Ten Tips for Making Your Business More Efficient

Cut costs, improve efficiency, boost customer satisfaction, stay ahead

Efficiency is KeyTo keep pace in an increasingly competitive world, your business needs to run as efficiently as possible. Sooner or later, any company not operating efficiently will be out of business. Efficiency is even more important for small and medium-sized businesses, because their resources are limited compared to large global companies.

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Here are 10 tips for using network technology to help your business

Give employees secure, consistent access to information. You have an advantage over larger competitors because you can react quickly to business changes. But you can quickly lose this edge if your company network is frequently down, sluggish, or unsecured. A secure, reliable network based on intelligent routers and switches lets your employees access the information and tools they need to keep ahead of competitors.

Deliver anytime, anywhere access to employees on the go. To stay productive on the move, your employees need to be able to reach the people and information they need—anywhere, anytime. With tools like virtual private networks (VPNs), your employees can work outside the office and still enjoy safe access to the business network.

Create effective business processes with partners. Some large companies make efficient, secure business processes a prerequisite for doing business with them. To meet the business needs of your partners, you need a secure, reliable network.

Make it easy to work together. Smooth collaboration between employees, partners, suppliers, and customers is a sure-fire way to boost efficiency while also reducing costs. An intelligent network lets your business take advantage of interactive calendaring, videoconferencing, unified communications, and other technologies for easy collaboration.

Enable employees to take their phone systems wherever they go. Missed calls create project delays, wasted opportunities, and lost revenues. With a networked voice and data solution, your employees can have one phone number that rings simultaneously on multiple devices, so customers reach the right person the first time. Your staff can access all their communications anywhere, from just one inbox.

Streamline customer communications. Delivering fast, knowledgeable service is the best way to keep customers satisfied. Linking your network phone system to a customer relationship management (CRM) solution is a great way to enhance customer communications. When a customer calls, a pop-up window with their records appears on an employee's IP phone screen, computer screen, or both.

Reduce unproductive travel time. All too often, time spent on the road is time lost. A networked phone solution that offers video calls and Web conferencing can help reduce the time and expense of traveling to offsite meetings. Instead of spending time traveling, you can use the time to get work done with technology.

Employ a managed service provider. Is managing a network the best use of your employees' time? In some situations, it is advantageous to hire a managed service provider for network administration. Working with a managed service provider can free your IT staff to focus on other IT tasks and use their time more effectively.

Improve employee satisfaction. Ageing phone systems and slow networks can frustrate your employees and customers. In some cases, an employee might become burned out and decide to move on. To help ensure that employees are productive and satisfied, your business needs a secure, reliable, and fast network.

Develop a long-term technology plan. The process of replacing obsolete hardware can bring the office to a standstill. You can minimise such disruptions by carefully determining short- and long-term business objectives and working with your network vendor to deploy technology that matches them.

Solutions from CiscoCisco and Cisco Certified Partners, value-added resellers (VARs), and managed service providers offer a variety of solutions tailored specifically to the needs of businesses like yours:

Intelligent small business routers and small business switches, for a secure, reliable network foundation

Voice and conferencing, for merging voice, video, and data into one phone system

Security for small and medium-sized businesses, to safeguard against network threats and give employees highly secure network access from home

Wireless mobility solutions, enabling workers to stay connected while on the go

Advanced applications, such as Cisco Unified CallConnectors, linking your networked phone system to CRM solutions

Cisco and its partners work closely with you to identify business goals and map them to specific solutions. And Cisco Capital offers flexible leasing and financing options designed for your needs.Begin exploring Cisco solutions for small businesses.