5 Ways to Boost Your Small Business’s Productivity Using Technology

Running your own small business is a challenge on its own. There are a lot of tasks to complete and challenges to tackle in order for the business to succeed. Fortunately, you have technology on your side. Some of the latest advancements are making it easy to boost your small business’s productivity – and increase its chances of success. We’re going to take a look at five ways you can improve productivity with the help of technology in this article.

Cloud Storage and Computing

If your small business is not in the cloud yet, you’re missing out on the benefits cloud computing has to offer. Cloud computing has improved so much these past few years. Cloud storage, for example, is no longer the domain of large corporations. You too can use cloud storage to store documents, collaborate on projects, and perform other tasks you need to make sure your business is running smoothly.

The same can be said for cloud backup. Instead of having to go through paper documents, you can now store your entire business information in the cloud. In the event of a catastrophic failure, all you have to do is download the latest backup and you will be able to resume business operations in just a few hours.

Web Applications and Solutions

There are also a lot of web apps that can help you run your business more efficiently. Sales Force, for instance, automates customer relationship management or CRM to an unprecedented level. You no longer have to rely on your memory or notes to know the kind of products and services your customers need. Tasks such as making sales and follow-up calls can be automated.

Other web apps allow the automation of invoicing and payment management. Even when you’re running an offline business, you can still use services like Swipe to automate payment processing. Add the fact that these services now cost very little, and you have a lot of great solutions to choose from.

Unified Communications

Unified communications is another technology that used to be available only to large companies. To implement a unified communications system, you needed to set up your own server, have a reliable internal network and purchase a capable broadband to act as the backbone for the system. Again, that was the case a few years ago.

Today, however, there are service providers like KBZ that allow you to implement the same unified communications system – including renowned ones like Cisco Spark – to help your small business be more productive without breaking your budget. Once implemented, all members of your team can communicate internally in a more efficient way.

The same solution will also enable the use of video conferences so you can communicate with clients and vendors as well as members of the team working from outside the office. The whole system is designed to be integrated seamlessly into the company’s workflow, allowing other things like document management and sharing of information to be done just as seamlessly.

Remote Office Through Mobile Devices

One great way to boost productivity by using the latest technologies is by allowing employees to work from outside the office using their mobile devices. The previous technologies we discussed, including cloud computing, make this very easy to do. Regular office days may still be necessary under certain circumstances, but employees can access the resources they need to perform well even when they’re not at the office.

The implication of integrating mobile devices to enable remote working is immense. A sales officer can access brochures, automatically generate a quotation and make swift decisions to close the sale, all by using nothing but his or her smartphone. Technical support can provide a very personalized level of support thanks to Sales Force’s mobile app.

Online Presence

One last thing you should definitely do when you’re trying to boost your business’s productivity is build a strong online presence. Instead of doing the usual offline sales visits, you can gain access to more potential clients and make the work of your sales team much easier by having a strong online presence.

A website with a good set of information about the business and the products or services you’re providing, a strong online branding on social media and an effective landing page that allows customers to make purchases online are all great for business. You can cut the time needed for clients to make purchase decisions substantially when you have a good online reputation. This will lead to better turnover and more sales, which means more revenue for the business.

So, which of these technologies have you implemented to boost your business’s overall performance? Use the tips we discussed in this article to help you grow your small business to a whole new level.

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