Partner Article

5 Tools You Should Be Using in 2016

For the majority of us, 2016 is busy, fast paced and time precious. What if I told you that there are innovative applications and technology out there that would make you more efficient, more productive and less frantic? In fact, they are ones that you have probably heard of, but dismissed without a second thought. MIND BLOWN. The explosion of the digital world means that there are tools out there that will streamline your work flow, saving you precious time and sanity and keeping you at the front line of emerging and relevant processes at the same time.

Social Media

Once nothing more than an online hub for angst ridden teenagers and amateur music stars, social media is well and truly integrated into the world of business. So much so that, I would go as far as to say it has absolutely revolutionised the way that businesses connect with their audiences, positive in the most part but perhaps bad for those early adopters when seeing the value.

Not only is social media a great platform for underpinning your brand, its message and core values it also allows you to connect with your audience on a 1 to 1 level, building trusting relationships.

Social media channels have stepped up their games and now give you an exclusive passage way into the behaviours of your audience, allowing you to create targeted campaigns, and even entirely new offerings based on demographics such as gender, salary, job title along with pages they have liked and level of brand affinity they show.

To streamline the way that you post onto these platforms, apps such as Buffer and Hootsuite allow you to schedule your posts in advance at a time when engagement is at its peak. Another app, ‘If This Then That’ (IFTTT) allows you to create ‘recipes’ so for instance, IF you find current relevant news you post on your Twitter THEN it also post on other platforms you have set up. It can be used in other situations too, for instance you could create a recipe that IF the temperature was to drop below a certain temperature THEN your heating will come on at a higher temperature – see a list of possible recipes here.

VoIP

VoIP hasn’t always had the best reputation, but it’s definitely making a comeback with household applications such as WhatsApp implementing its use over cellular data.

Steffan Dancy, MD of Rydal Communications offers some advice, “The issue with VoIP is that some providers view it as a ‘quick win’ to acquire business as it’s a relatively low cost option. However, there are areas that businesses should be aware of –Quality of service should be done at network and router level to ensure Inbound and outbound quality voice service. Having resilience and co-location back up/other routes to make calls is important, what does this mean - If your site is “cloud based” you can have a physical system on site mirroring the cloud set up, this gives you the ability to switch and make calls over some ISDN lines if the cloud is down. This is why we are focusing with the new Ericsson LG proposition!”

Over the past 24 months, there has been a huge government focus on the state of the broadband infrastructure in the UK; the upgrade of this infrastructure is a great foundation for successfully implementing VoIP technology.

Converting voice to packets of data, VoIP technology is an extremely underused commodity in today’s technology obsessed world. Not only will switching to VoIP save you a lot of money, it also puts you in the driving seat in more ways than one; gone are the days of lengthy contracts, VoIP is a scalable option which means it can grow with your business in an affordable way, and can also be scaled down when necessary.

In today’s data obsessed culture, the threat of cybercrime is increasing. As VoIP uses data packets, be sure to encrypt your conversations using a VPN.

CRM Solutions

CRM certainly isn’t a new technology or concept, but it is one that is often widely dismissed and undervalued by SMEs and start-ups because they feel that it’s not appropriate for their size or stature, or they had misconceptions surrounding budgets. When, in all honesty you need to come to the realization that if you have a business, you need a CRM solution to enable you to manage your clients from every angle.

“Only 77% of UK organisations are using CRM software, reports indicate that a disappointing number of small businesses are still reluctant to implement the software into the running of their business, due to a lack of knowledge.” Explains Jade Winters, Marketing Manager at DMC Software, “CRM software is designed to record and manage customer data, helping businesses to anticipate and respond to the needs of customers and develop the value of the relationship.”

Surely this is the type of relationship that all businesses are striving to build?

As with the entire recent holistic shift in business approach, it is widely understood that the benefits that can be gained from a CRM solution needs to be underpinned by a solid culture and strategy.

Velocity

Whether it’s for networking, motivational purpose or schmoozing clients – there will be times where work extends into social situations. Being British and ever so painfully polite, we are all aware of that awkward period where, sometimes after waiting an eternity the bill comes and our eyes nervously dart between the company and our wallets; yes there’s nothing like splitting the bill to throw a spanner in the works.

The Velocity app allows you to have a completely cashless experience, and is even integrated with Uber, meaning that (in the capital for now) you are able to order your ride home whilst paying the bill. Further to that you don’t need to wait for the bill, the app is linked in point of sale systems, so as long as your waiter knows you are using the app you can leave when you like, because there’s nothing like waiting on disinterested staff at the end of your meal to sour an enjoyable evening.

Cake HR

With everything you are required to deal with on a daily basis, the last thing you need is to be bombarded with is holiday requests from your team; which in turn, requires to take the time and see if the leave coincides with any previous requests. I am in no way suggesting that employee shouldn’t be important to you - it’s critical for sustaining morale and productivity, but there is a more efficient way to organise it.

Built with SMEs in mind, Cake HR allows staff to manage their leave using a shared calendar and centralised submitting service. Users are unable to submit request without entering at least a few details to cement/clarify the request to prevent any further ‘back & forth’ communication – all you need to do is hit the approve button and let the team manage the rest from there!

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Rebecca Moore .