We need to remain competitive and “agile” against our competition
We have all experienced cost increases over the last year. As businesses we constantly look forward to ensure we can ride any potential changes in the market, but most importantly we need to remain competitive and “agile” against our competition.
To best prepare for 2023 here are some key questions / areas to review that can help your business in the year to come. All aimed at keeping your business “agile” and competitive.
1) Your competitors
What is the competition doing? Are you standing out against your competitors?
As an IT business OBN's website is key. How does your website reflect your business?
Without continued investment in our brand we will stagnate and loose traction, even with rising costs, inaction could cost a lot more.
What are you doing to invest in your business? How do customers view your business? Why are they choosing you over your competitors?
A website refresh using your existing content can have a big impact on how your perceived, without a big cost. With additional benefits such as ensuring the mobile friendliness of the site, and making it easier to manage.
Websites and social media are at the forefront of modern business from an advertising and first point of contact perspective. But there is a point that is sometimes overlooked.
A website can help you reduce costs by offering customers the ability to interact without staff interaction, which can improve business efficiency.
For example, integrating quote and order processing, live product feeds with stock availability or customer portals for viewing customer details, invoices and outstanding service requests can have real cost savings.
These can be integrated into your website and by allowing customers to “self-service” their own accounts with you it reduces time spent by staff, freeing up resources for other work.
2) Knowledge is power
How well do you know your customer? Are you still managing customer data on spreadsheets? How much time and effort is required to manage your customers?
Knowing your customer is key, it enables you to contact them at the right time, track their interests and contact with your company, manage their quotes/orders and service requests. But it goes beyond just knowing your customer, a lot of business value is tied up with customer data, having this well organised adds value to your business.
This is where a robust and reliable CRM helps a business remain “agile” and competitive. OBN’s in house developed Black ICE CRM is an example of this, the system is fully customised to the business requirements.
The business can have one central database of information about a customer, making it faster to convert leads into accounts, raise quotes and order and track service issues. But it goes further than this, as CRM's can integrate into other systems, pulling or pushing data, this leads to efficiencies, reduced double keying, and faster customer service.
3) End your long-term contracts
Most businesses are tied into contracts for IT services that can run over many years. By switching to flexible contracts your business can remain “agile” but flexing up and down according to the situation at the time. If your experiencing reduced demand you can flex down easily, reducing cost quickly.
For example...
Are you paying for a monthly retainer for support? Are you using the full value of that support contract?
An alternative way to approach the support needs for your business is ad-hoc or prepaid support. Removing the need for a monthly charge that you may not be fully utilizing.
At OBN we offer prepaid support that behaves like a contract support plan, you buy hours in advance and all hours relate to actual work.
By changing to a prepaid plan, you can be “agile” with your costs for essential IT support and services, only using what you need and when you need it, and not wasting valuable cash flow on under utilized contracts.
- Broadband/Internet Connectivity
Are you tied into long term contracts with broadband? do they offer you the flexibility to be “agile” in the coming year?
Most broadband contracts start at 2 years, but this ties you into a place of business, normally with costs to cancel contracts if you move. This is especially important as the UK moves to an all-digital future. OpenReach are gradually turning off the old PSTN phone system. This means every business and household will have to change their broadband by 2025 but it’s happening already so now is the time to change to ensure you have continuity of service.
Being “agile” you want the flexibility to move or change your broadband service quickly. At OBN most of our services are offered on a one-month contract basis, meaning you can move premises or upgrade easily to better services as they are rolled out across the UK, its also backed by BT as we use the next generation BT network to deliver our services.
Does your phone system offer you and your staff the flexibility to work anywhere? Can you easily collaborate with colleagues? Is it future proof? Are you ready for the switch off of the old PSTN networks by OpenReach?
Phone systems have changed dramatically over the last 10 years, with a move to VoIP phone systems becoming prevalent.
Phone systems are often sold on long term contracts, but they don’t need to be. For example at OBN our future proof and flexible phone system from Xelion is offered on a one-month contract. This allows you to flex up and down as you need on a monthly basis keeping your business “agile” as demand changes.
- Websites
Are you paying a monthly fee for website hosting and maintenance? Can you or your team update your own website without requiring help from a web designer?
Websites can be complicated, but again choosing the right software to manage a website is key. It allows you as a business to make changes, without technical knowledge.
For example, a common website management tool is Wordpress, but it’s not the easiest of tools to manage a website for someone who is not a web designer. Other systems exist that offer greater flexibility and ease of use, for example ConcreteCMS has a much easier interface.
It is possible to change website management tools, keeping your existing website but with an easier to use interface meaning your staff can add/amend the website without hiring a website developer, helping reduce cost and potentially increase the speed of changes as you can manage in house and on demand, keeping “agile”.
4) Flexible working environments
Can you staff work from home easily? Can you collaborate? How can this lead to cost efficiencies?
The impact of Covid brought to light the need to be able to work from anywhere and collaborate with staff in different locations easily. The days of onsite servers in offices are going, with a move to cloud-based systems enabling more flexible working patterns.
Due to the historic use of Word, Excel and PowerPoint many businesses have moved to the Microsoft 365 environment, but there are alternatives that could prove more cost effective especially when it comes to hardware like laptops.
Google Workspace is a great example of this, at OBN we have migrated many businesses away from Microsoft 365 and onsite exchange servers.
With Google Workspace your team can work effectively from anywhere, we know this well at OBN as we have been working this way since our founding.
Modern web-based alternatives of Word/Excel and PowerPoint are included, but you can still use traditional programmes as well.
One additional benefit to Google Workspace is that you can lower the cost of equipment to run your business. Chromebooks (laptops) & Chromebox’s (the desktop equivalent to a pc) have become very popular in the education setting and for good reason.
There are security benefits, there is no need to run anti-virus software, there is single sign on and many other features.
These laptops generally require less power and are very stable compared to their Windows alternatives. As a cost benefit they are often cheaper than Windows laptops.
Additionally going Google helps reduce IT support costs, as these computers require less support than Windows computers.
5) Going green can help save more than the planet
Do you have laptops and desktop computers that are ageing? However the investment of new equipment is putting you off purchasing?
Refurbished computers can offer more power and achieve considerable savings over new equipment. As an added benefit it reduces waste.
Just because they are refurbished does not meant they will not perform well. Laptops and desktop computers come with a 2-year guarantee, giving peace of mind.
For example, a powerful intel i7 laptop from Lenovo new could cost upwards of £1000, but a professionally refurbished computer can cost as little as £400.
By replacing older computers with refurbished computers your staff can work more efficiently. No more going to make a coffee whilst the computer wakes up!
OBN provide a full range of refurbished computers, contact us for further information on stock and range.
Final thoughts
As we start a potentially difficult year ahead, now is the time to review your current services. By moving to a more “agile” way of receiving the services you need, you will enable your business to remain flexible now and in the future.
At OBN we live by our moto “tech made simple”, and as technology moves at a fast pace it can be hard to keep up. Our services are offered in the most “agile” format as possible to better serve businesses.
Contact us today for a consultation to review your current services. OBN can help change to more flexible services. Ultimately this will put your business in a better position for 2023 and beyond.
Author: Robin Noakes (Founder of OBN Technology)
Date: 4th January 2023
OBN provide a full range of services from IT Support, Broadband, Phone, Google Workspace, Black ICE CRM, Web Development, App Development, Hosting, Security and Consultancy services.
For further information please call us on 01923 750 170 or email us at email@obntech.co.uk or use the live chat.
