FindItMore | Time has always been a precious commodity – an asset for businesses as money equals time.
The emergence of technology has helped to make the best of this asset. Additionally, it also helps in productivity, sharing info and storing them, reducing human error, etc.
Naturally, all these enable businesses to lower costs and boost their revenue.
Now no matter how successful your business is, there is always scope for improvement and create a shinier, faster, and more efficient form of your business. But keeping the costs down must be done after a lot of planning and consideration.
The benefits of technology cannot be overemphasized. But you should opt for it during that time of the year that has seen exceptional growth so that you can enhance the profits a bit and at the same time the cuts can’t hurt you much.
Here are some ways in which you can use technology for the benefit of your business. Just take a look.
- Customer Relationship Management Software – The customer is always the king. The best way to make a business a success is by catering to customers and making them happy. This requires businesses to make good customer relations. However, this is not an easy task to achieve.
Today’s customers are spoilt for options and they don’t want to settle for less. Technology can help you to achieve that. You can now cater to each customer in a specific way with the help of great CRM software that stores all kinds of customer data. This enables you to satisfy the customers in a better way without having to worry as most of the work is automated including the marketing emails and generation of invoice. Moreover, the CRM tools can also send birthday wishes (automatically) in order to strengthen your bond with your customers. So it is one thing that benefits both sides.
- Cloud Computing – This facilitates storing and access programs and data online instead of the PC’s hard drive. Cloud computing can efficiently lower the cost of business. What’s more, it decreases the cost of staffing. Staffing is the highest cost incurred by an organization. This is because human labor especially the IT ones are expensive. The demand for IT personnel diminishes with cloud computing. If the servers and hardware providers call for repairs and upgrades, it is their responsibility. This also cuts the cost of upgrading or repairing your hardware and servers.
With the usage of cloud computing, there is a reduction in hardware costs. The provider takes care of that and you don’t have to purchase your own equipment. Cloud computing also goes with pay-as-you-go prices. This saves businesses from paying for software that is not used. You can cancel the subscription whenever you need to which diminishes the financial risk that does not fit for the businesses. Google Drive, Amazon Cloud, Apple iCloud are all examples of cloud computing.
- Go Green – Going green is the way to go in all aspects of our lives. From saving huge on medical expenses to adding life to our environment and extending our own lifespan – there are a number of reasons to reduce, reuse, and recycle in the daily lives.
But not just in your daily life, even your businesses can benefit from going green. Businesses can save millions through this. The LED and CFL lights reduce almost 75% energy than the bulbs which are incandescent. You can save $30-$80 through a single CFL bulb in electric bills over a lifetime. If you calculate this you will see that you can save heftily because of this costlier upfront but more affordable long-term medium.
- Video Conferences – The cost of accommodation, travel, and food can break the bank for businesses but when you need to attend a meeting, there is hardly anything that you can do. But the emergence of video conferencing has made things much more hassle-free and of course less costly. You don’t need to travel to attend meetings as video calls eliminate that need for you.
Many people can join and it is no less than the real meeting. Added to that, it is also said to save the environment which will enable you to return to the community.
- Business to Business Integration – Ever since the 1960s, business-to-business integration has been in vogue. This is the automation, integration, and optimization of the key process of business that goes beyond the 4 walls. A great example is receiving customer orders electronically instead of mails. This enables the business to process the info with more accuracy and much faster.
The B2B integrations can connect the suppliers over the internet electronically that makes it simple to automate the distribution centers or warehouse, view global shipments, and optimize the control of stocks.
This decreases overhead costs and does away with human handling like clerical preparation of documents, circulating and sorting mails, and data entry. Through this kind of integration, you can reduce the cost spent on envelopes, papers, mailing materials, courier services for the distribution of paper mails, telephone.
Apart from this, digital marketing techniques are also making advertising and brand promotions much more accessible, widespread, and affordable as compared with the costly TV ads, hoardings, and other traditional counterparts.
So bring in the new technology and help your business succeed and achieve its true potential by reducing costs and enhancing revenues.