3 Ways to Leverage Technology In Your Small Business

A hundred years ago, the only way a manager could track an employee’s productivity was to pull up their time card and check their punch-in and -out activity. The only way an accounting team could stay on top of their general ledger’s trial balance was to manually pencil in dates and balances, and then painstakingly punch everything into a calculator. And the only way salespeople chose what leads to pursue was by relying on their own intuition, and an imperfect paper-based contact list.

Times have changed. And with it, so has the nature of business practices. Technology has automated and optimized processes in every department of an organization, allowing for better productivity and ROIs. This post will look at three different departments – sales, management and accounting – and discuss the most pivotal technologies a small business can deploy in each.

The Sales Team: Sales Engagement Software

To effectively leverage technology, and get a one-up on the competition, definitely look into sales engagement software. Many sales teams still rely on an incomplete and manual CRM, which requires sales development reps to track what leads they think are important, and then manually call them, manually enter information and manually schedule follow-ups.

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Not only does that cause potentially lucrative leads to slip away (no SDR has a crystal ball, and their choices won’t always pan out), but the process takes so much more time than is necessary. A sales engagement platform like VanillaSoft automates the process, optimizes the SDRs’ workflow and makes it so they’re always working the best lead.

Management: Time and Attendance Software

Time theft is a real killer, and it greatly affects a business’ bottom line – especially a small business’. Rather than rely on punch cards or paper timesheets, use an automated system to track attendance, and keep accurate records for performance review and payroll.

Synerion’s Time & Attendance Software is a popular choice, but the software you choose will ultimately depend on your budget and number of employees. Whichever you choose, it can help you ensure better productivity across departments, and remove time-consuming manual admin tasks, freeing up more of your time for core competencies.

Accounting: COTS Accounting Software

Chances are, your small business doesn’t have an experienced chartered accountant. You might not have any accountant! But that doesn’t mean you can’t easily, accurately and comprehensively manage your accounting tasks.

There are wonderful commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) accounting software, like from QuickBooks, that are geared specifically toward small businesses, and created with general usability in mind. If you’re a DIY business owner without an accountant, you might need to spend a few hours noodling with the software or hire a freelance accountant to walk you through the process, if you hope to use it effectively.

You’ll notice that each of these recommendations shares a common theme: they each automate an otherwise time-consuming and costly manual process. That’s an important part of leveraging technology, especially for small businesses looking to get the most out of their employees’ time and talents.