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Published on:

10 November 2022

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TechPath

3 Ways You Can Use IT to Stay Ahead of Your Competitors

Since there have been businesses, there have been business leaders looking for ways to get ahead. Better service, greater innovation, more efficient processes, and stronger customer relationships have always been at the forefront of the ongoing quest for competitive advantage. Given technology plays an integral role in all these elements of business, it is logical that it brings new ways to improve your game. Here are our top three.

Use Data To Your Advantage

Just about every business creates lots of data, but many don’t get the value they could from this virtual goldmine. No matter how basic business systems may be, data is collected every time a quote or invoice is created, every email sent, every stock order processed, and every time a potential customer visits your website. These separate pieces of information can become powerful intelligence when combined and analysed. While this use of data was previously limited to big organisations with deep pockets, there are now inexpensive tools that can unlock insights – and you probably already have the capability within your existing Microsoft 365 licence.

The type of data and results you can achieve are almost unlimited. Simple sales records help you to spot trends in the market, and at a more granular level, with individual customers. Knowing their spending patterns helps you to know when to order more stock, so you can fulfil orders faster without waste, or whether a customer may be turning to another supplier.

There are some great ways to create new, unique data that can unlock new understanding. Survey data, whether of staff or customers, is a terrific way to pinpoint meaningful ways to improve. It is surprising how few businesses do this, considering the value it can bring.

One important element is making appropriate data available to everyone. Many simple tools can present data in graphs, charts, or other easily understood options, so that staff in different roles can apply the knowledge in a way that makes the most sense to them. For example, our account managers have access to live reporting, so that when they go into a meeting, they can know up-to-the-minute information about trends relevant to the customer, allowing them to add greater value. If you’re not using data well, there’s every chance that your competitors will.

Be As Efficient As Possible

When we visited a prospective customer recently, we observed someone printing every invoice, putting it in an in-tray, so that a colleague could put it in the system and scan the paperwork. It looked like hard work. A surprising number of businesses still do a lot of tasks manually, perhaps because they are so busy, they don’t get much opportunity to step back to reflect.

As a general rule, when someone is doing manual tasks, especially those involving printing, data entry, or scanning, we know that there’s a strong chance that automation can increase efficiency. Sometimes it is just how a task has always been done, in a process designed before modern apps came along. Other times, the app in place has been outgrown, or is no longer the best suited to the business. It is a great idea to review your technology occasionally to see if it is still the best fit. We did this at TechPath and found ourselves moving away from a platform that had been ideal a few years earlier – and it was the best thing we could have done for our productivity and morale.

Quite frequently, we find that the ideal automaton capabilities exist in a license the customer already pays for – but because new features are added all the time in some of the most popular apps, they just haven’t realised. Our team is trained to notice those manual processes and make suggestions about inexpensive or free ways to improve efficiency – sometimes, customers free up days every week of resource time to spend on far more interesting and rewarding tasks than repeatedly entering the same data.

365 and Cloud

The world has moved far past the question of whether workloads should be moved to the cloud. Now, it is likely that any business that is not close to 100% cloud-based is probably bearing the burden of inefficiencies. Staff morale is likely affected, because most people don’t enjoy interacting with dated systems that are likely less secure than a cloud environment. Meanwhile, technology vendors are pouring the bulk of their energies and development funding into cloud-based products, while more and more on-premises systems are reaching end of support.

That’s not to say that if you’re still in a hybrid on-premises and cloud scenario, you should make any rash moves. That often doesn’t end well. Still, now is the point to invest time in building a strategy to complete that cloud transition – and it may be wise to seek external help to put that plan together.

It is likely there will be some low hanging fruit, easy shifts that can be done within existing apps like Microsoft 365. For example, if you’re using a whiteboard for task management, this is something handled way better by Planner, and staff don’t need to be in the office to know what’s needed of them. Similarly, most productivity apps have a cloud version… in fact, the most popular apps like Word, Excel, and Outlook run very well on a mobile now, so why go to the time and expense of running a server for more dated alternatives?

A good starting point is to workshop which apps are in use, and how they are used. From that, you can identify alternatives, whether a direct transition to a cloud version or a better fit app that doesn’t require you to maintain a server. Running an intranet? Perhaps Sharepoint would do better at keeping everyone updated and able to access information.

As a business, we went through this process in 2018-19, and I am happy to report that as more modern tools have emerged, it has become easier to make the transition to cloud. We enjoy the greater security, the vastly improved availability of data, and we especially like not having to drive all the way to the office just for one small task. We can set granular security permissions and data protection policies, with a level of control that didn’t exist before.

Using IT to perform better isn’t only about direct competitive advantage. Morale is high, we are more efficient, and whether we work from home, office, or anywhere in between, our people are happy to be in a position to give their best.

Want some help using IT to stay ahead? Follow our blogs for more tips and tricks, or call one of the friendly TechPath team today.