Technology as an enabler for remote working & business growth

Almost a third (31%)* of UK workers are now fulfilling their contracted hours from outside of the office, revealing the real impact of flexible working on British businesses.

A study of UK bosses by Microsoft PC Accessories found that 80% now allow their teams flexibility in how and where they work.

Over half claim that they are happy for their employees to work whilst on a train, others said that a café or restaurant was fine, and 12% even allow their team to work flexibly from a pub or bar!

Many bosses say flexible working is now necessary to attract and keep the best staff, with a quarter of company’s now employing people from as far afield as 50 miles or more. As a result of this employers have been able to hold on to staff with childcare responsibilities, valuable employees with health issues, and those needing to care for a relative. On top of this, it’s great for productivity and business growth as people can work as they travel and while on the go.

As technology continues to evolve it’s becoming easier for bosses to equip their staff with everything they need to work on their own terms without being tied to their desks. This in turn helps staff fulfil their duties in a way that works for them increasing benefits to both productivity and well-being.

The role of technology is a key factor in enabling teams to work flexibly with computers and devices becoming smaller and more portable, combined with the rollout of 4G and increased Wi-Fi hotspots, as well as video conferencing services such as Skype.

Discover how easy it is to mobilise, improve, and do more for your business – download our free eBook

Want to find out more?

As Microsoft Gold Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back. This handy infographic from Microsoft also outlines succinctly how its solutions can assist your organisation’s GDPR needs.

*Consumer research conducted by Opinium Research for Microsoft PC Accessories amongst 500 UK bosses. Fieldwork took place 19 to 27 September 2016.

Using technology in the classroom – part 2

Over recent years, types of technology in the classroom have vastly improved. Increasing numbers of schools are turning away from traditional whiteboards, projectors, and textbooks and embracing interactive displays, and laptops and tablets instead. For educator’s technology is a fantastic way to modernise teaching strategies and offer the best possible learning experience to students.

In this second part of a two part series (you can see part 1 here), we’re going to take a look at the many ways to integrate technology in the classroom.

Share video content with ease

Video content has been proven in multiple studies to enhance learning because the combination of moving visuals and sound can help to communicate information more effectively. By incorporating more video into teaching, students may better retain information and gain more insights from the material.

Although incorporating video into the classroom isn’t a new technique, it is made easier with the availability of modern technology. Interactive displays in the classroom make it possible to set up and play videos in a matter of seconds, particularly if he video content is available online or on a USB. It is certainly much simpler than setting up a television and DVD player, and the picture quality of modern secondary or primary classroom displays is significantly superior to that of projectors.

Collaborate with other classes or schools

One of our favourite ideas for using technology in the classroom is collaboration with other classes or even other schools. Some interactive displays offer the ability for video conferencing, which could make it possible to connect students and teachers from any classroom or school in an instant.

Opening up the classroom in this way could enable students to take part in larger scale collaborative projects, either as part of their usual schoolwork or their extracurricular projects. It could improve their communication skills and give them an opportunity to practice teamwork with people outside of their class.

Bring the cloud into the classroom

The cloud is perhaps one of the most convenient types of technology in the classroom because it simplifies access to teaching resources for both teachers and students. By using an interactive display screen with internet access, teachers can easily access learning resources and then display and interact with them in an instant during class. It can also make it simpler for students to share their own independent work, such as presentations or research projects, with the class.

The cloud could also allow students to access resources on their own laptops or tablets with ease. This could allow for more flexible learning because it makes it possible for students to access the resources most valuable to them at the time of the lesson. Perhaps they’re finished with assigned work and can enhance their knowledge with additional resources. Maybe they need to refresh their memory on topics learned previously. Having access to more than just the work displayed at the front of the class can encourage independent learning, and it makes it easier to cater to students of varying ability levels within one class.

Simplify lesson prep

The best ideas for using technology in the classroom simply improve classroom management for teachers. Magic whiteboard displays can make it easier for teachers to display documents or content with the class without having to photocopy multiple sheets of paper. The documents can then be annotated directly on the board, either by the teacher themselves or members of the class, which is also an excellent opportunity for interactive learning.

