How to Stay on Top of Technology for Improving Efficiency – Top Tips by Paul Haarman

To run a business competitively, you need to use various types of technology. These encompass various critical aspects like manufacturing, customer service, inventory management, logistics, payroll, research and development, human resources, marketing, security, and more. Adopting technology is not something you do once and forget. You must stay on top of it to remain efficient, productive, competitive, and safe. Some of the things you need to stay updated on:

Computer Technology 

Using your computers till they reach their end of life may seem a smart thing to do to make your investment work overtime. However, old computers are invariably slower, lack many advanced features, freeze more often, and are more susceptible to cyber-attacks. According to Paul Haarman, the best thing to do is to replace your computers every three years or within 12 months of the last operating system release. This replacement cycle will ensure that your employees work with efficient and safe computer systems. If you cannot replace the computers, consider tuning them for better performance with software and hardware upgrades.

Employee Training

You can keep investing a lot of money in the latest technology, but your efforts will not bear fruit if you do not train your employees adequately to get the maximum benefit from them. Instead of relying on employees to upgrade their skills on their own, you should find out their pain points and train them to use the technology efficiently. It is important not to assume that employees are using all the productivity tools available. You must investigate their use and find out the features not being used so that you can address the relevant issues and boost their productivity.

Implementation of Paperless Systems

It is well established that cutting down on paper documentation improves business efficiency, observes Paul Haarman. You can locate and share data more efficiently, achieve major cost savings in storing information, and organize information better. Other benefits include communicating information to customers, suppliers, and regulatory bodies more accurately and faster, and spending less on managing data. It is also more environmentally friendly. However, you must actively monitor and encourage employees to adopt paperless processes. Otherwise, employees tend to keep maintaining paper records in addition to electronic records because they think it to be safer and easier to use.

Cloud Computing

There are a lot of benefits that accrue to businesses by moving to the cloud. While desktop systems linked to in-house servers restrict employees from working remotely, moving data to the cloud makes working from home or the field practical and affordable. The widespread adoption of cloud technology made it possible for many businesses to weather the pandemic better and keep vital services available to customers. Cloud computing also reduces operational expenses and ensures better security. Moreover, it relieves businesses from the responsibility of maintaining large in-house IT teams to supervise IT operations.

Conclusion 

While businesses should adopt technology only after a thorough investigation regarding the cost-benefit value proposition, it is also important for them to learn to use them to the fullest. Technological advancements happen fast and it is easy to lose competitiveness unless you take care to update it regularly.