also make it easier for others to access the parts you need them to.
Disaster Recovery
Many businesses can quickly have their entire records destroyed via a fire or computer virus. It is essential to have a good back-up system in place to ensure you will be able to continue trading no matter what happens. The cloud can offer one potential solution for this; using a professional back-up company will ensure your data remains safe and accessible. Alternatively make sure you always back up your data and keep a copy off-site every night.
Archiving
Tax rules mean that a lot of the information your business has must be held for seven years. This can be easily completed by saving all the information electronically. However, this can also lead to a large amount of your hard drive space being occupied. In fact, it is not essential to keep everything and you should ensure you keep only the essential documents. Cloud storage can help with this and leave your local storage solution free for other information.
Mobility
It is becoming less common for all employees to work from a single office and it is certainly essential for all businesses to be able to react quickly to social media trends. Life is mobile and you should include allowances for this when building your systems; a mobile solution is, increasingly, becoming critical to the success of any business.
Marketing
There are many software options available which can capture your customer’s data and automatically market them the latest offers or news. This is an essential part of the success of any business, particularly in the modern, technological age. You should aim to try several different systems and speak to both friends and colleagues before settling on a package to ensure you have the one that most meets your needs. The best packages will target new customers for you with little input on your part. You may even find that an integrated marketing package is the best solution for your needs; this will allow you to merge sales and marketing in one program and target existing and potential customers effectively.
CRM Integration
One of the most important information which needs to be shared between employees is their calendars. This allows all employees to correspond effectively with each other and know who is where when and how best to contact them. This is imperative to establishing effective working relationships and not duplicating work. It has been shown that this does not need to link with any social media or even CRM systems, employees can be productive provided they are aware of what the others are doing.
Security
Moving software and data to the cloud does increase the security risk in comparison to a local served locked into your office. Training your employees regularly is essential to reduce the risk of attack; this can even be followed up with fake emails to see if your employees are likely to click on security risking attachments. Technology is driving industry forward but you should always be vigilant to minimize your own risk of disaster – and have a good back-up plan!
By Jason Phillips and Conosco.com!