Displays in the classroom from Avocor are based on the Windows 10 operating system, but they’re also open platform which makes them compatible with a huge variety of apps and software. This allows teachers to work with the software they feel most comfortable with to prepare resources for their lessons, and simply plug in a USB, their laptop, or even access their files from the cloud to display it to their class. By reducing lesson prep time, teachers can free up more time to focus on their other duties.

Avocor displays are also provided with two valuable Qwizdom tools – Oktopus and Ximbus. Ximbus is a web-based platform designed to make lesson planning and presentation a breeze. Oktopus can be used to create a variety of interactive 4K lessons which can be shared and annotated with students live on their own devices. Creating unique, highly engaging interactive lessons is simpler than ever when the likes of Qwizdom software is incorporated into the classroom.

Gamify learning

Gamification is the process of incorporating games – either video games or other types of game – into learning. Studies have found that gamification can reduce disruptive student behaviour, improve cognitive growth, and boost attention spans.

Interactive classroom displays can make it easier than ever before to gamify lessons. With a huge variety of apps and software available for displays in the classroom, teachers can easily share educational games during lessons. Furthermore, educational games could be assigned as homework as a way to continue learning outside of the classroom in highly appealing, engaging ways.

Gain student feedback on individual lessons

One of the most interesting ways to integrate technology in the classroom is to use it to encourage children to have their say in the way that they are taught. Technology tends to make collaboration easier and offers solutions for gathering student feedback on specific lessons. It can help teachers to better understand their students’ favourite learning methods. Plus, it can give teachers the opportunity to ask students which areas of study they feel confident in and which need additional learning time.

The way in which student feedback is gathered depends on the types of technology in the classroom. Interactive displays could allow teachers to ask students to write their feedback directly on the board at the end of the lesson. Alternatively, they could use Google docs, forums, polls, or other collaborative software, apps, or tech tools to collect feedback after class.

This content is provided from the ever-excellent Avocor blog.

Want to learn more?

Complete IT Systems have a team of Avocor specialists on hand to demo the solution, discuss business benefits and help you understand how the technology works for your organisation. There’s also a great range of resources available on the Avocor blog.

Give us a call on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form to discuss your requirements with us.

 

Using technology in the classroom – part 1

Over recent years, types of technology in the classroom have vastly improved. Increasing numbers of schools are turning away from traditional whiteboards, projectors, and textbooks and embracing interactive displays, and laptops and tablets instead. For educator’s technology is a fantastic way to modernise teaching strategies and offer the best possible learning experience to students. In this article we’re going to take a look at the many ways to integrate technology in the classroom.

There are many benefits of using technology in the classroom, with the biggest being higher rates of student engagement. Technology can allow for more interaction because it offers more versatile teaching and learning methods than the traditional lecture environment.

Flexible resources

With interactive classroom displays, teachers can showcase various different types of media – from simple text documents to videos, games, and apps – and annotate directly on the board as they go. Students can also be encouraged to interact directly with onscreen content or display their own with minimal setup time. When students feel more involved with the educational content, they’re far more likely to retain knowledge and have a more valuable learning experience.

Heightened skills

Using technology in the classroom is also a brilliant way to teach students important life skills. Collaborative learning technology encourages students to work with others, share ideas, solve problems, and think critically. Plus, it helps them to develop practical skills using state of the art technology.

From creating presentations to crafting professional emails, children can be taught how to interact with technology in a way that is vital for 21st century living. Furthermore, these activities and learning experiences provide excellent opportunities for teaching kids how to stay safe online.

Versatile teaching methods

Finally, technology in schools makes it easier for teachers to understand their students’ best learning styles. With so many versatile apps, games, quizzes, and media types being accessible in the classroom, students have an opportunity to experience a range of teaching styles and understand their favourite ways of learning. Teachers can use this information to tailor their teaching methods for each of their classes or even individual students.

Now we understand some of the benefits of using technology in the classroom, let’s talk about integrating it. Here are seven ideas for using technology in the classroom that could work for both primary and secondary schools.

