Why You Should Have a Technology Plan for Growth

You’ve planned meticulously to secure your business’ future: marketing, finance, recruitment … but what about a technology strategy?

The companies that are dominating their fields thanks to solid growth are the ones that invest in quality technology.

It helps them:

• Communicate better internally
• Supercharge productivity
• Shorten their sales cycle
• Drive customer satisfaction
• Boost employee morale

And a whole host of other business-boosting benefits. Let’s take a closer look at why you need a technology plan to accelerate growth.

Signs Your Business Needs Better Tech 

Can’t quite put your finger on why your business is moving at a sluggish pace?

As we’ve seen through our work, in 99% of cases, outdated or missing technology is the culprit.

Here are the problems we see all the time:

• Aging software or hardware can’t keep up with growing business demands
• Inefficient processes that result in the need for manual tasks
• Inability to get new hires up to speed quickly
• Inability to enable employees to work flexibly
• Poor collaboration as a result of inadequate communication methods
• Security risks are high and issues are more common

Sound familiar? Creating an integrated technology plan will stop these problems from piling up and preventing business growth.

Where is Your Business Heading?

The main thing you need to consider is the long-term plan for your business when creating a strategy for technology.

Ask yourself: where do you see the business in the next five or ten years?

Here are the critical milestones for growth and how you can incorporate technology into your business strategy to meet them.

1. Expanding Your Team

The big one. There’s no better indication of success than team growth. With more manpower and new skills, you can increase your customer base and value exponentially.

Creating a high-performance team can only work when you have the right technology to enable them to work at their best.

Microsoft Teams is invaluable for productive project collaboration. You can create multiple chat rooms per project so employees can seamlessly discuss work relevant to them without being distracted by other conversations.

You can also integrate Office 365’s applications and third-party apps with the platform. For example, by accessing Microsoft Excel via Teams, employees can pull up specific databases for their projects and share them with the rest of the team in seconds.

Bonus: Teams is THE platform for flexible working. If you want to boost employee morale by providing flexible working options or are considering hiring freelancers, Teams is exceptional at bringing people together no matter where they’re based.

Meanwhile, SharePoint is the panacea to file mayhem. How much time do your employees waste searching for files? By uploading everything related to your business onto SharePoint, employees can locate what they need to complete their tasks swiftly wherever they’re based.

It’s also brilliant for on-boarding new staff. SharePoint can be used to create a wiki for your business where you can include company branded business guides, system instructions and client overviews. With quick access to essential information, new team members can educate themselves rather than rely on their busy managers.

SharePoint and Teams are the go-to platforms to enable team growth. For more productivity-boosting tech, check out this blog.

2. Workspace Growth

Is a second or third office on the horizon? Then it’s likely you require a solution that will enable multiple sites to work together. So, your teams can think and work in a joined-up way.

If you haven’t already, leveraging cloud computing is a must. It enables you to move documents, files and data storage online so you can manage and maintain a centralised network virtually.

Microsoft Office 365 has an incredible array of cloud computing features. And because it can be used from anywhere, when you move to a new office all you need is an internet connection to access your business files and data. You gain a secure online location to store, share and access documents from anywhere without compromising data security.

Microsoft Flow – an Office 365 application – can be a game-changer for productivity when you’re expanding. No matter where your employees are based, they can access this single platform to complete and automate a variety of tasks (that usually require access to native platforms), from scheduling emails and streamlining manager approvals to capturing tweets and adding them as leads to Microsoft Dynamics.

Skype can also be installed on your employees’ devices so your various teams can contact each other easily through instant messaging. If you plan to expand globally, Skype will dramatically reduce your telephone bill too!

3. Cost Efficiency

When you’re growing your team, you want to ensure the technology you use can scale-up and update in a cost-efficient manner. Using the hardware-as-a-service (HaaS) model is the ticket.

You pay a monthly fee to the managed service provider (MSP) who will install the hardware (or software), monitor it and maintain it depending on their service level agreement.

When the technology breaks down or goes out of date, your MSP should replace it for you.

The alternative would be sourcing the technology yourself, paying to have it installed as a one-time service and also shelling out for repairs and replacements.

Using the HaaS model, these services are condensed into one for a fraction of the price. You also save heaps of time as your MSP can remedy problems quickly – they already know the technology and your business.

Unlock Business Transformation

Need a helping hand to update your business’ technology? Or perhaps this blog has raised more questions for you.

Simply drop us a line on 0800 084 2575 for a friendly chat about your business’ growth or visit www.san-it.co.uk.

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