Today’s business industry has become heavily competitive, especially with the negative effects brought by the ongoing pandemic. Data showed that by the end of August 2020, close to 164,000 businesses have closed shop, with almost 98,000 of them declaring permanent closure.
Ultimately, such information only reinforces the fact that businesses are highly vulnerable to suffer heavily during a pandemic and other crises. However, it should not stop business owners from making the necessary investments to ensure that their business will be resilient to such external factors. Fortunately, technology offers plenty of help that entrepreneurs only have to access.
Here are seven tech tools that you can use to improve your business’s daily processes:
1. A digital directory.
Encourage smooth interaction and collaboration between your company employees and managers, investing in a professionally developed directory app is the way to do it. A typical directory mobile app contains individual employees’ name, contact details (including mobile number, company extension line, and email address), and position, among others. It can be customized to a company’s peculiar needs and may include options to create groups or lists according to employees’ specific division or office. When programmed and developed properly based on your company’s needs, such a tech tool can make communication and collaboration among your employees smooth and easy.
2. Project management tool.
No business should operate without a project management tool (PMT) in its arsenal. This is particularly the case if you handle multiple projects with tight deadlines, where pinpoint accuracy and top-tier efficiency among all employees involved are non-negotiable. Fortunately, there are many project management tools with outstanding features that you can use, such as Celoxis, Teamwork, Asana, Basecamp, Zoho Projects and LiquidPlanner. Just do your research on what each of these PMTs offers to know which one perfectly suits your company’s organizational and operational requirements.
3. Online invoicing.
When you have the option to automate and digitalize tasks in your business, you should carefully consider it and use it when necessary. For example, you can switch to an online invoicing tool to help bring down or completely do away with the costs needed to collect customers’ payments. Not only will it make bookkeeping much easier for your accountant, but it will also help you save on manpower costs. Simply put, there’s no logical reason why you shouldn’t opt for this efficient and cost-saving business tool.
4. Teleconferencing infrastructure.
A teleconferencing infrastructure typically features cloud-based Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phones. These phones offer crystal-clear call quality and excellent audio conferencing features. Some VoIP phone models also carry other state-of-the-art features including Bluetooth device pairing, data protection, web collaboration, and even video conferencing. Many companies sell VoIP solutions, so be sure to check as many of them as possible to zero-in on the perfect provider.
5. Mobile payment solutions.
These days, an increasing number of customers are preferring businesses that offer mobile payment solutions such as Google Pay, Xoom, Apple Pay, PayPal and Samsung Pay. Customers love them because they don’t have to always carry large wads of cash, plus they minimize the risk of getting COVID-19 through their cash transactions. If you still haven’t given this particular tech feature much thought until now, then it’s about time you make the move to offer mobile payment options to draw clients to your business.
6. Productivity apps.
Just like product management tools, productivity apps are also must-haves for any business. Mobile apps such as Trello, Asana, Slack, and Basecamp allow collaborators to effortlessly work together in real-time, thereby ensuring optimum productivity each day. Most of these apps are free to download, so you won’t need to spend a single dollar. You should check out their unique features and decide which apps best offer the functionality that you need for your company.
7. Google Analytics.
Some experts say that data is the most precious commodity these days, worth even more than gold or coffee. Whether you agree to that claim or not, no one can deny just how powerful access to customer data can be for any business, particularly those whose knowledge of consumer behavior and preference affect how they make their products or offer their services. One great tool to get is Google Analytics, which can help you measure user engagement, preferences, behavior, and other key metrics. With proper use, this tool can help drive insane site traffic, as well as help you make critical business decisions based on the data culled from Google Analytics.
Resilience is crucial to survival (and success) amid a global crisis. By investing the right tech tools, your business will not only operate as it should but even improve.