Virtual field trips

School field trips can be hugely valuable learning opportunities, but they’re not always financially or logistically viable. One of the most popular ways to integrate technology into the classroom is to use it to provide virtual field trips. With the help of Google Maps, YouTube videos, or even video conferencing solutions, it is possible to create field trip experiences without ever leaving the classroom.

Interactive classroom displays can allow schools to arrange live video presentations with people all over the country or even the world. This makes it possible for students to learn about places, people, or processes in much the same way they would on field trips.

We’ll visit more ways of using technology in the classroom in part 2 of our blog.

This content is provided from the ever-excellent Avocor blog.

Want to learn more?

Complete IT Systems have a team of Avocor specialists on hand to demo the solution, discuss business benefits and help you understand how the technology works for your organisation. There’s also a great range of resources available on the Avocor blog.

Give us a call on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form to discuss your requirements with us.

 

Business IT all in one place

In today’s fast-paced business world, there’s no place for IT and business operations to be separate things. Slick and agile IT is a core essential of any successful company, and your business can start that journey with Microsoft Office 365 Business Centre: One location to access business apps and stay on top of your business.

Check out this short video to see how the solution helps this small architecture firm

Easy access to business apps

Manage business apps – Connections, Bookings, Invoicing, and more—from one central location. It’s all built to work together, so your contacts and business profile are automatically updated in each app.

Stay on top of your business

Track key metrics, like online impressions, subscriber growth, outstanding invoices, and customers appointments. Get notified of the latest activities and suggested actions across the apps, so you can act on outstanding invoices and unsent marketing campaigns.

Manage employee access

Control who gets access to your business apps and data and get notified when an employee asks for permission.

The business apps suite from Office 365

  • Microsoft Connections – Attract and retain customers with easy-to-use email marketing.
  • Outlook Customer Manager – A simple, smart customer management solution for your business
  • Microsoft Listings – Easily publish and manage your business information across top websites.
  • Microsoft Bookings – Make scheduling and managing appointments easier for your customers.
  • Microsoft Invoicing – Create great-looking invoices quickly and easily, so you can get paid fast.
  • MileIQ – Report and automatically log your mileage from the palm of your hand.

Want to find out more?

As Microsoft Gold Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back. This handy infographic from Microsoft also outlines succinctly how its solutions can assist your organisation’s GDPR needs.

Enterprise-like systems for small businesses

Do you remember the late 90s? That time that was smack dab in the middle of the cyber revolution, when businesses were just starting to figure out how to use the web? In this environment, one of the big benefits for small businesses was the ability to look like an enterprise company. A well-designed website could make any company look like a professional organisation and provide a global platform – in the world-wide web – to connect and interact with customers. But if you peeked under the bonnet for many of these companies, while they might have looked like mature enterprise organisations, they certainly didn’t function like them.

In the cyber revolution, small businesses were still limited by the costs of infrastructure and people needed to manage their digital footprint. Not just the cost of hosting a digital property, but also for ensuring compliance, device provisioning, app integration and, perhaps most importantly, security. For many smaller businesses, keeping their data – and their clients’ data – safe was an ongoing challenge.

Now you can have enterprise ability with small business agility.

The good news, though, is that we’re not in the cyber revolution anymore. We’re now amidst what experts are calling the fourth revolution, or industry 4.0, where small companies can not only look like big companies, but can function like them as well. Because so many of the ‘tools’ that you rely on to run your business can now be offered as a service, companies of all sizes have access to enterprise-level hardware, apps and infrastructure. Small businesses are no longer limited by being on the wrong end of economies of scale. With so much being offered as a service, you can scale as economically and strategically as your business needs.

Microsoft as a service

Take, for instance, three key offerings from Microsoft: Windows 10, Surface devices, and Microsoft Office. Whereas these were once bought as a set of fixed costs, they can now all be bundled together as a service:

Windows as a service

With Windows 10 Enterprise edition offered as a service, not only do companies get the great user experience and built-in security that comes standard in Pro, they also get additional protection for company devices and credentials, increased compliance support to help you avoid steep fines of noncompliance, and increased mobility. With Windows as a Service, employers can connect a licence to a user rather than a device, so your employees can move seamlessly between their mobile devices, tablets, laptops or PCs.

