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Business Review 2006 from
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Tools for modern business
Luke Jedda
sales manager, Professional Business Systems
The technology that business utilises grows and evolves as does any successful business enterprise. Harnessing the tools that are available in an efficient and effective manner is essential, although not necessarily easily achieved.
Whereas the tools might change, the requirements that most organisations have fundamentally stay the same: How can we present our product to market? How can we communicate with our customers and colleagues? How can we manage our company information? How can we ensure we are as efficient as we can possibly be?
Over the past 25 years, office equipment has become embedded as the crucial lynchpin and main set of tools for the most important asset to any organisation - its staff.
The landline analogue telephone and analogue exchanges were common placed and ensured that companies could communicate at least locally, and then increasingly on a global level, with both customers and colleagues.
Telex machines and then thermal fax machines, as well as the traditional letter format, were the only ways to move data around the planet. Business demanded faster communication. Where would we be now without the advent of pagers, radio phones, calculators, analogue faxes and stencil / spirit duplicators? Or then without the transition from typewriter to word processor to personal computers and workstations? Imagine running a 21st century company without e-mail, mobile phones, photocopiers, printers and scanners.
Receptive
Jersey is a hub for all manor of business enterprise. In order to maintain the Island's standing in the global business community and to see growth, we all need to be adaptive and receptive to new technologies and innovations. The market place rolls with any advancements in this field as much as it feeds the demand for continued research and development. Communication needs to be immediate. Often, right now is just in time.
'Technology' as a term, incorporates a massive spectrum for potential comment. Even technology in the workplace presents a significant arena.
Jersey benefits from having a small physical resource from which to draw local business support. The high calibre of the businesses here demands expert, professional advice, assistance and support for all their work applications and business systems that are so essential in the modern working environment. Increasingly, with companies large and small, coming to rely on one organisation to continually update their service offering to ensure the latest technology is available is proving invaluable.
It allows companies to get on with their own day to day business and helps alleviate the pressure of keeping up. It helps foster solid professional relationships and allows that provider to understand the customers' business that much more intimately. This is an important point - Technology needs to be supported.
Jersey based companies are employing the latest digital technology to realise the benefits that multi-functional devices can render a user group. A photocopier is after all a scanner sitting on top of a printer so we should use the one machine to do all of those jobs, therefore leveraging more out of the original investment. We need products that are both reliable as well as easy to use, that also offer the purchasing organisation office efficiencies, both in terms of money and time, as well as offering practical applications for the end users.
Companies are investing in document management systems to store data while allowing easy access and retrieval. Industry regulations as well as governmental legislation are implementing increasingly stringent compliancy rules that we all will have to adhere to. Being able to put your finger on a specific document and its related data is a must, especially for financial organisations. Equally as important, this ability is very precious to a business, regulated or otherwise. Being able to access these systems with ease and through a reliable interface will prove crucial. Again, most organisations have the equipment sitting on the outside of their networks (MFDs) to enable a relatively painless take-up.
The advent of broadband connections over ISDN or ASDN lines has helped us all move data around the globe through wider 'pipes' with greater ease and speed. But there is more available: Utilising voice and data over IP (Internet Protocol) effectively allows us to communicate without involving a service provider and therefore removing unit costs - such as being billed by the minute.
This has many applications: Send print jobs anywhere in the world immediately without courier fees or consumable costs to you. Video conferencing streamed live over the internet while all attendees work with live documents from the document management system or via a separate live portal. Imagine the time saved in travel, not to mention the costs.
Software is a key element to bringing together some of the hardware we utilise. Innovative applications help office workers capture, manage and distribute both paper and digital files. Software doesn't have to be complicated either, for example, using software that can bring together a Word document, an Excel spreadsheet and a PowerPoint presentation, wrap it all in to one file format ready to print has revolutionised the activities of the organisations who now utilise such packages. Sounds simple? It is simple, and also very helpful.
Some more traditional tools have a more modern tinge to what they can provide a company. Non-geographical (telephone) numbers mean that customers can phone our businesses while paying local rates. Companies can see where the calls have originated from and add or remove advertising / marketing budgets to where it is most needed. Also, an organisation can use NGNs to turn what traditionally is a cost into a potential revenue stream by forming a partnership with the provider rather than being purely a customer.
Technology development is everywhere, from Interactive whiteboards in Jersey classrooms to interactive video conferencing in Jersey boardrooms. Technology innovation though, doesn't just come on products with a plug at the end of a cable.
Furniture
Design improvements in office furniture ensure greater comfort for staff. Innovations in desking and office furniture helps create efficient working environments. Furniture is a means for providing IT at the correct height and position and looks after the comfort requirements of our colleagues.
Ordering everyday products such as stationery online, or the possibility of having access to digital catalogues of products and pricing can reduce time and administration for all parties.
Technology is there to be embraced. It doesn't have to be complicated and it isn't a topic to be scared of. Before introducing any technological improvements we need to be able to answer yes to some or all of the following key questions: Does it make our business more efficient? Does it save us money? Does it improve the quality of the information moving around our organisation? Does it make life easier?
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