Guest blog from Sage
According to a recent report from Sage, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the UK spend 71 days and £35,600 per year on tasks related to admin. Around 40% of SMEs are currently struggling to make administrative cost savings and roughly the same percentage would prefer to adopt technological solutions rather than outsourcing these tasks.
Despite the potential benefits, many businesses are still not digitising their business admin due to concerns surrounding the time, cost and digital skills required to implement these solutions. However, most people already use cloud technology on a daily basis, either via web-based storage like Dropbox, email services such as Gmail or social media sites such as Facebook. Adopting cloud services in your business is no different – in fact, many solutions are built to look and function in a similar way.
Moving to the cloud
If your business is looking to digitise or has begun the digital process, here are Sage’s top tips for embracing it:
Give it time
- Most cloud services are designed to help make business admin easier by automating everyday tasks and providing a central point for data from multiple sources.
- However, like any new technology, they can take a while to get used to, so invest time in learning how to get the most from the system and how to introduce it into the everyday running of your business.
Sharing is caring
- Nearly all cloud services are intended to be used collaboratively and to make sharing easier.
- Many services can also interact with each other, allowing you to automate processes further.
- For example, you might choose to share your real-time financial data from your bank with your cloud accounting software and then connect your software to your accountant’s cloud, making it simple for them to take care of your finances.
Don’t be afraid to experiment
- Implementing new technology often requires adapting the way you typically work. It’s better to be flexible and experiment with these new processes rather than remaining rigid.
- One of the advantages of cloud computing is that it can be customised to suit the needs of your business and usually comes with IT support to help you around the clock.
Go mobile
- The current cloud and mobile computing revolution means that desktop or laptop PCs are no longer needed, allowing you complete admin tasks wherever you happen to be.
- Because data stored in the cloud is always up to date, you can receive important notifications while on the move or continue work started on your desktop using your mobile.
The transition in adopting new technology may initially be difficult, but the potential savings in human resource and monetary costs make it worth the effort. For more tips on implementing cloud technology, check out the Sage Advice blog.