Surface as a service

Speaking of devices, Microsoft also gives small businesses access to some of the most powerful, versatile and well-designed devices available – as a service! Now you can equip your team with Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 devices through a managed service offering that evolves as your company does. Need to scale up quickly? With Surface as a Service you can grow as quickly or as slowly as you need to with the latest Surfaces devices through quick and streamlined process.

Office 365

Small businesses can also empower their employees with the latest version of the most widely use productivity suite on the planet: Microsoft Office. With Office 365, you get access to the most up to date versions of Office across multiple devices per user. From the more familial personal productivity applications such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint to newer and more collaborative applications such as Teams, Skype for Business and OneDrive for Business, small businesses can get everything they need to get work done anytime, anywhere, with anyone.

Enterprise ability, small business agility

Having these Microsoft solutions available as managed services frees up time and resources from IT, security and compliance overhead, allowing you to better focus on the things that help to grow your business like engaging your customers and creating new products and services. It also gives you the flexibility to scale your entire business up or down as needed.

Want to find out more?

If you’re ready to find out how you can access the services that let you look and function like an enterprise organisation, speak to us today. As Microsoft Gold Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back. This handy infographic from Microsoft also outlines succinctly how its solutions can assist your organisation’s GDPR needs.

Why collaboration is now a business essential, not a ‘nice to have’

Every company is in the relationship business. The best way to serve customers and move your business forward is to work better with others towards a common goal. Collaboration (both offline and online) is one of the most important driving forces for continued growth in any business, small or large.

Collaboration lays a foundation for better teamwork. Effective and meaningful collaboration is much more than just ‘working together,’ and employees who collaborate better are able to work towards providing new and superior solutions to customers they serve.

Employees are part of a greater whole, and working together is the only way business goals and visions can be achieved. Your employees are more likely to continue working with you when they have strong connections and relationships with the people they work with and feel they’re a part of something bigger. Collaborating isn’t easy for everyone, but it will, over time, get your business to a much better position to innovate.

The right collaboration technology can have a significant impact on your business

Collaboration tools are changing the way we work. Collaboration based on cloud technology is fast becoming a permanent feature of the contemporary workplace. The popularity of online tools and platforms have helped reinforce the benefits of collaboration for businesses. Many organisations from all industries are turning to technology to eliminate physical barriers and enhance business growth.

With different business communication products and services ranging from email to project collaboration to storage, including Outlook, Office 365, Teams, Yammer, SharePoint, Skype and OneDrive, Microsoft allows businesses of all sizes to connect and communicate to increase productivity.

With Office 365, employees can track and participate in business operations from any office, on any device and at different geographical locations. Leveraging the power of the right collaboration tools will give any business a competitive edge. Collaboration tools do not just encourage better knowledge sharing; they improve the speed and effectiveness of people’s efforts, and make it easier to execute on ideas.

With the right tools like Teams, Yammer and Skype, your business can take care of online meetings, team chats, group brainstorming, task sharing, and more. Collaboration technologies help shape how work is done in different departments and enable teamwork that leads to better results, greater innovation and ultimately higher productivity.

Collaboration reduces the barriers to productivity and business growth

The success of your business depends on how fast people can open up and work with each other. Tasks and projects that may now take months can be reduced to a few weeks to solve or complete. Most importantly, team members contribute different, unique standpoints and expertise to get things done. Multiple ideas and solutions make it easier to find better answers to business problems, and with cloud solutions like SharePoint and OneDrive, employees can contribute remotely to projects in real time.

Businesses that have access to collaboration tools and systems are able to access information, documents and business data faster. Your decision process can be shortened when the right communication structures are employed.

Good communication eliminates unnecessary and long business processes, allowing for collaborative discussion and helping to disseminate ideas, documents and general information across your business quicker.

It encourages a culture of ongoing learning

Companies that make room for collaboration open new opportunities for growth among colleagues. They allow their employees to enhance their capacity to grow beyond their comfort zones and take the business to new heights.

When people open up and work without fear or favor, they are able to share their knowledge, experience and skills with team members freely. Workplace collaboration challenges people to think, communicate and receive clarity about what they are good at and how best they can use their skills for the growth of the business.

