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Why IT is Key to Every Business’s Success

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Archives, Global Trade Daily, Software

Why IT is Key to Every Business’s Success

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Many people in business view IT as the problem solvers to turn to when their computer programs are running slow, they need new batteries for their mouse, or when any other unavoidable technological issues arise. In reality, fixing computers is only a tiny piece of an IT professional’s duties. The IT department’s importance is often underestimated by other teams, but it is actually one of the key drivers to success in every organization.

Implement Tools Across the Organization

When we think we’ve seen all that technology can do, new tools are introduced that can solve problems that you’re experiencing in your everyday life. Whether it’s using smart appliances at home or ordering groceries online, people have become accustomed to the simplified life that technology offers. It’s no surprise that the workplace also follows this popular trend as technology makes professional life much easier.

IT plays an important role in deciding what technology an organization should implement. They might work with the Marketing and Sales departments to find lead generation tools or work with the Customer Service team to find technology that automates chat responses outside of business hours. IT can find the tools that will streamline communication, offer robust security, and automate slow, daily processes.

IT can help every department across an organization determine what technology is best suited for their needs and fill in the gaps. With IT’s help, each department can reach new levels of productivity with the new tools that allow them to focus on the most important part of their jobs.

Keep Up With Technology Maintenance

All of a business’s productivity problems don’t end completely after just finding the right tools. With constantly changing technology, IT helps with maintenance and managing the tools to keep everything running smoothly.

If the software that an employee uses daily is malfunctioning, not only will they not be as effective at their job, but their productivity may turn into a downward spiral. They’ll spend more of their day trying to fix the program that makes no progress on their workload. To prevent this, IT can once again step in to save the day.

IT is essential to an organization because it can stop other employees from wasting their time trying to fix a system. IT knows the world of technology inside and out so they are the best resource for fixing problems as they arise.

Keep Your Business Compliant

One of IT’s most important responsibilities is keeping the organization’s confidential data secure. And because of the extensive compliance regulations that could get a business in trouble if they fail to follow them, IT can literally be your business’s saving grace.

Some compliance regulations may allow only people in certain roles to view or edit a document. Other documents may need to be in a WORM format or be purged after a certain period of time. If you aren’t aware of all the security regulations that you must adhere to and follow them to a tee, you could be in serious legal trouble.

Since part of IT’s job is to worry about security measures, their expertise and training can stop you from ever having to worry about how well your organization does this. Keeping your business compliant can be a simple task with an impressive IT department.

Maintain Credibility Among Customers

If a business fails to adequately prioritize IT and doesn’t provide them with the necessary resources to be successful, a data breach that leaks confidential company information is difficult to avoid. This alone can wreck any customer relationship that you’ve spent years building.

Even if a business is lucky enough that their servers going down doesn’t result in confidential data being intercepted by malicious parties, customers that depend on an organization’s product will be in trouble. If a customer cannot carry out business as usual because of an issue with your system, you could lose all credibility with your customers. Your customers may immediately search for a more dependable solution.

By finding a diverse skill set and the right tools for your IT department, you won’t have to worry about what a security breach could do to your customers and business’s reputation.

A successful business is driven by a successful IT department. As technology becomes increasingly popular with more impressive capabilities than ever before, it’s vital that an organization provides the necessary resources to an IT department to stay on top of any issues.

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Katie Casaday is a marketing content writer at eFileCabinet where she specializes in computer software and document management topics. She graduated from Utah State University with a BA in Global Communication. She has experience writing about B2B technology companies and besides enjoying writing, she loves nature and taking hikes with her companion, a Border Collie named Margo.

automation customer
Archives, Global Trade Daily, Software

What is Automation and Why Does Your Company Need It?

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Technology has slowly integrated itself into almost every facet of our lives. We are beginning to recognize automation as the norm. Self-driving cars are taking up the road. Groceries can be ordered and delivered from the comfort of your home. You can control smart appliances from your phone.

Automation technology simplifies your personal life and should extend to your professional life too.

What is Automation?

To establish the role that automation technology can have in your work life, it’s essential to understand what exactly automation is.

Simply put, automation is the implementation of a system that completes easily replicated tasks. Once you’ve found a task that you’re regularly repeating that doesn’t require extensive thought or creativity, there’s a good chance that you’ll be able to teach a computer how to automate it.

Automation Works in Every Department

Almost every department in every company has at least one process that could be improved with automation. There are countless systems on the market that are built for specific departments, while others offer solutions to tedious processes for organizations as a whole. They can be as broad or as specific as your needs are.

Here are some examples of how tasks can be automated in various departments:

-HR—Automate FMLA requests to be routed directly to the HR manager, employee, or medical professional

-Customer Service—Automate customer inquiries with an AI chatbot

-Marketing—Automate emails based on an action that a lead has taken

-Sales—Automate research on leads to make future contact with them seamless

Benefits of Automation

With a little imagination, you’d be surprised at what you can automate within your organization. Beyond simplifying tedious processes, automation technology offers many advantages to your company.

