In our previous posts we’ve covered a lot of customer centric technology that can help your small business. Today, we’re switching gears a bit to talk about back office technology. An example of back office tech would be Stockpile - our free inventory management software for small business. In this first post, we’ll discuss integrated e-mail, calendar and file sharing solutions. You are likely already using some of these, but you may not be using them to their full potential.
If you want to look information up on the internet, chances are you Google it. Why start anywhere else when you’re looking for small business solutions? Google Apps for Business include e-mail, calendars, online storage, video meetings and more. You can access your applications from your laptop, desktop, phone, tablet, wherever. Google solutions also come with business-grade security. Google Apps come in two pricing tiers; $5 per user per month or unlimited storage and Vault for $10 per user per month. Both plans offer a discount that amounts to two months free if you pay by the year. Google Apps comes with a thirty-day free trial so you can decide if it’s right for you.
Of course, Microsoft also offers small business solutions. Office 365 Small Business Premium is available for $12.50 per user per month if paid annually, or $15 per user per month for monthly payment clients. Office 365 comes with a suite of Microsoft products that work on your PC, Mac, phone or tablet. Office 365 provides e-mail, calendar, file-sharing, online conferencing, team sites, a public website, instant messaging and Skype capabilities, as well as updates and security. The cloud is a great option for your back office solutions. The ability to update our free inventory management software for small business without upgrading each and every customer individually was a huge plus when determining whether our solution would be cloud or desktop-based. We chose the cloud and soon thereafter the like of Google, Amazon and Microsoft did too!
Still wondering why you should be using an integrated e-mail, calendar, file sharing solution? When your team can communicate more effectively, your business runs more efficiently. When they can share documents and other information anytime from anywhere, you lose less time bringing people and their ideas together. Have you ever really paid attention to how much chit-chat occurs when people gather for a meeting? There’s likely a good bit of small talk before your group gets to the task at hand. When you can share documents easily, everyone can take a look and submit comments before the meeting. In some cases you can eliminate the need to get everyone together at all. Still need that meeting? Scheduling it will be easier when you can see everyone’s calendar. How frustrating is it to have change the meeting day and/or time repeatedly because every suggestion is met with conflicts? When you can see your employees’ schedules in advance you are ahead of the game when it comes to choosing days and times.
Integrated back office business solutions will work wonders for your workflow -whether that workflow is manual or automated with the help of our free inventory management software. You and your employees will be more efficient and you’ll be amazed at how much you can accomplish. If you aren’t already using business applications to improve your work processes, start exploring your options today. Check back with us next post as we go over more back office solutions to help your small business. We’ll talk about employee scheduling, timesheets, bookkeeping, and inventory management solutions.
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