Individuals within teams can share with each other – exploring, testing and refining new ideas. Effective collaboration builds trust among employees and teaches them to rely on each other – allowing them to function as a more cohesive unit.

Collaboration encourages creative and original thinking

Many smart employees are disengaged due to poor communication or internal collaboration systems. You can empower your employees to become part of the company’s future by opening up better communication channels that allow them to contribute to ongoing projects. Collaboration, when executed well, brings different voices, specialties, teams, and opinions from several locations together to solve business problems. With the right tools, employees can brainstorm and come up with creative ideas.

Microsoft Teams, now available in Office 365, gives your team an incredible opportunity to interact and share ideas with each other. All your content, tools, people, and conversations are available in the team workspace to encourage creative thinking and provide a modern conversation experience for your employees.

The value of creating an environment where employees are encouraged to think creatively and put their ideas forward should not be underestimated. Promote and foster creativity by investing in the right collaboration resources.

It moves any business more effectively toward its goals

Collaboration and better communication has far reaching benefits for your business. True collaboration improves competitiveness by enabling better communication and better work-flow between employees, partners, and customers.

When properly executed, the outcome of embracing cloud collaboration tools often exceed expectations. Expect employees work better, stimulate fresh thinking and encourage innovation, taking your company to new heights.

If your business is yet to fully benefit from collaboration tools, invest time and resources into the right apps and systems for your company today. Expect and celebrate teamwork. Encourage employees to use the right tools instead of relying heavily on just email. Better collaboration can be the lifeblood that lets new ideas thrive throughout your business.

Want to find out more?

As Microsoft Gold Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back. This handy infographic from Microsoft also outlines succinctly how its solutions can assist your organisation’s GDPR needs.

Optimise your business processes with Canon Document Solutions

In today’s digital world you’re dealing with more documents than ever, so if you can’t process them quickly your business starts to slow down. As well as being costly to store, paper archives hamper productivity by making documents hard to find and share. Canon Document Digitisation boosts collaboration and productivity by giving staff easy access to their documents wherever they are.

What are the key drivers to move to digital documentation?

The first major reason are the GDPR regulations and the associated tough fines for breaches and insufficient protections of business data. Digitising your documents enables tighter security and easier archiving and searching of data.

Another key reason is the productivity benefits. According to Gartner, an employee spends 50% of their time looking for information, and it can take up to 18 minutes to find a document. This obviously means wasted employee time trying to locate documents, or recreating and duplicating those that are either lost or not in a re-usable format.

Mobile access should also not be forgotten – employees may need access to a particular datasheet or contract while out in the field, and digital document systems facilitate searches and downloads through mobile devices.

Last but not least, digital documentation can bring cost savings. Put simply, it’s expensive to print and store large quantities of paper documents.

The solution

Canon Document Digitisation offer desktop scan & print solutions for small-to-medium sized businesses. These solutions can help you handle documents more quickly and efficiently:

  • Boost productivity by digitising documents via scanners or MFPs
  • Improve document security with PDF encryption and password protection
  • Improve scanning efficiency with CaptureOnTouch software with automatic batch separation, naming and sorting

Need some help or want to find out more?

As Canon Authorised Partners, Complete IT Systems are able to offer you leading guidance on your organisation’s print environment to achieve best value for money, results and reliability.

Give us a call today on 01274 396 213 or email  to talk to one of our print specialist team.

 

10 ways SMBs can harness technology to drive business

In today’s busy world a professional’s time is valuable and limited. With so much to do and increased pressure to deliver high quality services, it can feel like there are not enough billable hours in the day.

Fortunately, technology and cloud services can help you maximise efficiency and spend more time on billable, rather than non-billable work, and Complete IT Systems can help advise you on what’s could be most beneficial to your business. Here’s a few thoughts.

1. Do more with data

For most people, time-pressed clients especially, vast quantities of unfiltered data are of minimal use.

Rather than simply reporting data and information, use technology to develop and communicate insights instead. Knowing what data means, not just what it looks like, is more useful to your client and you.

