In case you have been working with computers for a long time, and your business relies on information technology, you might already know how it can improve your overall productivity. However, there are some unusual ways to utilize modern technology that will help you develop your own competitive advantage and make the most out of business intelligence. Find out more about them below.
Competition Research
It is important that you know your competitors as well as you know your customers. You can gather information manually, but this will take a couple of hours or days. Alternatively, you could use a software or outsource the project, so you can get a graphic representation of the things that really matter. Find out more about the pricing structure and the satisfaction score of your competitors, so you can find a way to provide more value and differentiate yourself.
In case you spend a lot of time on the road, visiting clients, or on the road, you will need to set up a cloud collaboration system that will allow you to manage your team and keep an eye on what is going on in the office. You can simply sign up for Google Suite that can grow with your business, or have an advanced project management platform such as Slack,
Service Monitoring
No matter if you worry about the security of your business, or simply would like to ensure that your employees are responding to customer queries on time, you will need the right monitoring tools implemented in your business. You should talk to an IT company that provides managed services at https://www.frontlineinc.com/it-consulting/ get help with finding the right solutions that will help you maintain your business productivity and quality.
Digital Marketing Analytics
If you are marketing your company and don’t measure every touch point of your sales funnel, you might be wasting time and money on things that don’t bring in the expected results. This is why you will need to have a system that gives you statistics on each post’s engagement and lets you know where your website visitors are coming from, so you can make the most out of your budget and focus on the right target market.
It is crucial that you focus on productivity improvements in your business, so you can deliver the products or services more effectively. You should monitor your staff and put systems in place to improve your overall business productivity. There are some smart tools that will block access to social media at certain times, or limit the use of different sites to a couple of minutes. It is important that you have adequate policies and company procedures in place, and you sit down with your staff to discuss the proposed productivity solutions, to make sure they are on board.
If you are not using information technology to make better business decisions, your company might get left behind the competition.
If you are setting out to do great things in your business, you will need to optimize your productivity and make sure that you are getting the most value out of your processes and provide consistent quality to your customers. Today, it is much easier to work with loads of data, thanks to the development of computer software that have the ability to give you a snapshot of every aspect of your business in real time. Below you will find a list of areas where you can make a positive difference using data analysis and technology.
When you are trying to set up your business or scale it up, you will need to have your finances in order. You don’t have to wait until the end of the month when your accountant is ready with the reports; you will now be able to generate all the charts and graphs you need to see clearer about where you stand when it comes to your finances and your future income. You can even take advantage of custom investor reporting tools to find out whether or not you are going in the right direction when funding your business projects.
Market Strategy
If you don’t have a detailed market strategy, you will not only struggle to enter a new niche and remain competitive, but also find it hard to secure finance, because you will not have a feasible and detailed business plan. You should always do your research and identify the opportunities to reduce your risks and improve your chances of success. Gathering business intelligence on your market, customers, and your competitors will give you all the information you need to make an informed decision.
At the end of the day, we are all in business to make a difference in our finances and our customers’ lives. If you are not getting the financial rewards of your work, there is no point carrying on working. What was the last time you checked the profitability of your products or services? If you think it is hard work, you should think again. A simple spreadsheet will tell you how much time and resources will go into delivering the end result to your client and how you can improve your pricing to get more out of your business.
Marketing ROI Improvements
No matter if you are automating and scheduling your social media posts or outsourcing your digital marketing sales funnel development, you will need to make sure that you are getting a high enough return on investment to be worth it. There are plenty of ways you can measure the results of your campaigns and track your conversions, so you can change your strategy for the better continuously.
Product and Service Development
If you would like to enter new markets or provide new products or services to your customers, knowing the demand and trends is important. Today, you don’t have to invest in expensive research and statistical reports; most of the information is available on the internet. When it comes to product or service development, you will also need to understand the preferences and buying triggers of your target customers.
Performance Reporting
If you have employees, you will need to measure their productivity to find out whether or not they are generating more value than the resources they use. For example, if you are paying your employees 10 dollars per hour, but they only generate 7 dollars value, you will either need to find a way to improve their productivity, or change your processes so you can help them become more effective at what they are doing.
Risk Assessment and Analysis
If there is one technological trend you should embrace in your business, it is the risk assessment tools available for almost every industry. No business exists in an empty space, and this is why you will need to consider the regulatory, financial, and competitive risks when coming up with a long term strategy to move your business forward. There are plenty of risk assessment software available that will make your job as a company manager easier and prevent the disruption of service.
No matter if you are starting a brand new business or scaling up an existing one, you will need to put technology to good use and gather intelligence on your market, your customers, your competitors, and the trends, as well as the operating environment, so you can prevent risks instead of constantly managing them.
Voice recognition can be more than a fun toy. In fact, it can have all kinds of practical uses that can be a huge convenience to our everyday lives. Here are just five practical uses for voice recognition.
Controlling your home remotely
Smart technology is becoming more popular in homes – using your smartphone, it’s now possible to control everything in your home from the heating to the lighting. But you can go one step further than home automation and also incorporate voice recognition, allowing you to control your home with your voice. If you’re in your bedroom getting ready for bed and you want to check that you’ve turned off the lights downstairs or locked the front door, you can simply use your voice saving you having to go downstairs. This could be via your smartphone’s voice recognition software or via a voice control device.