Productive Employees

Automating processes will greatly impact your employees because they won’t be stuck on the slow and tedious work any longer. They will get to focus solely on their role’s key responsibilities, which is what they had in mind when they took the job. And when they are doing the job that meets their expectations, they’ll likely stay more engaged and hard-working.

As your employees turn away from tasks that can be done just as easily by a computer, they can refine their skills like creativity and leadership for the work that really matters to the business. By giving employees these opportunities, they will stay happy and more productive.

Engaged and happy employees will set your company up for growth and success.

Save Money

Cost is one of the biggest factors that stops companies from utilizing automation technology. There are countless available options, but the most robust systems often come with a high price tag. What many companies have yet to realize is that effectively using automation technology comes with a high return on investment, which will completely cover the system cost.

We’ve already determined that automation technology can boost employee productivity, so think about what that means for your company’s revenue. If employees are able to turn all of their attention to the revenue-generating tasks that their job entails, they will be able to master it quickly and find an efficient work process.

Standardize All Processes

Everyone does things a little differently, so by using automation technology for your repetitive tasks, you can standardize your processes. This will be very beneficial to your company as you bring on new hires and roles change.

Automation systems also record the standardized processes so you can pinpoint exactly where its weak spots are. You can also make a minimal change and easily see how it affects the outcome. This means that you can play around to find the most efficient workflow.

Automation really is today’s technology. The transition from manual to automated processes may seem difficult, but all you need is to find a small problem to get started. Once you’ve identified your repetitive and time-consuming tasks, it’s time to see how automation technology can work for you.

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Katie Casaday is a marketing content writer at eFileCabinet where she specializes in computer software and document management topics. She graduated from Utah State University with a BA in Global Communication. She has experience writing about B2B technology companies and besides enjoying writing, she loves nature and taking hikes with her companion, a Border Collie named Margo.

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Archives, Commentary, Executive Education, Global Trade Daily

How To Measure The Effectiveness Of Changes In The Office

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In order to solve problems at work, you often have to make policy changes. Unfortunately, a policy change doesn’t always work out how you hoped it would.

Below are some suggestions for measuring the effectiveness of a policy change and what to do once you’ve determined whether it’s working or not.

Ask Two Simple Questions

There are two, simple questions you should ask yourself when trying to determine whether or not a policy change is effective.

The first question is, “Are we still noticing the problem?” At some point, someone saw there was a problem with the way work was being done. There was either a bottleneck in someone’s workflow, mistakes were frequently being made, or something else was happening that caused problems. Eventually, someone noticed, brought up the problem, and worked on a solution.

The question is, are you still seeing that problem or has it gone away? It’s possible that the problem has been reduced, but isn’t totally gone yet. That may require some simple tweaking instead of a complete policy overhaul. But either way, you should be able to get a quick idea for how effective the policy change was by simply looking at the task that inspired the change in the first place.

The second question is, “Has our solution caused other problems?” Just because you solved one problem doesn’t mean you didn’t accidentally create another problem. What problems are people having with the policy? How hard are those problems to deal with? Are they bigger or smaller than the problems you were trying to solve?

Digging through your work processes and talking to involved team members about these topics will help you figure out if the solution is better or worse than the cure.

Take Advantage Of Employee Surveys And Interviews

One-on-one interviews and employee surveys are good ways to encourage your employees to tell you what is slowing them down at work and what parts of their workflows need help. Be sure to emphasize that the company is looking for problems to fix in order to make everyone’s life at work easier.

Otherwise, they may be afraid to speak up in case they look like they’re complaining.

Approach the questions in such a way to get them to talk about the new policy. Ask them what is working, what isn’t working, and what problems they’re still seeing.

Take this feedback into consideration when you’re trying to determine whether you should keep, alter, or remove a policy.

Ask Managers About What Problems They’re Seeing

Managers generally have a higher-level view of what’s going on with their team. Be sure to lean on them for information that you’d otherwise miss if you focused on talking to people who may not always understand what their coworkers are doing.

Managers are probably best able to answer your questions about who’s affected positively by a given policy, who’s affected negatively, and what they think could be done to solve any other problems that have popped up.

When You Get Your Results, Take Action

Once you’ve analyzed everyone’s feedback and you’ve looked at the related KPIs and whether they have improved or declined, it’s time to act. Acting might mean scrapping the policy entirely, optimizing it to make it better solve the problem, or it may mean enhancing an already successful policy to make it even better.

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Katie Casaday is a marketing content writer at eFileCabinet where she specializes in computer software and document management topics. She graduated from Utah State University with a BA in Global Communication. She has experience writing about B2B technology companies and besides enjoying writing, she loves nature and taking hikes with her companion, a Border Collie named Margo.