There are many tools that allow small businesses and their advisors to analyse data from financial applications to get extra insight. For example, Microsoft Power BI is a free tool that turns raw data into rich visuals that help companies spot trends. It connects with cloud tools, such as Intuit Quickbooks, Mailchimp, Stripe and Zendesk, to pull in data directly from many of the cloud applications that companies use every day.

2. Stay in touch

Technology also enables you to communicate regularly and efficiently with your clients, without always having to spend time and money travelling for face-to-face meetings.

Apps like Skype for Business let you host audio and video conference calls with up to 250 participants, with screen sharing and Office 365 productivity tools included. You can even dial on the go from your mobile device and stay in touch with colleagues through instant messaging.

With less time spent travelling you’re free to use more billable hours on productive work that is better for your clients, and their customer experience.

3. Go mobile

In the same way that you can communicate on the go with Skype for Business, there are plenty of tools that let you work and collaborate when you’re away from your desk. For example, cloud file sharing and collaboration tools, such as Microsoft OneDrive for Business, give you access to your files and information wherever you are, even on a mobile phone or a tablet. So you can be fully productive even if you’re not in the office.

4. Share and collaborate

Technology isn’t just for talking – it’s for collaborating and sharing too. Sharing tools built into Office applications and Office 365 make it easy to share documents with colleagues and clients.

For example, a partner can work with a tax specialist on the same spreadsheet and then share it with the client for feedback or a firm of lawyers can work together in Word on a contract and then use digital rights management to share a draft with specified individuals but prevent them from making changes to it. By working on a single shared document, everybody has ‘one version of the truth’ and nobody is left looking at out of date information.

5. Manage your client relationships

You can also use technology to manage and keep track of all your client relationships, helping you become more than just a one-off service provider.

For Chris Marston, CEO of LawNet, having a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application is key to moving beyond transaction-based relationships with clients: ‘A lot of what lawyers do for clients is transactional – there are only so many times in your life where you make contact with your solicitor. Forward-thinking firms have a good CRM system so they can track and keep abreast of their client’s upcoming ‘life’ events, which helps them can engage strategically.’

6. Automate routine tasks in the cloud

Before technology professionals would spend countless, non-billable hours on simple administrative tasks like filing, data retrieval and document management.

Now, with technology, you can automate these tasks and access your information in real time. UK Head of Accounting at Xero, Paul Bulpitt, says this is essential to being more efficient and delivering a better service for clients:

‘We’re in a world where so much of the manual work that we used to do can now be automated,’ says Paul. ‘As an accountant I can be sitting in my office and looking and literally hundreds of different accounts, working on valuable stuff for my clients. Without cloud technology there’s no way to do that.’

7. Capture your billable hours

Another simple, efficient way to use technology to increase billable hours is to use it to capture and record them.

Billable time correctly means increased profitability, and it gives you a better idea of how to manage your time.

Having the right tools, such as a timekeeping program and a CRM to track your engagement with clients, can help you record your billable hours as they occur.

8. Become a trusted advisor

The right tools will give you greater insight into your client’s business and needs. With this information you can share advice, make suggestions and generate more business for your firm.

‘Most small business don’t employ financial directors or accountants on their payroll,’ says Gary Turner, UK Managing Director at Xero. ‘With the right technology, an accountant can act as a ‘virtual’ financial director for hundreds of clients.’

‘Speaking with clients remotely, working through accounts, identifying issues and investment opportunities – all of this recovers more income from clients, possibly in an annual-fee based model that can be replicated and scaled.’

9. Improving your customer experience

Improving your customer experience with technology is another way to increase billable hours and generate more business through client referrals. It’s much more time-efficient to retain existing clients than hunt for new ones and referrals are the most time- and cost-effective marketing technique. Less time on sales and marketing means more time on billable work.

Research conducted by LawNet found that up to 50 per cent of a legal firm’s business comes from happy clients and their referrals.

‘What better reason do you need to look after your clients?’ says Chris. ‘Opportunities to do business are precious and can’t be wasted.’

Conducting surveys and collecting online feedback can help you make important changes to the way you engage with your clients. Even simple things, like introducing uniformity in telephone answering or meeting agendas, can improve the customer experience and generate business.

