We’ve known that remote work has been on the horizon for a while, but the COVID-19 pandemic gave everyone a hard shove into the work-from-home lifestyle. Now that we’re starting to recover a bit, it’s clear that many employees want to stay home, and businesses want to avoid the hefty costs of keeping offices open.
Even if moving your staff to full-time remote work isn’t on the table, having a remote work software suite can deliver massive payoffs. Take a second and think of the companies that were “remote ready" in March 2020. Some companies only had to flip the metaphorical switch and send out a mass email telling staff to stay home.
Remote work offers a unique combination of benefits including raised morale and higher retention rates. So why didn't we all welcome remote work sooner? Companies reasonably were worried that working from home would come with security issues, kill collaboration, and cause communication struggles. In comes tech to solve the working world’s problems.
Now, there’s the issue of being overwhelmed with different tech tools and software that claim to be the key to making remote work, well, work. There cannot be one solution. But there are software suites that offer an array of tools and systems to keep your teams running.
We’re pretty lucky that Zoho has an entirely cloud-based remote system that ensures your team can always access the information and systems they need to get things done. You know, as long as they have internet access.
Zoho knows that you have concerns too. Yeah, your employees can get the information they need, but are they really going to work? Seamless reporting helps leaders know that teams are on track with sales goals and other performance metrics.
Worried about choosing the right combination of Zoho systems? Take a breath because Zoho already solved that problem. Zoho Remotely allows your office to function from anywhere with a winning combination of their best remote work apps.
Zoho keeps going. They connect with nearly all the other apps you need to keep your team working, such as:
If you have apps that you already love, chances are you can integrate them with Zoho while cleaning out the apps and processes that are weighing you down.
Because of built-in analytics, Zoho CRM can measure and manage metrics across all of your business operations. Give your sales team powerful tools with one clear path for customer handling in the CRM. Automate escalations to protect customers and support staff while standardizing approval systems to reduce bottlenecks.
Meanwhile, leaders can use customizable dashboards to track team progress, who is landing the most sales, and which campaigns have the most leads.
Remote work software solutions often focus on the CRM to protect the customers' best interest. But, what about everyone else? Don't worry. Zoho has over 45 applications in their suite, and unlike other unnamed software providers, these applications actually integrate beautifully. It's the software suite with apps that know how to work as a team.
So, what do you need to know about Zoho and its many apps?
It doesn't matter if your top talent wants to move across the country or if you need to work while you're on the go. Leaders and staff can collaborate and crush it without being in the same physical space.
Interested in setting up your company for remote working? We'd love to chat with you.
Schedule a Free Consultation today!
-Off you go! Your horizon awaits.
Acronyms are really annoying, but we like ERPs, so we’ll let it slide. ERP stands for “Enterprise Resource Planning,” but that doesn’t help anyone understand this type of tool. Let’s start by taking a step back.
Could you start to list all the resources you use to plan and track all of your business activities? Do you use email? What about a CRM or Customer Relationship Manager? Those are just a few common starting points. Calendars, invoicing systems, accounting, human resources, and more are all resources that most businesses need to maintain basic operations.
At its core, ERP software brings all of these functions together into one system. The best way to describe an ERP is as a business ecosystem. If you can see all of these elements, you can manage processes, information, and functionality. But, if you can streamline them, then you can create a balance across your entire organization. An ERP is a system that gives you the big and little picture for every resource-driven element of your business, and that can help you lead your company toward even greater success.
An ERP is worth the investment. ERPs do come with a hefty price tag, but the benefits of unifying your systems often provide a fast return.
Imagine how many more sales your team could make if they didn’t spend time in meetings discussing how to use a spreadsheet that someone spent hours creating. Not to mention the downtime your staff have while they continuously reload overcomplicated spreadsheets that crash every ten minutes.
What if your customer service and helpdesk staff didn’t have to hunt down information for your customers?
Think of all the time, effort, and money you will save on training when everything runs in one system. Instead of training your staff across multiple systems, you train them on one, and it has everything they could ever need.
Here’s the big-ticket question for most business owners: what if you could eliminate tedious tasks and instead pay people to do meaningful work?
With an ERP, you can identify and automate tedious tasks easily. ERPs usually come with a mobile compatible app so you and your staff can be anywhere and still access vital company data. These systems can make it easy to respond to customers faster, manage resources better, and increase ROI from your employees.
Having your data in spreadsheets or on various systems doesn’t make it more secure. If anything, it can lead to duplicate or inaccurate data leading to serious compliance risks. ERPs typically have multiple access levels, so you can control who can see, change, or delete specific areas of information.
Standardizing your software gives you a competitive edge without risking security gaps. Usually, ERPs have built-in risk management to establish compliance even with constant changes in work environments, security, and human resources regulations.
ERPs are well-known for their data capturing and reporting. With an ERP, you will immediately have access to better reporting with more reliable data. ERPs store data in a single database, meaning that every department can work with the same information rather than gather their own.
All that data can be organized, analyzed, and made into reports. Because your data is all in one place, you can easily generate reports that would have taken days of research when working with multiple platforms.
ERPs often have a dashboard where you can set custom reports and track specific KPIs to easily check-in on performance. These reports typically come with access levels to ensure that only relevant staff have access to valuable company data and reporting.
So why doesn’t everyone have an ERP if they’re so great? The price tag isn’t the only issue. Business owners often get stuck in analysis paralysis because of the overwhelming number of systems, options, and features. It’s overwhelming. These systems are also a beast to set up, especially while you’re also running the business.
ERPs are certainly worth the investment. We would be happy to help you find the right ERP for your business and to help set it up for you.
Sign up today for a free consultation.
-Off you go! Your horizon awaits.
