Jola Cloud Solutions' Blog

A recent survey by Vanson Bourne found that 74% of small businesses embraced BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) to work to improve productivity. Microsoft also recently reported that 59% of small businesses were likely to embrace the cloud to reap the productivity benefits. As productivity is such a driver for change, we decided to share our top tips for running more productive IT services.

1 – Automate

Manual processes are notorious drivers of rework and lost efficiency. For example, automation has reduced invoice processing costs by 53 percent for some companies, and decreased clerical demands by 25 percent.

Where should you start?

The first step is to determine the most arduous tasks that take up your time, whether it is an IT service responsibility or a business management task. IT, billing, monitoring, management, backup and reporting can all be improved through the use of automation. Rather than wasting time and money on manual tasks while simultaneously putting you at risk for more errors, consider automating business processes that take up more time than you can afford.

Why does there never seem to be enough time in the day? As entrepreneurs and business owners we are always busy -  products to sell, problems to solve and ideas to develop. So many people demand our time that it often feels like we are no longer in charge of our own day. Anyone who runs their own business will know the saying ‘work on your business, not in it’.

Strategic planning

How many of us actually get to leave the office and sit on our own with a coffee and think about our strategic direction, what’s happening in the market and what’s next.

Why add hosted voice to your portfolio?

Demand from SMEs

A recent report by HIS forecasted the worldwide hosted VoIP market is to reach $15 billion in 2019, with 68 million seats. A report from Cavell showed that the UK hosted VoIP market had grown by 266,392 seats (13.95%) in six months to reach a total number of 2,175,065 seats. This growth came mainly from the SME end of the market.

Demand is being driven by a few factors, the availability of cost-effective, reliable internet connections and the opportunity to purchase an enterprise-grade phone system with no real upfront investment, on a monthly pay-per-seat basis.

As more channels of communication become available to us, it is easy to get lost in the technology and forget the basics when it comes to customer communications. We need to communicate with our customers to keep them up to date with products and services, price changes, provisioning updates and of course billing. We also want to make it easy for them to contact us when they want to buy something. Check out these top tips to help you hone your communications and get back to basics.

Audience

Who are you talking to?

Review your mailing lists, magazine readerships and social media followers regularly. Are these the people you want to talk to? If not build the right list. It takes time but is worth doing to make sure you have good white lists and relevant followers. Is it worth sending customer updates via social media if your LinkedIn contacts are made up of marketing agencies, recruitment agencies and people wanting to sell to you?

Are your customers ready for the cloud?

According to the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF) 86 percent of UK-based organisations may now be using two or more cloud services for accountancy, customer relationship management or document management and storage. 50 percent of organisations questioned are expected to move to cloud applications in the next few years.

A reliable internet connection is essential for businesses wanting to access cloud applications. With so many internet connectivity products and suppliers in the market, SMEs and their suppliers are finding it difficult and confusing. This is why some business IT and Telecoms providers are partnering with companies like Jola. 

How are cloud services changing the business landscape?

How has cloud migration made such a big difference?

Start-ups and SMEs have traditionally been held back by two factors; cash and capability. Small firms not only used to have to purchase a lot of hardware and software to get started, but also the necessary security and maintenance and even the space within which to house it all.

The business cloud makes all of this redundant and just about everything an enterprise or organisation needs to run its business can be rented from the cloud. Companies starting up these days often own no infrastructure at all.

Accounts packages, marketing, billing, CRM, desktop, email and telephone systems are all owned and operated securely by third parties and rented by the seat, often by the month.

BT plans to roll out 1Gbps broadband by 2020

BT has announced that it intends to invest £6 billion in Fibre To The Premises (FTTP) over the next few years to further push superfast broadband coverage across the UK. The company wants to reach 95% coverage of the country in terms of superfast fixed broadband by 2020.

The announcement follows a report by Ofcom suggesting that BT should be compelled to give access to its network infrastructure to rivals so that they can install their own fibre alongside Openreach's cables. 

When looking for the right internet connection for your customers, there are a few things to consider.

What internet connectivity is available in the location?

Typing a postcode into a proprietary broadband checker will tell you what products and speeds are available but usually only from a single supplier. Look for multi-carrier business broadband and Ethernet checkers if you want to see all the available products in one place. The best ones also have integrated quoting and ordering systems and those for dealers allow you to add your own branding, see your margin share and add links for customers to order online.

Looking for a good VoIP headset? 

If you have a VoIP phone and are looking for a headset you may be thinking about whether you want corded, wireless or Bluetooth, one that goes over your head or over your ears and where you should position the microphone.

Corded and wireless headsets

Corded headsets connect via a lead directly into your phone. This is ideal if you do not need to be able to move more than a few meters away from your desk whilst on the phone. If you do require movement, you may need to consider a wireless headset as an alternative.

Recent research from the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) looked at technologies employed in sectors across the U.S. economy and found a large and growing gap between sectors and between companies within those sectors. Those using the latest technologies saw the highest growth in productivity and profit margins.