Technology Adaptations for Your Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Technology Adaptations for Your Business | Business Technology

Managing a business is hard to do, but this year has been especially hard. With the normal tasks of creating a social media strategy, managing employees, and tracking data and finances, there have been a lot of upheavals and needed adaptations. A business may have needed to be done remotely or adapted to fit safety protocols. A lot of the needed adaptations needed require technology updates and fixes. Here are a few ways you can adapt your business using technology to keep up with the changing world.

Working Remotely

There has been a greater need to have employees work from home where possible. This can be better facilitated through technology like laptops, communication software, and other software that allows employees to access their work files and documents from home.

Another important aspect of working remotely is finding a good way to still hold necessary meetings. There are many different platforms that allow for video conferencing meetings. Some companies that have some employees working in the office and others working at home use Zoom Room Equipment to set up a designated room to use for online meetings with their remote workers. This helps to cut down on time needed to set up for meetings and other technical issues that can delay schedules.

Project Management

When everyone is working in different locations, it can be difficult to ensure that tasks are completed on time. You may have problems with people duplicating work or tasks getting forgotten due to a lack of good communication.

Project management software like Asana or other options can help you set up tasks, due dates, and assignments all in one place. Giving everyone access to the projects they work on will help the entire team be informed of the current status of the project and what needs to happen next to reach the goal.

Cybersecurity

Remote working is great for many reasons, but it can also open up the door for cyber attacks on your company if you are not careful. Employees may rely on public internet connections, or online storage solutions may be utilized to help gain access to important documents from different locations.

It is easier to provide security to an office location because you can lock the physical office that contains the servers and use closed networks with added layers of security. These are not possible when you have remote workers.

Investing in increased cybersecurity measures is crucial if you are going to keep your business safe. Virtual private networks (VPNs) and data backups are both essential for remote working. You should also stack up against your security by using multi-factor authentication, real-time security monitoring, and cybersecurity software.

Performance Tools

It can be hard to manage employees when they are working remotely, and that can make performance reviews unsubstantiated and flimsy. Using performance tools can help to give your employees concrete expectations and goals they can follow, and it can also give you usable data to help increase engagement and provide targeted training and feedback.

How Often Should You Update Your IT Systems?

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Management Article |IT Systems|How Often Should You Update Your IT Systems?Your IT infrastructure plays a significant role in maximizing productivity within your business. Further to this, the company’s various IT systems are also responsible for ensuring security and protection against opportunistic, yet sophisticated cybercriminals.

Keeping your IT systems up to date should be a top priority in order to ensure they are fulfilling their different duties at their fullest capacity. The question is, how often should these updates be taking place? Here is everything that you need to know.

It depends on the IT systems in question

Most IT infrastructures are comprised of a number of different IT systems and components, and each of these systems and components will need to be updated or upgraded at different times, and some more frequently than others. For example, your operating system (OS) software should be updated as soon as new updates are released. Luckily, most operating systems are rather adept at updating themselves automatically.

Virus and malware protection software, on the other hand, will usually only need to be updated once a year, although this varies from provider to provider. In some cases, you might need to allow small updates to take place every few weeks.

Updating vs. upgrading

There is a huge difference between updating and upgrading your IT systems, although both processes are just as important! Updates are generally required a lot more frequently than upgrades. Updates revolve around improving your existing IT systems and software, while upgrades revolve around transitioning to brand new IT systems and software in order to reap the benefits of advanced technology. Most upgrades should take place every few years, or when there is a major breakthrough in technology. These technological breakthroughs are important to investigate, especially if it becomes evident that your competitors are rushing to embrace the latest advancement.

In the vast majority of cases, you will be notified directly when it is time to update your systems and software. Unfortunately, however, it is less clear-cut when trying to figure out when the time is right to invest in IT infrastructure upgrades. This is why it helps to enlist IT support for businesses from an expert IT services company. The employees working at one of these companies will be equipped to advise you in terms of:

  • When your existing systems are no longer functioning optimally and productivity is suffering as a result
  • When there is new technology available that could provide your business with an advantage
  • When your existing systems or software are reaching the end of their ‘life cycle’
  • When your systems or software no longer cover all aspects of your operations
  • How to upgrade when your business is expanding or embracing a new opportunity for growth

The right IT support means that you do not have to worry about trying to find out how often updates and upgrades should be occurring. Your outsourced IT support team will be there to guide you along the way, offering greater peace of mind, improved productivity, and reliable protection against the ever-growing threats to cybersecurity.

