Business priorities have changed significantly over the past decades, rent and electricity were the top priorities previously but now it is electricity and connectivity. No business can survive anymore without power and communications.
Euphoria Telecom CEO George Golding says business owners need to step back, stop working in the business and start working on the business. "This hands-on approach just doesn't work, immediate steps need to be taken to automate, streamline and grow one's business."
"SMEs are cash strapped and have to consider the best option, as the cheapest option is not always the best option. Spend money on your connectivity, if a fibre connection costs an extra R2,000 over an ADSL line, pay for it. Your connectivity is now the most important requirement for running your business."
Modern communications and email are the first step to change. "Using pop email is no longer feasible for business, a hosted exchange service is crucial to business to ensure emails are stored and accessible instantly for a minimum of three years. It must be accessible anywhere, anytime and on any device. One can consider Google Apps, Microsoft Hosted Exchange or Zimbra Opensource."
Old analogue telephone systems such as Opticon are cumbersome, expensive and difficult to manage. "Based on good connectivity such as fibre, it is practical to use cloud-based PBX. These are month-to-month services and offer a complete centralised view of costs, activity tracking and self- management of the PBX. This gives executives control and less reliance on inconsistent outside assistance."
By automating and integrating one's workforce management system with a CRM system in the cloud, executives can now have activity tracking combined with call tracking and recording at their fingertips.
"With a good foundation of connectivity and cloud services, automation is the answer to every entrepreneur's dream - everything from lead generation, marketing, operations, human resources (PaySpace), support and administration."
Other automated cloud services include contract management and quoting systems. Both are more cost and time efficient, putting one far ahead of one's competitors.
Automation is not only about the executives. "If you have a sales person, admin or any person whose mundane tasks can be reduced through automation, you can save many days per person each month.
"It increases their efficiency and allows them to work on more meaningful tasks which actually add value and also increase job satisfaction. In addition, one doesn't need to hire 10 project managers anymore, only two," he concludes.
For more information, go to www.euphoria.co.za
