Early stage businesses should be looking for ways to make their employees more productive and their business more efficient. More often than not, the answer lies in technology. But that doesn’t necessarily mean buying all the business-ready technology and software that’s available – instead, it’s about identifying which will have the most positive impact on your business.
As we kick-off the new year, the right technology can help you get new customers, upsell to existing ones, expand your offering and improve efficiency so you have time to focus on what matters. Here are some tips on the technology that will have an immediate effect on your business.
Start with what just isn’t working
Before you make any changes, start by running an internal audit to see what isn’t working. Inefficient processes exist at nearly every company, regardless of size or turnover. Common examples include redundant processes, important information being buried and inaccessible, and overly complicated procedures. Some also struggle with having too many tools that don’t play nicely together, meaning processes need to be repeated on different platforms.
Have a look at the systems you have in place and try to figure out how they’re benefiting the business, how long they take and how they could be made better.
Explore digital integration
Siloed digital solutions can create more work. By having information and processes stored on different platforms, you’re more likely to be doubling up on processes and delaying communications.
Integrating your digital solutions will improve efficiency in many different ways. You can automate time-consuming tasks, communicate faster with your team, increase access to data and generate reports quickly and easily. Proper digital integration is a must-have for early stage businesses – if your digital platforms aren’t working properly with each other, it’s worth spending the time investigating it and finding alternative solutions.
Get to know the cloud
Cloud-based systems allow your business to scale quickly and be more efficient. It lets you work with real-time data from anywhere, on any device and at any time. By moving to the cloud from the get-go, you can keep a close eye on your cash flow and make payments as soon as you need to. Plus, your systems will update automatically (normally when you’re out of the office) so there won’t be any disruptions.
Get on board with artificial intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has already infiltrated our everyday lives – it’s in our phones, home assistants and televisions. But there’s still room for it to have more prominence in the workplace. AI-driven software can automate time-consuming admin tasks like invoicing and timesheets, saving you time and money. It can also help improve customer service, with automated chatbots to deal with queries and automated responses to common emails. It means people can get on with the more important (and fulfilling) parts of their jobs, while AI takes care of the details.
Nowadays, teams are familiar with working with new technology and software is designed to integrate seamlessly with other platforms, making things much easier and cost effective. It’s time early stage businesses felt the benefits of digital transformation.
Written by: Donna Torres – Xero