10 Time Saving Technologies For Your Business
Time saving devices are often not what they are cracked up to be. For example, someone did a study on washing laundry from 1925 (before washing machines) to 1969 (with washing machines). The result of the study was that in both cases (with and without washing machines), it took about 6 hours per week to do the household laundry. The same things can be said for microwaves, freezers, clothes dryers and vacuum cleaners. While these things save effort, there is no evidence they save time.
In small business, time is money. It’s wonderful if work can be made easier for employees. But, the bottom line isn’t increased unless the work can also be made quicker and more efficient. If a piece of equipment can do that, then it has true value in your small business.
Gene Marks owns and operates the Marks Group PC, a highly successful ten-person firm that provides technology and consulting services to small and medium sized businesses. The Marks Group PC, launched in 1994, has grown to help more than 500 companies and more than two thousand individuals throughout the country. Mr. Marks wrote a piece for Business Week entitled “Worthwhile Small Business Technologies” in which he details 10 technologies which live up to their reputation in the area of saving time and money for a business. Here is a portion of what he says:
1. Remote Desktop Technology
Morale was low that bitterly cold day in January. The troops were tired. They were no match for the enemy. Jonah, their leader, was desperate. And then, when all seemed lost, a lone soldier arrived at the front. “I come bearing a very special, top-secret weapon from HQ,” he said. “It is called Microsoft (MSFT) Windows Terminal Server and it enables computers to be operated remotely. And it will vanquish the enemy.” Though skeptical, Jonah gave the order to deploy. And suddenly—information flowed.
The men tossed aside their overpriced laptops that were unable to synchronize the data they needed. They armed themselves with cheaper, more efficient models with good Internet browsers. They fought. They surfed. They uploaded and received customer information in real time. They were productive. The enemy faltered. Jonah had won this battle. But deep down he knew that remote desktop technology was the real hero.
2. Desktop Sharing Software
… Desktop sharing software constitute a perfect storm of technologies that help small business owners decimate waste. In short, the software lets a user show the information on his or her computer simultaneously with others around the world.
Back in the day, face-to-face meetings had to be held. It was like waterboarding. Now, it’s possible to meet without leaving your office. Desktop-sharing technology, authored by companies including Microsoft, Cisco (CSCO), Glance, and CrossLoop, gives back productivity to the business owner.
3. Free Conference Calling
Well, not exactly free, but pretty close. Try freeconferencecall.com. Once you sign up on this Web site (no credit card needed) you get assigned a unique conference code and a regular phone number to call. Mine starts with 712, which I’m told is in Idaho. Who cares? I pay for my call only. Everyone else calls the same number and uses the conference code I give them. They pay for their call. If their long-distance plan allows unlimited calls or cheap U.S. rates, then they’re not even affected.
4. Wireless Connectivity
The wireless world is here and I’m loving it! Those invisible cancerous waves floating around our atmosphere let me watch a training video while sipping a mocha at the local coffee shop. I can check e-mail and look up a customer’s order history while on the train. I’m quickly getting online at hotels, bookstores, and libraries. Embracing wireless technology enables more business to be done in more places more of the time. It’s fast and mostly reliable.
5. E-mail Marketing Services
Fred took his family on an RV trip to Niagara Falls a few years ago. He rented the RV from a place called RV Universe. The trip was a success, and the company was extremely professional. Problem is, RV Universe is probably missing out on a lot of extra business from Fred. Why? Because it never got back in contact with Fred after the trip. Not a peep! For well short of $100 per month, RV Universe could be sending out great-looking e-mails to happy customers like Fred with camping tips and special deals. Fred probably would’ve taken them up on one or two as well. These services are easy to use and work very well for the small business owner who wants to generate a continuous communication with people that can turn into potential business.
6. Contact Management Software
Like the Spice Girls, contact management is making a comeback, and it’s about time. Small businesses (and many large ones) don’t need all the complexity of a CRM system. We just need a simple place to keep all of our business contacts, along with some notes, so that we can track who spoke to them last and what’s scheduled next. Good software like the Outlook Business Contact Manager ably accomplishes that goal.
7. Hosted Phone Systems
Seth runs a marketing company from the basement of his house. He has two employees, two contractors, and a dog. You’d never know that Seth’s in boxer shorts or that he sports an Ozzy tattoo. He’s got an 800 number that’s answered by a very professional-sounding attendant. His phone system is hosted. When a client calls his “office” in Boston, the call is actually going to a server in San Francisco. When a caller selects Seth’s extension, the call is either bounced to his cell phone, a phone in his basement, or right to voice mail (which, in turn is made into a .wav file and e-mailed to him for storage). How much? Twelve dollars per month per mailbox. Does it work? “Never failed yet,” he told me the other day. Other small business owners I know report the same. The leaders in hosted (or outsourced) phone systems are VirtualPBX and GotVMail Communications.
8. Messaging Software
If someone in Philadelphia wants to, say, recommend a good tanning salon to a visiting Londoner, they just send an instant message. And don’t leave out text messaging, either. Back in Philly, the SMG people frequently text each other rather than wasting time on the phone. Messaging software is a technology that works reliably and saves time.
9. SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server 2005, used as a standard for so many applications, works and works well. Hopefully you’ve thrown Microsoft Access out the door by now, along with your cassette tapes and “Reverse the Curse” T-shirt. SQL Server, and its smaller but still attractive cousin SQL Server Express (which is free) makes all those older database systems obsolete. Nowadays, an SQL back end is a key component an IT person looks for when evaluating software systems.
10. Google Applications
Tony started a biotech company this year and, wanting to keep the cost of technology down, uses Google’s (GOOG) free business word processor and spreadsheet applications. They do the job well. A client who’s in the recruitment business needed a quick way to search thousands of résumés on file. So he downloaded Google’s desktop search and solved the problem—for free. I have other clients who use Google’s calendar, e-mail, and analytics. This stuff works. And did I mention it’s free? Hang on. Maybe this Web 2.0 stuff isn’t so bad after all.
Hank Williams used to sing, “If you’ve got the money, honey, I’ve got the time.” That’s the way some people live their lives–trading their time for money. However, a successful small business will turn that formula around by pursuing time saving technologies in order to make more money. The question of the hour is–which formula is your small business following right now?
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