New and innovative technologies it seems are being introduced almost everyday. How we implement those technologies to maximize efficiency and improve on processes is up to us as business owners. Most small business owners are receptive to change if it saves them time and energy. However, some businesses are missing out on opportunities and even losing money because they’re “too busy” or try their hardest not to see the big picture when it comes to doing things a better way. Having a strategic IT partner can help you leverage technology to better your business. Checkout our post Are Managed IT Services Right for My Business? to find out more.
How to Leverage Technology to Better Your Business
A friend once told me to ask myself, how can I increase efficiency in my business, without increasing my burden? And to be honest, that’s a pretty tough question to answer for any small business owner. It’s difficult to see the big picture sometimes because most of us base our business decisions on a few months of projections, P&L, and balance sheet. But, if we spent more time with our top vendors there are ways you could achieve the goal of greater efficiency in your business, without increasing any burden on you.
Depending on the industry you’re in, there are plenty of ways to maximize the efficiency of your business by leverage technology. Businesses from all industries do this everyday by implementing cloud services like Office 365. Not only have we implemented this technology to many of our clients, but we too benefit from this in our own business so have a lot of experience maximize it’s potential. With the cloud now as a service, we’re able to cut the heavy costs of having an exchange server, and are now able to easily scale and manage the user/email administration of our business. Even more so, Office 365 makes the distribution and application of Office more easily available to your end-users in or away from the office. By switching your email system to a cloud service like Office 365, you’ll easily save money in the long run, improve on processes of on/off boarding new personnel, and your users will benefit from the convenience of having their email and office application in the cloud.
Other industries like Healthcare, Legal, and Accounting always have the concern of two things – security and backup. Sadly, some small businesses are still relying on a free trial copy of Norton anti-virus and 20+ year old tape backup to protect their business putting themselves at an unnecessary risk. With security, your IT partner will provide a universal, cost-effective, and easy to manage solution like Vipre. But for backup, you should have a combination of both local and backup to the cloud for a complete backup and disaster recovery plan. My favorite cloud service is Carbonite. Though they can be seen as expensive, they definitely pack tons of value in their service plus they’re amazing if ever needed to restore data.
By leveraging technology, you’re able to solve two very important problems – the expense of time and energy. Plus, you’re eliminating unnecessary risk by proactively working with your IT partner and advisory team to do business a better way.
Meet With Your IT Partner Regularly
As a small business owner, having the right vendors become an extension of your business can mean huge! Why? If you have a great relationship with your IT partner for example, they should be looking out for you on what’s the latest and greatest in technology to better your business. Because most businesses rely on technology to operate, you could be missing out on a new and innovative ways of team collaboration, email in the cloud, point of sale, back office, bookkeeping, or more. My advice, meet with your IT partner at least on a quarterly basis because of how fast technology changes. Have the IT company you work with evaluate the different components of your business and advise if there’s a better way of operating by leveraging technology.
If you’re stuck searching for the right IT partner, or, if you’re still not convinced that the right technology can improve or even save your business, checkout our whitepaper “The Total IT Solution – The True Cost of Downtime”.
Only after you’ve read our whitepaper and have self-audited the inefficiencies in your business, we’d like the opportunity to meet with your executive team to discuss how ITC can increase the efficiency in your business, without increasing your burden. Schedule our no cost or commitment Free IT Needs and Network Assessment Today!
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