Six Ways to Improve Your Business’ Efficiency

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Business Efficiency|Six Ways to Improve Your Business’ EfficiencyTime is money, and for that reason one of the single best ways to improve your bottom line is to improve your business’ efficiency. This applies to every single aspect of your company, from supply chain all the way to employee management. Some will require trial and error, yes, and you will learn as you go (even if you are an established business). Other efficiency solutions, however, come in the form of new business management tactics and tech tools.

There are so many ways that you can improve your business’ efficiency, and this guide will help you get started:

1. Software to Manage Remote Traveling Teams

If your business operates via house calls (plumbers, electricians, movers, tech experts, etc) then you need a unique, effective solution to manage your team on the go. There are so many applications to service dispatch software that go beyond just team management as well. You can provide customers with live updates, provide map directions to your team, and add new or recurring jobs without causing any schedule conflicts.

2. Software to Manage Remote Work from Home Teams

The best option to keep track of what your work from home teams are doing is through a simple project management solution. Have each team create a set of sub-goals for their task, so they can easily update you, the manager, on their progress. This way you don’t have to check in and interrupt the workflow just to get a sense of where they are at with their task. You can just look online, and make note of what teams are making good progress, and which ones seem to be struggling.

3. Cloud Technology

The reason why you will want to use cloud technology is that it enables the same data and tools to be shared to all of your remote employees without requiring them to download that information or those tools directly to their own computer. Furthermore it also allows for instantaneous collaboration, so your employees can get work done in live time, rather than interrupting themselves with long email chains.

4. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Separate cloud systems are not perfect. Ideally they need to be able to talk to one another so that you can set up automated tasks, updates, and reminders. The most extensive option that will allow for this is an ERP system. Enterprise Resource Planning is meant for large, multi-national corporations, but there are plenty of smaller-scale options that fulfill the same basic functions: collaboration and automation.

5. Supply Chain Optimization

If 2020 taught businesses anything, it is that complex supply chains are not sustainable. There are too many variables that come into play that could interrupt the supply chain and put everyone down the line in a vulnerable position. Try to optimize your supply chain by removing unnecessary steps, and even by working with more local suppliers to ensure steady shipment.

6. Redesigning Waste

It isn’t just time you can work to improve. Redesign packaging, your printing model, and even the raw materials you use so that you can reduce waste at its source. Save by minimizing waste, and be a better business for it.

Keeping Your Business Data Up to Date

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | Keeping Your Business Data Up to Date

Collecting valuable data for your business is essential, but keeping it up to date is just as important. If you have data that is no longer relevant, it won’t be much use to your business. How long your information is useful for will depend on exactly what it is, so staying up to data can take some work. There are a few things that you can make sure you’re doing if you want to have accurate and useful data at all times. Take a look at some of the steps that you can take to keep your business data up to date.

Bring in Fresh Data Regularly

Collecting business data isn’t something that you just do once and then never again. You should be bringing in new data regularly so that you always have the freshest information. How often you collect new data will depend on what sort of data you’re collecting, where it comes from, and what you can afford. You might constantly be collecting data on who is visiting your website and how they behave. On the other hand, you might only collect information about your competitors every few months or years. When you collect new data, you can ensure it’s accurate and up to date.

Have Your Data Reviewed

Going over your existing data can be time-consuming. If you want to save time, outsourcing the review and auditing of your data will help. You can use a service to comb over your debt collections contact details or your customer demographics data. By finding the right service to help you, you can ensure that your data is reviewed and stays up to date while saving time so you can work on other things. Some services can both review your current data and help you to find more up to date and accurate information for your records.

Remove Data You No Longer Need

You should get rid of data that are no longer useful for your business. For one thing, it will help to free up digital space so that you can store new data instead. It will also mean that outdated and irrelevant data is no longer used, even accidentally, and you can replace any old data with new and more relevant information. Data that are no longer relevant could be useless and best and even dangerous at worst, depending on what it is.

Pay Attention to Regulations and Compliance

It’s important to be aware of the regulations and laws concerning data. You should know what you’re allowed to collect and record, and what you’re not allowed to keep. You also need to know what rights individuals have to know about the information that you hold about them and to ask you to remove it. The regulations can change at any time, so it’s essential to stay up to date with the latest laws and how they affect your business.

