Whether your business has 5 or 500 employees, efficiency is of the utmost importance. Wasting time and money on outdated business practices is ridiculous. Fortunately, there are a lot of service solutions out there to help your business run efficiently; some are costly while others are easy on the budget. Below are some products and services to consider implementing to better help your business save time and money.
Online Scheduling Software
Online scheduling software is beneficial to industries whose employees work abnormal schedules: healthcare, retail and hospitality are a few examples. By having scheduling online, employees can review and modify their schedule outside of the workplace. This frees up time in the human resources department, while the flexibility of the online scheduling encourages employees to take responsibility for their attendance.
Customer Relationship Management
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is a central database, accessible to all employees, which allows employees to efficiently locate customer information. This directly benefits sales, marketing and customer service. The downside is CRM implementation can be costly. This is because there are a lot of customizable design elements. If you decide on a CRM, be sure to thoroughly train employees on the software. CRM failure rates increase when users do not adopt the system.
Payroll Processing Software
One word: outsource. If your business is very small, you may be able to get away with managing payroll in-house, but as your business grows, time needs to be focused elsewhere. There are companies out there that take care of payroll processing and tax filing for you, so now the accounting department can focus on other priorities. Sounds like a dream come true, right? Many of these service providers also feature products for time and attendance and HR management. These types of software packages help your business to eliminate redundant paperwork and allow employees quick and easy access to a variety of information.
Intranet
Asmii Vernekar of Buzzle.com describes an intranet as, “a network based on the Internet that is accessed by the employees of an organization.” It is a secure way for companies to share information with employees. Documents such as company handbooks, press releases, department information and more can all be accessed electronically by the employee. Employees can also access an overview of their paid time-off, request time-off, updated personal information and review benefits.
Voice over Internet Protocol
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is an internet-based telephone system, as opposed to a traditional landline. The main benefits of VoIP are cost and convenience. If you have employees that travel extensively, VoIP can be used anywhere there’s an Internet connection, which allows for greater flexibility. The price is less than standard phone systems, so VoIP is definitely something to consider if your business is looking to cut costs.
Every business is looking for different ways to cut costs, but nothing will change unless you take action. Determine which services are most beneficial and start making changes. Change is a good thing, especially when it saves your business time and money.
