How to Maximize Office Time
There are a lot of new programs that are being used to make office administration easier and easier, and knowing your way around some of them is a sure way to start saving your business both time and money. The time savings that come as a result of using some of the latest technology in an office environment frees up more people to spend more time making more sales and providing more client care.
SalesForce
SalesForce is a Customer Relationship Management program that is a secure online database of client account information. It can be used to keep track of clients, transactions, financial records, and related business opportunities. SalesForce is a valuable in-house filing system much like a jumbo online calendar/rolodex that stores essential info at your fingertips. When a client calls with a question, looking up their account history is now easier than ever. Pulling a paper trail from a file folder is now no longer necessary.
Adobe Photoshop
Photoshop has a wide range of applications and is commonly used to first create marketing strategies like logos and website templates. Photoshop is used by administration staff to change images around so they are suitable for the web, or suitable for print publications. There are whole post-secondary programs dedicated to Photoshop, but if you’re comfortable with the basics, like, changing the size and file type of an image, it’s enough.
Adobe InDesign
Adobe InDesign is like a sophisticated version of the Microsoft Publisher we once used to turn clip art into signage back in the day. Actually, the two programs are hardly comparable. Adobe InDesign is the software used to create the layout for newspapers, magazines, and brochures, and to mock-up website proposals, business cards, advertisements, etc. Its capabilities are endless, which makes it expensive, but again, if you know the basics, it's a great start.
WebEx
WebEx is a relatively new video conferencing option that is being picked up by big companies due to its ease of use. From its website, WebEx offers “web conferencing that lets you connect with anyone, anywhere, in real time. WebEx combines desktop sharing through a web browser with phone conferencing and video, so everyone sees the same thing while you talk.” Using the program, you can be talking with someone on the phone, and share your desktop with them, so what they see is what you see on your end. They can follow your actions as you’re working. WebEx is a lot more efficient than having to describe where things are when you’re attempting to train a new employee, or show an employee something who is working from home that day.
Google Documents
If you know Microsoft Word, you already know how to use Google Documents. Google Documents allow you to complete your tasks online and share the documents with other users who can edit the documents as well. These are great for collaboration and save a lot of sending files back and forth, which may or may not be compatible with everyone's computers. People can work on documents at the same time, no matter their location. Using Google Documents requires a Google account, which is free!
Gmail
A lot of offices are opting to switch over their email providers to Google's Gmail because it’s free and offers great Spam filtering. Better yet, Gmail can be customized to a user’s company name, (i.e. julie@companyname.com) and the email account then becomes accessible from any computer, much like Hotmail and Yahoo accounts, but with a more professional appearance. If you have different addresses for personal and professional email, consider switching your personal email over to Gmail at first to help familiarize yourself with the interface and if you like what you see, consider Gmail for professional email too. Doing so will ensure no email is ever lost when a computer crashes.
Paymo / Time Tracker
This is a neat online program that ends up becoming a bookkeeper’s best friend. Simply log-in to a website on your browser and each employee can track their time spent on projects. You can add items manually, or set a timer each time you start a new task. If you’re in an office environment, you may be asked to keep track of your time in this manner.
Drupal
Drupal is a website editor which programmers use to create immaculate websites. Once the technology is in place, anyone in the office can update a company’s website with news articles, news items, photos, events, and any number of things. The technology is user-friendly and feels just like using Word, and adding files to a website is as simple as adding an attachment to an email. Contact us to learn more about this great new website editing software.
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This may seem like a long list of items to learn all at once, but adding even one or two of these office solutions this year will help cut back on administration time and help your company spend more time on customer relations and on increasing sales. These programs might not be in every office building yet, but they will be soon enough, and who knows, maybe you’ll be able to introduce one or two to your boss if he or she hasn’t yet implemented these time-saving solutions at the work place.
