How technology can save your business time and money

As a small to medium (SME) business owner, the end of the financial year is an excellent time to reassess your business spending.

And one proven way to reduce your overheads, while also increasing your business efficiency, is to utilise better technology.

We all know new technology can be pricy.

However, the adoption of better technology can pay huge dividends – particularly over the long haul.

For example, by streamlining your business and technology processes, you can significantly reduce employee hours: thus producing substantial cost savings.

Another area that owes a great deal to new technology, and which can save you thousands of dollars, is ‘remote working’ – or working from home.

There are many other benefits to this, apart from just the decreased costs to your business.

They include better business flexibility, happier staff and increased production.

Some other ways businesses can benefit by adopting new technology include:

Utilise the power of social media

By taking the time to use free social media platforms to market your business, such as FaceBook, Twitter and Instagram, you can save money on advertising costs. Using social media also enables you to implement automated scheduling into your marketing efforts – through areas such as email responses and blog posting. This can help better organise your business. Social media is also an excellent way to reach a broad demographic of customers, build brand loyalty, and get your company recognised.

Harness Cloud-based services

Using Cloud-based services is a great way to save money – as it is usually cheaper than using the systems already set up for your business. It also enables your employees to work more easily from home, as they can collaborate with their peers, and log into the Cloud to receive information. With the wide variety of Cloud-based services now available, it lets you make the best use of your resources by not having to pay for services you don’t need. At Core IT we can help you determine how your business can best take advantage of the Cloud.

Consider a ‘paperless’ system

Your business can benefit greatly from going paperless, as it makes it much quicker and easier to search through electronic records for the information you need. It will also save you money on office supplies, filing systems, paper and ink cartridges. Going paperless is also more environmentally friendly – which can give you ‘the edge’ over other companies when it comes to customer loyalty.

Pay close attention to cybersecurity

Spammers, hackers and other cyber criminals can cost your company big dollars. Not only is there a huge technological cost in repairing the damage – but it often leads to significant downtime – severely affecting your earnings. Fortunately, there are many excellent antivirus and protective programs available. To help prevent attacks, it is important to ensure your firewalls, anti-spyware and other measures are as current and effective as possible.

Take a look at your phone system

Phone providers are constantly improving their products and services. Therefore, if it is possible to find a less expensive service to meet your business needs, this can be a great saving. Another option for reducing costs is to use Voice over IP (VoIP) instead of a landline for your phone service. VoIP enables you to make calls using your broadband Internet connection. To help keep costs down, some offices have foregone their landline services completely; and are using mobile phones instead.

Invest slowly but steadily

While investing in cutting edge technology is a good thing, some businesses may still find it difficult to pay for it all in one go. Luckily, it is not an ‘all or nothing’ proposition. If your business has a small turnover, consider updates and other cost-effective improvements to help you operate more efficiently. You can then go on to invest in the most current technology when your budget allows.

With Mike Peeters Media