There are countless ways utilizing technology can increase your business’ efficiency, increase sales, improve customer satisfaction, and mitigate risk. Want to know which methods we think work best?

Read on to discover our top 4 tips on using the latest tech to your business’ advantage.

Hire an IT Company to Stay Ahead

Hiring an IT company can significantly assist you. Your IT team can act as a liaison between other technology-related parties, give expert direction and advice, and productively achieve all of the goals mentioned above.

For example, Mustard IT, an IT company, provides services ranging from IT relocation, to network designs, disaster recovery, cyber security, ongoing general support, and more. A company like that can help your business get the most use out of technology for your business.

Let’s explore a few of the main ways technology can enhance your business.

VoIP Systems

This may seem obvious, as it can be essential to many businesses. Long gone are the days of strictly separating landlines and the internet. Instead, many people use Skype or various apps and programs to make calls via the internet.

The VoIP system is a customized way to do exactly that for your company. There are a host of complex systems you can put into place with a VoIP system to enhance customer service and satisfaction, as well as productivity for your staff.

These systems provide the basic functionality one would expect, like allowing employees to communicate with each other from their desks, and facilitating the crux of your company’s call center – but they can also do more intricate tasks, such as voicemail to email transcription, connecting with various channels like fax, mobile, and video call, and enabling shared meeting collaboration.

There are ways to set the system up to forward calls to particular staff’s mobile devices, or through to your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool, if you have one. This allows you to better keep track of call logs, missed calls and alerts, voice recording, etc.

These systems give you more control over how to manage communications with your customers so you don’t miss a beat. Additionally (and attractively), they often cut costs compared to using traditional phone systems. Increasingly more businesses – especially SMEs – are turning to VoIP to solve their needs.

Cloud Infrastructure

Moving your IT systems over to “the cloud” is just smart business these days, especially for small businesses. Most SMEs don’t have the financial capacity to purchase or properly install the high-quality software cloud providers can give them access to.

Use of the cloud operates on a principle of pooled resources. That means big-name services providers like Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, or even the “G-Suite” Google Cloud can invest time, money, energy, and the best quality employees to create the most sophisticated technology to boost your business.

Your small business contributes a mere service fee, but becomes able to perform advanced functionalities (such as sales and customer analytics) to help you understand how to best increase sales in the future.

Many cloud system providers also have a pay-as-you-go system so your company can use only as much storage space or software features as it needs at a given time. That gives your company the opportunity to expand – and make the best use of technology doing so – seamlessly. The business doesn’t have to invest too much or too little in terms of local hard-drive space, or keep re-investing in ever-evolving software.

Additionally, making use of the cloud can massively increase staff productivity and collaborative ability. For starters, it makes working remotely exceedingly more feasible, allowing employees to work from home, while out on the field, or while traveling for work.

The ability to work from anywhere saves time in the long-run and makes it more convenient for the workers to complete tasks at their convenience. They can also coordinate with other staff members by communicating with them remotely, or by sharing projects and documents. They can work together on these even if everyone can’t be in the office at the same time.

They can save time by not having to wait on fellow employees to answer questions about a particular client or any kind of interaction. The information will be logged into the system instantaneously from anywhere and can be viewed by all staff to whom it would be relevant.

Cyber Security

If you take advantage of the cloud, you’ll automatically take advantage of the benefits of cyber security. The large-scale cloud service providers hired by big companies to run services and protect their information make security their top priority. Data is backed up on multiple servers around the world which are physically protected (by guards, walls, etc), as well.

Staying cyber-safe is perhaps the most essential aspect of your business’ modern-day technology needs. Information leaks can be detrimental to your company’s name and your customer’s trust.

It can severely disrupt business operations for several days at a time. There’s no escaping the fact information is out there on the internet, but staying up-to-date on how to maintain proper cyber-security practices will protect your business.

It’s of utmost importance your company staff are properly educated about keeping information secure and the best practices they should follow to do so. Firstly, there are plenty of internet security resources to guide you.

Taking the time to thoroughly go through these and implement the practices suggested will be well worth the effort. Staff should be aware of basic security measures like how to create appropriate passwords, not leave themselves logged into accounts with access to sensitive information, and protect their devices while in public places.

You should also make sure the network you’re using to load information is well-protected with tools like firewalls and VPNs (Virtual Private Networks). Ensure the automatic feature for updating your systems is switched on so your security software has the latest security updates installed.

Lastly, as part of your recovery plan, make sure all your data is backed up in some capacity. Wherever this data is backed up, be certain that it’s safeguarded with limited access – and encrypted – so hackers can’t reach it if they tried.

Propelling Your Business Forward

Spending time focusing on updating your technology will save your business time and money in the long run. You’ll know how to keep your information safe and intact by keeping up-to-date with security best practices.

You can utilize cloud services to take advantage of the best technology has to offer without paying the astronomical prices it can cost. Your VoIP systems will accelerate your business’ productivity, and can help keep better track of customer interactions. Technology is the tool that will propel your business to the highest level it can achieve.

Author bio: Roy Castleman is founder and managing director of Prosyn Ltd. (PROfessional SYNergy), a London-based IT support organization focusing on small and medium-sized businesses. An experienced consultant in disaster recovery, he has accreditation with such companies as Microsoft, HP, and Cisco.