It’s 2017 and Automation is the Name of the Game

How can you use automation technology to leverage profitability and efficiency for your business? Whereas in the past, automating your company’s day-to-day processes seemed out of reach for SMBs, today’s automation technologies are easily accessible. To help you get started with automating crucial aspects of your business, we recommend looking into these three technologies.

E-Commerce and Point of Sales
Every business that sells products (either directly or online) utilizes a sales interface in some capacity. If you’re currently using a point of sales system, then you know that processing a payment doesn’t end when the money is collected. Online orders have to be processed, shipping must be fulfilled, new product must be ordered, and staying in contact with customers for feedback and marketing purposes is an important step that busy business owners often let slip through the cracks. Thankfully, there’s technology available that can streamline and automate this entire process. The actual solution you’ll use will vary depending on your industry, but if you do your due diligence, you should be able to easily obtain software that can automate and integrate your company’s invoicing, shipping, customer feedback processes, and more, into one easy-to-manage solution.

Social Media
Business owners that have been avoiding social media for personal reasons may be surprised to learn how far the various platforms have come in recent years by developing into powerful tools that can help businesses streamline their marketing initiatives. Take for example an application like Hootsuite that gives users the ability to post a single message simultaneously across multiple social media platforms. This removes the intimidation factor that a business owner may feel at the prospect of having to individually manage multiple social media platforms. Beyond simply posting messages, Hootsuite and various other solutions are available to assist businesses with automating their online marketing efforts.

Paperless Automation
By now, you’re well aware of the financial and environmental benefits of going paperless. However, if you’ve attempted to go paperless on any level, then you’ve discovered firsthand how this involves implementing new processes and managing new systems. To help you with this, there are a host of technologies available that can automate and streamline your company’s paperless process. Solutions like modern scanning equipment (which is way more efficient than the older one-page-at-a-time models), document management software, and cloud solutions provide the access to automation that will help your company process and manage your paperless system. Additionally, you’ll want to make sure that all of your digital documents are backed up, which is a process that can be automated as well.

These are just three ways that automation technology is helping today’s businesses do more for less. If there are additional pain points that you’re experiencing with running your business, you may be pleasantly surprised to learn that there’s a solution available that can automate what you’re struggling with. For assistance with finding your business the solutions you need to succeed, give Horne & Benik a call at (603) 499-4400.