Handling texts/emails whilst driving
Reading and replying to texts whilst driving is illegal and dangerous, but when using voice recognition technology it can be made legal and safe. By using your smartphone or car’s voice command feature you can get your phone to read out messages and then you can write a response via voice command. This can also be done with emails and social media messages.
Dictating notes/recording meetings in business
Voice recognition can also be very useful in business, especially when multi-tasking. Many medical clinics are now using a hospital dictation system, allowing them to check patients whilst transcribing any findings. Many corporate businesses meanwhile are now using voice transcription in meetings in order to record the discussion both for easy reference and for legal strength. On top of this, many businesses are now using automated phone answering systems that rely on voice recognition to make dealing with customers easier.
Getting rid of your TV remote
Voice recognition could also render certain devices obsolete. For example, if you’ve got a smart TV, you don’t need a TV remote – you can simply control your TV using voice command. All those times you’ve misplaced the TV remote could be spared by simply relying on voice recognition.
Helping the visually impaired to use computers/smartphones
Voice recognition has also had a significant effect on aiding the visually impaired to use devices such as smartphones and computers. By using one’s voice, someone with sight problems can more easily select apps and programmes, as well as composing messages and selecting information on the internet. Whilst previously special braille keyboards and smart devices have been needed, the growing accuracy of voice recognition has made it possible for the visually impaired to use everyday devices.
A couple of hundred years ago, not really that long in terms of time, we had to wind up the front of the car to get it working. Eventually, after days or weeks, we would get to our destination. Now, we have vehicles that can drive themselves and you anywhere you want. Progress is a beautiful thing, and the automotive industry is one of the best places to see great technology come to life.
Here are a few of the coolest tech gadgets that you can take with you on your next road trip, even if it’s just to work and home again.
Where once upon a time you would need to arrive bright and early at a dealership and spend most of the day finalising your car. You can open your laptop and bid on an auction and have your new car delivered. Sound like fun? Check out more from Equify Auctions today.
Dash cams have been protecting drivers for years. But, in recent years photographers and videographers have used regular road driving footage in their work. The devices are designed to give a crystal clear image of the road (either behind or in front), record your GPS location and automatically saves the video upon impact. The nifty kit that can keep you safe and provide support for your insurance, and you can also make really cool videos with too.
Coffee anyone? Most drivers spend ages at drive-thrus, either for a much-needed caffeine hot or a snack on the go. If it is the former, then this is something that you might want to invest in. If you wake up late, or you have a long day and drive ahead of you – say hello to the Handpresso. This little perky coffee maker plugs into your cigarette lighter or 12-volt port and hey presto – fresh java. It’s designed to work with your own ground coffee of ESO pods. Completely unnecessary, but much wanted.
An Automatic Car Adapter, this bit of kit plugs into your standard diagnostic port (ODB-II) on most cars. It then allows this device to pull useful data directly from your vehicles onboard computer. However, it doesn’t work with electric cars. You then will have a handy app on your phone that you can use to show a garage when it comes time for a service or if you’ve unexpectedly broken down.
If you were blown away in previous years by the 3D holographic dancers on the stage, then you’re going to love this. The Hudway Cast isn’t cheap, but it is incredible. It wirelessly displays your smartphone screen. This is perfect for people who use their phone in place of a dedicated GPS like a TOMTOM or a Garmin. You can still access the primary function you use on your phone (hopefully not while driving), and see the directions on the HUD the whole time. While it isn’t actually holographic, it does look it, the transparent lens focuses the virtual image around nine feet in front of you.
RFID technology can be likened to the magnetic strip on your credit card or the on goods you buy, it is a tracking system. To give it if full name, Radio Frequency Identification, provides a unique identifier with the use of radio waves to capture the information that has been stored on a tag attached to the object.
Although this technology is not a new innovation, it is becoming more popular with businesses as they realize the benefits it can offer.
Efficiency
RFID technology will undoubtedly make your business more efficient if you choose to use it. It does not require barcodes to be scanned, which can be a time consuming, and it can read multiple tags at once. This results in less monitoring by humans, leaving your employees free to handle more important tasks. Goods and information are both handled more efficiently, and your business will become more productive with its use.
Errors
This is an automatic technology where no humans are needed to read the data that is collected. Companies that have used this technology report more accurate results, as the possibility of human error is taken away. Some developers, such as Ranger branch, have tags that work underground, even if they get covered in dirt, dust or paint. These have proved very useful in the lifting industry as companies in this line can have their equipment tagged and tracked, without the worry of a person getting the location wrong.
Real-Time Information
Unlike any other type of tracking system that is currently available, RFID can give you real-time information on your inventory. This is attractive to all types of business, as there have been problems in the past whereby the time they have the data from bar codes handled manually, the inventory has been altered and they could not trust the accuracy of the information.
With this technology it does not matter if you are checking your stock in a warehouse or a retail outlet, you will have real-time information and analysis. This can be an enormous help to a business that needs to manage their stock levels, as there will no longer be any guesswork involved.
More Useful Data
The real-time data RFID provides, together with the analysis of that data, means that companies can have more insights that are based on accurate and useful information, and that can lead to better decisions being made. This can give business owners and managers the edge over competitors who perhaps do not have RFID technology.
Although it has taken a while for this amazingly useful technology to become well known, now there are so many businesses using RFID because of the advantages associated with it. In this competitive world, any technology that helps a business be more efficient and productive is a bonus, and in the case of RFID technology, it excels at its job. There are lots of options for different RFID programs available, and some research online will lead you to the developers of the best one for your business.
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