Putting together a business plan that boosts productivity comes down to the mix of soft skills and technology. In an era where businesses depend on multi-departmental collaborations with employees working from home, team performances need to be at satisfying levels for a company to grow. To increase business productivity, you should employ the best IT solutions on offer out there.
Photo by Louise Viallesoubranne on Unsplash
Whether you have an in-house IT team, an outsourced managed IT service provider, or both – read on to find out which IT moves to pull to increase business productivity.
What Happens to a Business When it Doesn’t Embrace Technology?
Not to start on a negative note, but we want to let the reality of things sink in first.
Office culture has gone through a tumultuous change in the past two years. Some businesses sank irreversibly, other ones needed to scale down, while a select few shot up and evolved their operations. Those that succeeded partially accomplished that due to their staff embracing the best of IT solutions and allowing their workers to work flexibly (partially remote, partially out of office), as well as employing outsourced providers of IT services.
To be clear, that is not to say that all the businesses that failed during the last couple of years were subpar. Competition is cutthroat in capitalism, often unfair, and additionally complex due to the pandemic, the inflation, and the budding war conflict in Europe disrupting the euro.
That being said – to succeed in the economy and boost business productivity, you almost certainly need technology.
Here are a couple of glaring risks of not embracing updated tech in the (physical and digital) office environment:
- Compromised security: If you have a remote workforce and a high personnel turnover rate, the risk of leaked data is even larger with insufficient IT infrastructure.
- Higher downtime: If some form of data breach does happen, that will halt your operations and lead to downtime. And downtime most certainly translates to lost money.
- Loss of productivity: Disgruntled workers feeling like their voices aren’t properly heard in a remote environment can bring your productivity and output down. And who can blame them?
Modern IT solutions give you peace of mind – a provider with a good track record will keep your complex software and hardware system in place, ready to jump in and provide remote helpdesk services whenever needed.
Now, let’s look at some practical (and necessary) ways of bringing your business to sky-high levels. After all, you don’t want to become a part of a statistic that says that it’s becoming harder and harder to boost business performance between teams.
3 Best Ways to Increase Productivity With IT Solutions
The various ways that IT support can boost company performance and growth are increasingly emerging along with technology.
The pandemic has been a catalyst for change in many facets of life and work, despite posing difficulties in health-related fields and the workplace.
Huge numbers of people adjusted to agile working after the first lockdown pushed them to do something they may have initially considered to be frightening, difficult or impossible – embrace technology more than ever.
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Here are four ways successful businesses embraced IT solutions.
Moving to the Cloud
Ah, the cloud. Such a confusing term.
In short, using the cloud means storing data and other resources that can be digitized on the internet instead of on a hard drive.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that your sensitive data and resources are compromised just because they’re now online. Oftentimes cloud technology is even more secure than data stored on hard drives – especially if it’s using security measures continuously overseen by dedicated outsourced IT service providers.
Cloud technology revolutionized the economy, allowing workers to work with more mobility than ever before. Now, you can access data, apps, and systems anytime and anywhere with your internet-enabled device.
What does this mean for productivity? This greater flexibility allows your workers to achieve a healthier work-life balance who can now sometimes work from home and use their job apps there, not losing time on commute when they close their laptops.
Next-Level Communication
Unified communications are not just a buzz-phrase. Today you can’t work effectively without proper VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) systems. Messaging and collaboration apps like Slack, video call platforms such as Zoom, and general desktop integration – all this revolutionized the workplace and helped countless businesses stay afloat.
With remote work growing rapidly, staying connected and seeing faces and non-verbal communication cues from colleagues has shown its effectiveness. Thus, companies which emphasize written and verbal communication between teams have a greater chance of boosting productivity and scaling their operations.
With effective workflow platforms that enable communication, you can move between tasks and communicate with the rest of the team while delegating tasks and messages with ease to the right people.
Outsourcing Your IT Staff
How much time does your business devote to managing its IT generally? With all the factors we’ve listed above – probably a lot. Or maybe you’re not there yet, but sooner or later, a chunk of your necessary tasks will be IT-related.
If you can’t afford to spend much time on IT without overwhelming yourself, your in-house IT department and your budget-managed IT services are a godsend.
Here is what you get:
- 24/7 support staff year-round
- A vast pool of proven experts that tackle different IT-related challenges
- Customizable service packages fit to your needs
- A contract that protects your business and capital
- Time to focus on other non-IT tasks and projects
Getting an outsourced IT team often means that tech goals are completed faster. Moreover, a great thing is that you can select a team that will work for you year-round or for one specific project. It’s up to you and their team lead to decide on the details once you get in touch.
With outsourced staff, you can unburden both your non-IT and IT staff and bring productivity up to new levels.
Final Word
To increase your revenue and profits, productivity must be maintained and raised. Even firms that are thriving should think about doing business productivity audits regularly.
After all, learning is a lifelong process, and searching for fresh approaches in a fast-paced world is a must. Don’t miss out on the chance to enhance task management with the tips listed above.