4 Critical Pieces of Technology and Innovation to Drive Productivity

Feb 12, 2016 | 0 comments

Everywhere you look there are businesses that thrive on the latest technology and innovation, using advances in their fields to push their business forward. It wasn’t very long ago that businesses could make it on a basic computer system and a paper filing cabinet. Now, however, there are innovations in every field that make technology a necessary part of the workplace. If you’re hoping to drive productivity within your business, there are several critical pieces of technology that should be included in your office.

Evaluating Employee Activity

It’s often difficult to know for certain how your employees have spent their days. An employee who has spent their day at the computer could have spent it doing research, filling out reports, and returning customer emails. employee-activityOn the other hand, it’s equally possible that they wasted a couple of hours checking their social media accounts or watching videos on YouTube. You trust your employees. You want to believe that they’re spending their time productively. At the same time, you also want to give them the tools they need to succeed.

Thankfully, there are plenty of apps that can help track employee activity and determine how your employees are really spending their screen time. There are plenty of apps that have been designed specifically with tracking productivity in mind, some that are created for individuals who are hoping to get their wasted time back under control, others that are aimed at allowing employers to identify the problems experienced by their employees. You can also follow tracking within your intranet software to determine what pages are of most interest to your employees and where they are spending their time.

Even if your employees aren’t spending their days behind the computer, there are apps that can help improve productivity by tracking what they’ve done throughout the day. For example, you could put an app on company-issued phones or vehicles to track where they’ve gone or how many stops they’ve made: did that customer really require an hour, or was there a side trip to run an errand along the way? Did your employee spend a little longer than they admitted on their lunch break? While these apps are often considered highly invasive, they’re also a great way to determine where time is being lost, especially if they’re used on a short-term basis to help improve employee performance.

The Advantage of Connection Through Intranet Software

One of the key secrets to productive employees is communication and connection. Employees who are able to communicate effectively with one another via a company-wide intranet have the ability to collaborate more efficiently than ever before. They can enter forums to discuss projects, conveniently keeping their information all in one place so that they can access it more easily. They’re able to check important documents and fill out forms with ease. Some of the most effective intranet software is designed to be accessible to employees no matter where they might be. Mobile accessibility, for example, is one of the latest necessities in intranet software for many companies.

Many studies suggest that improved internal communications can have a huge impact on the overall success of your business. When you provide the tools necessary for employees to communicate with one another, you break down barriers and make it easier for them to complete their work. Not only that, employees who are able to communicate with one another are employees who care about their business, their work, and their coworkers. Providing them with this opportunity is as simple as developing an intranet solution for your business.

Mobile Technology Goes With the Employee

mobile-technologyWork doesn’t have to stay at the office anymore–and it’s not carried out in a heavy briefcase stuffed to overflowing with papers, either. From real estate professionals who can carry every piece of information about every property they’re showing on a tablet or smartphone to staff who are able to access the entire company intranet from the laptop in their hotel room, the rise of mobile technology has made it possible for employees to work from anywhere. There’s no need to return to the office for further information; instead, employees can carry all of that with them wherever they go. Whether on the road for a business trip or at a conference, stuck with a client or on vacation, mobile technology has enabled many professionals to remain connected with the office as never before.

Many offices are also finding that allowing their employees to work from home on an occasional basis enhances productivity exponentially. A sick child may prevent a worker from coming into the office, but they’ll still be able to complete most of a day’s work if they’re able to do it from home. When an employee is ill, they might not want to come in and share their illness with the entire office, but it’s often possible for them to get in at least part of a day’s work. Mobile technology isn’t quite the same as actually being in the office, but thanks to those advances, it’s the next best thing.

More Efficiently Manage Connections

The process required to close a sale after first making a connection with a customer is a long one, and customer satisfaction doesn’t end there. It can, in fact, be difficult to manage communication throughout every stage of that process. With the latest developments in technology, however, you can easily document each contact your business has had with a customer. Records of phone calls, the details of emails, and any concerns or complaints issued by the customer are available at the touch of a button. Even better, you can see what has been shared with the customer by employees who have connected with them in the past: what promises were made or implied, what deals were settled on, and how issues have been handled in the past. connectionsYou can determine exactly how each customer contact needs to be managed and what is most effective for each one based on the type of product or service they need, what stage they’re at in the buying or decision-making process, and the customer’s preferred method of communication.

Properly managing these customer connections is, thanks to the advances in technology, easier than ever before. Even better, you can track what caused a potential customer to fall away from your brand and choose another instead. Is it the price of your goods or services? Something that was lacking from your offer that appeared in a competitor’s proposal? By carefully evaluating all of this information, you can improve your productivity and spur all of your employees to excellence in customer service.

Finding the balance between technology that will effectively drive productivity and technology that will distract employees across the office, making it difficult for them to focus, is unique to each business. Technological innovation occurs every day. Keeping at the front of the field in business technology is almost impossible. As new innovations emerge, on the other hand, you can choose the ones that will work best for your business and discard the ones that you feel will be ineffective or distracting.

If you’re ready to implement an intranet solution that will help enhance productivity and communication throughout your company, contact us! We’re eager to hear from you.

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