5 Benefits of Doing a Technology Efficiency Review

Technology has permeated our lives so much that how well your technology is optimized directly impacts sales, growth and other bottom-line indicators.

If you do not have a strategy for your software and hardware implementation, it can mean that your business lags behind your competition.

For example, a Deloitte study of over 2,000 small businesses found that 80% of them are not fully optimized when it comes to their use of technology. The 20% of small businesses that are optimized have been shown to earn 2 times the revenue per employee.

How optimized is your technology ecosystem for your Connecticut business?

One way that you can find out is by doing a technology efficiency review. This involves working with an IT pro, like Sound Computers, to take a look at how you are using technology and uncovering areas of cost savings and productivity improvements.

Technology reviews cover all areas of your IT infrastructure from cloud IT use to automating manual processes to save time and reduce errors. Our technology reviews include meeting with new and existing clients to review and help better implement technology to suit their needs.

Here are the advantages of having a technology efficiency review done for your business.

Reduce Cloud Costs & Waste

Cloud adoption is at an all-time high due to many late comers making the transition because of the pandemic.

Even though you are using cloud tools, it doesn’t mean that you are using them efficiently. For example, a recent cloud use report found that many businesses are struggling with cloud optimization.

Some of the telltale signs of inefficient cloud use include:

  • Cloud waste is doubling year-over-year.
  • Companies churn through about 30% of their apps per year.
  • Cloud spending is up 50%.
  • The average business has 3.6 duplicate apps.

A technology efficiency review takes a look at how your company is using SaaS tools and identifies redundancies and opportunities to streamline your use of the cloud to reduce costs while improving efficiency.

Eliminate Time-Consuming Manual Processes

Manual processes can be a drain on staff productivity. However, many companies still use them. They can be the use of manually inputted spreadsheets emailed to managers for reporting or the manual input of the same data into different business systems.

One of the areas researched in a technology review is manual processes. We take a look at ways that automations and use of better technology tools could be deployed to eliminate manual entries which gives your staff more of their day back to focus on forward motion for your business.

Get More Use from Existing Tools

One reason that companies end up with app redundancies is that they don’t fully explore the capabilities they have within their current business tools. For example, a platform like Microsoft 365 has multiple cloud tools that come with your subscription beyond Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.

An app like OneNote can take the place of a notebook app like Evernote and Teams can replace any video conferencing or messaging apps that you are using.

By helping you fully explore the capabilities that you are already paying for with your current app subscriptions, we can help you eliminate app redundancies and get more value out of your SaaS subscriptions.

Eliminate Bottlenecks & Stuck Points

Many offices have areas of their workflows that are bottlenecks and cause projects or workflows to get stalled.

For example, you may need to have a supervisor sign off on customer ticket replies before they go out. If too many come in all at once, it can lead to delays.

Certain project management workflows can hit road bumps when the next person handling a part of the process does not realize that the virtual baton has been handed off to them.

Technology can be deployed in a way that automates approvals and notifications to review these types of bottlenecks. This is one area we look at during a technology optimization and efficiency review.

Consolidate Data to Eliminate Errors & Improve Transparency

It is not unusual for a business to have multiple applications that collect similar data. Customer data may be entered into a sales lead manager, a CRM program and an accounting program.

If those apps are not connected and do not share the same data, you can end up with someone’s name being misspelled in one application. This then makes it very difficult to find. Another issue can be with data that is available in your CRM being missing from an accounting application (such as a customer's mobile number). This can necessitate contacting a customer for information that you already have in another system.

During our technology efficiency review, we look for these types of disconnects and help you put systems in place that consolidate data and share it across different applications. This means that data can be entered just once (which reduces the chance of a keying error) and all applications can share the same data (which will improve transparency).

Schedule Your 2021 Technology Efficiency Review Today!

Sound Computers can help your Connecticut business improve your use of technology, boost productivity and lower costs.

Contact us today to schedule your technology review. Call 860-577-8060 or reach us online.

February 2, 2021
Sound Computers Admin