Don’t let technology eat up your time – 5 things you can do today

Time is one of the most precious commodities any of us have – business owners are very conscious of only having so much of it themselves, and of having to pay other people for theirs.

That’s why identifying any time loss through inefficient technology is one of the most effective things you can do for your business. Studies have show that productivity loss is a genuine problem but like any problem, there’s an answer!

Here we’ve identified (in no particular order) five actions a business can take to avoid having valuable time slip away during the course of an average working day:

1. Get your network checked!

Any bottlenecks in capacity can soon slow you down. This often happens if your business has grown – you can quickly end up having too many computers trying to use a router or switch that was never meant to support them. A probably inexpensive fix is almost certainly out there if you know who to ask!

It’s something you should revisit from time to time to ensure it’s not becoming a hidden resource drain.

2. Maintain your hardware

Even the computers that are the latest, greatest and fastest when they leave the factory will become bogged down over time if they are not maintained. Regular health checks and updates make a huge difference and don’t have to be disruptive because they can often be done remotely by people like us who use specialist software to keep every computer tuned-up to the maximum (and to identify when it would be more cost effective and/or efficient to replace that piece of IT).

Just like a car, a PC will come to an inconvenient standstill if it’s not serviced, and regular servicing will help it last longer.

3. Get your passwords under control

Everything we do online seems to demand a new password and it becomes too tempting to re-use the same one or to keep them simple and memorable. But memorable means easy to crack.

The answer is to implement a password manager that your staff can all use and which can be controlled centrally, so if there’s any doubt that a system may have been compromised, it’s a quick and simple job to change all necessary logins. Such a system also saves people having to remember what to type in each time, which means passwords can be long and complex and therefore much, much safer.

We’re way past it being acceptable to keep the password on a sticky note attached to the office manager’s monitor!

4. Make sure your staff know your systems properly

This sounds so obvious, but when you scratch the surface you often find people who use software day in and day out get by doing things as they’ve always been done, even though there might be a much quicker way if only they knew. Regular checks that they have the tools for the job and know how to use them can really pay off in terms of time and efficiency.

5. Ensure you are backing up your data, automatically

Backups are crucial – that’s the first thing. But if you rely on someone remembering to do them on a schedule they become vulnerable to human error and human error has a habit of happening all too frequently. A system that is basically “set and forget” (apart from being monitored to ensure it’s running smoothly) will save someone a job and give you peace of mind that you can’t put a price on.

Each of these is a factor in everyday business computing. If even a couple of them are relevant to you, they can soon add up to lost days or even weeks in the course of a year and it doesn’t have to happen. Give us a call if you think we could be taming time for you!