Using technology to make your business more efficient: top tips
The number of apps, products and advertisements thrown at us about technology can be daunting. Should you be using cloud? Would you work better with a virtual whiteboard? Do businesses gain more prestige (and cash) if they buy their employees iPads?
Companies are often inundated with technology “solutions” – some fear that these solutions can be expensive to buy and time consuming to train in and roll out. So we gathered together a panel of experts to answer all your questions during a live Q&A.
Cost of technologies
“How can my business afford these expensive technologies?” asked one concerned CEO during the Q&A. Tim Stone, vice-president of marketing for EMEA at Polycom, said: “It’s good news for small businesses because all the previously expensive technologies like video conferencing are now very much affordable. For example, you can now run high definition video conferencing on a mobile, tablet, PC or Mac rather than having to use a dedicated hardware device, plus you can use cloud delivered video platforms to connect lots of devices together on a per-user, per-month basis rather than having to invest and deploy these systems yourself.”
Benjamin Dyer, founder of the Powered Now app, said not having much money can actually be a “huge tactical advantage because it drives focus”. The panel pointed out that technology such as Google Docs and applications like Skype are free to run and install and don’t need large operating systems: you can access these from your smartphone and still get a sizeable amount of storage.
Matt Hunt, one of the founders of Apadmi, recommended Evernote for working collaboratively: “I actually used Evernote for free for about three months before I upgraded to the paid version, and still only pay £4 a month.”
Another panellist, Michael Richards, chairman of Webexpenses, said free trials can be a great way to get going on new apps and programs. “But you need to give them proper time. Don’t just load them up and dabble or it will be a waste of time.”
Staff training
Richards commented that most apps follow a similar structure so once you’ve learned how to use one, it’s easy to learn the others. Mark Williamson from KPMG agreed: “Newer business technologies have a much more consumer feel, making them more intuitive.”
Phil Robinson from Iris Software rolled out an online training platform for both clients and staff called openLearning. “It allows people to learn in bite-sized chunks and even take exams and gain certificates. Our clients love it so I’d definitely recommend using an online training system.”
Networking
Hobnobbing with potential clients and competition is essential if you’re a business owner. But sometimes flying to a convention centre in Las Vegas is just too expensive. The panel was asked how we can use technology to help with networking.
Too often accountants are overlooked as people intrinsic to the networking process, said Robinson. “Small businesses love to network and often their accountant can act as a key hub for networking and knowledge sharing. We’ve included an accountant directory on KashFlow.com to allow small businesses to find an accountant in their region or with specific expertise in their industry, that often means that the accountant has many other clients in that same industry, opening up an opportunity for networking.”
Stone said technology should be used by businesses to share knowledge. “One idea is the use of webinars and video conferences over the internet using a browser. Being in marketing we do this all the time to broaden our community and customer prospects. We ran an educational webinar last month that attracted 800 registrations on an interesting industry topic.”
One product that would increase at-work efficiency?
If you’ve only got a small budget, what’s the best gadget to invest in?
Richards said although technology can be useful, sometimes just a whiteboard and a strong idea can be enough. “It very much depends on the situation. I’d advocate exhausting all non-technology avenues first – maybe it’s a whiteboard! It’s important to not make the mistake of thinking that technology will solve the issue of poor business practices. Get them as slick as you can then look at automating them.”
Others on the panel advocated “bring your own device” (BYOD). They said they often work best because people are comfortable using what’s familiar to them. Stone uses this approach: “The trend in businesses today is to have a BYOD policy and let the employee chose the device that they feel most comfortable with. Most people carry multiple devices today, I have an Android phone, an iPad and a laptop. I use each depending where I am and what I’m doing. Equally important is to ensure that the applications that you want to run will work across multiple platforms.”
Some people have ditched their desktops all together. Benjamin Dyer says: “For people on the road I believe, as do many of our customers, that a 3G connected iPad is the greatest invention since sliced bread. Its not for everyone, but it’s fascinating talking to our users that have ditched the desktop PC and laptop in favour of portability. There is an app for everything now, some are utter world class.”
As with all Q&As, a real mix of thoughts and ideas emerged, but the main theme was that technology is not too expensive for small businesses, networking using technology is essential, and you should work on whatever device you find most enjoyable.
Read more
• Are meetings a drain on office productivity?
• Why keeping it simple is good for business
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