Keep your business data up to date if you want it to be useful for your company. If it’s out of date, it could cause problems.

The Best Ways to Modernize Your Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Modernize your Business|The Best Ways to Modernize Your BusinessStaying modern is something that every business needs to do, but many struggle with. Those that are able to stay current will be able to satisfy the fast-changing needs and expectations of today’s consumer, streamline their business and stay ahead of the curve. Meanwhile, those that struggle to keep up will get left behind and could find it hard to compete. It is clear that staying modern is im-portant, but how can you go about doing this? It is hard to know in today’s day and age as there are so many different ways to do this – read on to find out a few of the most effective areas that are worth focusing on.

Remote Working

Remote working has been on the rise years, but in 2020 it has become widespread due to the pan-demic. In most cases, this has shown to be a success for companies with many reporting an increase in productivity as well as a boost in morale. Having the right tools and learning how to manage re-mote teams is important if you want to find success and you may want to have some flexibility as some people will prefer working in the office at least part time.

Outsourcing

Outsourcing is becoming increasingly more common in today’s day and age and made much easier through the rise of remote working. It makes sense from a business perspective because outsourc-ing allows you to use experts to handle certain aspects of the business operation without the need to pay a full salary and other employee costs. This makes it a cost-effective option and could allow you to scale up with ease, and there are many areas that you can outsource, such as:

  • Digital marketing
  • IT
  • HR
  • Accounting
  • Social media management

Use Video Marketing

Video marketing is a highly popular and effective ways to promote your business and can be much more engaging than other formats. Video marketing will capture the attention of your target cus-tomer; it allows you to use both audio and video as it can make it easier to communicate your mes-sage and it is a chance to impress and show your expertise. The key is to have any videos made by an experienced professional as amateurish videos can have the reverse effect in a time where peo-ple are used to seeing so many videos every day.

Influencer Marketing

Another popular form of digital marketing to use right now which could have a huge impact on the success of your business is influencer marketing. This involves getting someone with credibility in your field to promote your products/services on social media which will help to boost your reputa-tion, advertise your company and allowing you to reach a much larger audience.

Automation

Automation is a word that can create some strong reactions in the business world, as some argue that it leads to job losses. While this is the case in some circumstances, you can actually use automa-tion alongside employees which can be a great way to boost efficacy, reduce workload for staff and speed processes up. Using automation to handle simple, repetitive tasks will allow your team to fo-cus on other areas. They could help you to work at a much higher capacity than before so it should certainly be looked into.

Artificial Intelligence

Another type of technology that was once seen as futuristic but is now becoming common in a range of industries is artificial intelligence. AI can be used in all kinds of creative and innovative ways, such as:

  • Process automation
  • Collecting data
  • Chatbots
  • Optimizing logistics
  • Predicting performance

Update The Company Website

If you have not updated the company website for a few years, then this is a smart way to modern-ize. It is amazing just how quickly web design trends can change, and a dated website will quickly deter any visitor. Therefore, it is a great idea to use an experiment web design agency that will know the latest trends to deliver a modern, attractive and easy-to-use website which will impress any visitor.

Cloud-Based Training

Cloud computing can bring many benefits to a business and is a great way to modernize. Despite this, many people are struggling to get to grips with cloud computing which is understandable as a relatively new type of technology. This is why you should look into cloud-based training for enter-prise teams which will help get your team up to speed about using the cloud. This will help you to get the most out of cloud computing and modernize your workforce so that everyone can excel in their role and work with confidence each day.

Upgrade Cybersecurity

Understandably, business owners are focused on the threat of the pandemic in 2020, but one area which you must not overlook is cybercrime. Cybercrime is a massive problem that affects business-es of all sizes and in all industries, and there are constantly new threats being developed. This means that this needs to be a priority, and you need to invest in high-quality cybersecurity products in addition to learning about the latest threats and how you can stay safe.

Be Environmentally Friendly

Every business should be looking at how they operate and find ways to be more environmentally friendly. This is important in terms of doing your part to reduce impact, but also because consumers are becoming increasingly eco-aware and selective of the brands that they use, so it is important for your reputation. Not only this but often you will find that being more environmentally friendly can help to lower your operating costs too.

If you are wanting to modernize your business, then these are a few of the best ways that you can do this. Businesses need to stay current and ahead of the curve so that they can find success, appeal to their target customer and stay ahead of the competition but it is also an area that many struggle with so hopefully this post will help.