10. Raising your firm’s reputation

Technology enables firms to do business more efficiently, but embracing it on the whole sends a positive message to your clients and the wider market.

‘It’s not just about delivering a great customer experience,’ Gary explains. ‘Clients are looking for firms that are switched-on when it comes to technology and security. You should be a great company with great technology supporting your systems.’

Customers are more likely to do business with you if you’re up-to-speed on the latest technology, because it shows you’re efficient, productive and responsive.

By using technology efficiently, you’ll not only save yourself time and increase your billable hours, but you’ll attract new clients and delight your existing ones.

‘There’s an opportunity for a new generation of professional services,’ says Gary. ‘Technology is enabling a makeover in this sector, and it’s creating better experiences for customers and freeing up a huge amount of billable time.’

Want to find out more?

As Microsoft Gold Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back. This handy infographic from Microsoft also outlines succinctly how its solutions can assist your organisation’s GDPR needs.

Complete IT Systems supports school’s short film competition!

Complete IT Systems are delighted to support Queen Mary’s school in their day of of workshops and an animation competition for pupils from primary school pupils across North Yorkshire today.

The school is inviting 100 year 5 pupils to show their talents and creativity as they learn stop-motion animation skills and create characters to devise a short film. They will start from first principles and present the finished projects on the big screen. The theme will be The Royal Wedding is obviously a very hot topic!

Complete IT will be providing touch screens to make the day even more interactive and hands-on for the children.

The day is also being supported by InspireEd which runs animation workshops at the National Media Museum in Bradford to make the workshops a real interactive experience!

Look out for social media coverage during the day – we hope everyone has a great day!

4 ways tech is changing (and offering opportunities) to SMBs

One thing is clear no matter the size of your business: Technology has impacted our culture in such a way that what has made your business successful in the past won’t necessarily guarantee future success. Customers expect to interact with brands in the same highly digital ways they do with their family and friends. Employees have new expectations when it comes to where and how they get work done. Innovation is happening faster than ever before.

The key to keeping up for small businesses? Technology. Thanks to the cloud, IT that was formerly reserved for big companies with big budgets is now available to businesses of all sizes. And because of this, there has never been a better time for SMBs to embrace technologies that change the way they do business, connect with customers, drive profits and innovate. We call this digital transformation. For many businesses, the word “transformation” probably feels intimidating, overwhelming and perhaps even unreachable. The most common myth I hear from many business owners is that transformation equals business disruption and change management challenges. But the reality is that technology can enable small businesses to achieve what they may not have thought possible – things like uncovering new revenue streams through data insights, or automating routine business processes to get time back in their day.

Put simply, there’s no better time for SMBs to embrace digital transformation. And Complete IT Systems and Microsoft can assist you on this journey.

Trend 1: The way people want to work is changing

Business no longer happens in one place; The concept of the workday being 9 to 5 and the office being a place with four walls is no longer the norm. In fact, nine out of 10 employees spend at least 20 percent of their time away from their primary workplace. Yet things like real-time communication, face-to-face interactions and leveraging collective knowledge are still critical to employee productivity. So, it’s up to business owners today to re-imagine how to provide these experiences in this new world of work.

The Autry Museum recognised this shift in how work gets done and was quick to adopt technology to help its employees stay connected despite being dispersed between three sites across the Los Angeles area. The museum transitioned to Office 365 to enable its employees to be more productive while away from their desks – a critical capability given that the majority of the staff spends most of their day on the museum floor. Now, employees can quickly respond to emails. schedule meetings and manage their calendars from wherever they are. This functionality has been especially beneficial when managing the many events that take place at the museum – staff can easily check calendars for venue availability, manage rentals and share documents with clients in real time. This freedom to work in whatever way is best for the individual, while remaining productive and connected with the business and providing the best guest service possible, is especially crucial.

Trend 2: Customer expectations are changing

The ability to acquire and retain customers is perhaps the single most important factor for small business success. Without customers, nothing else matters, which is why more than half of all businesses say their success depends on their ability to be highly responsive to customers’ specific needs. We know that 86% of customers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience, but for a small business, this can be a daunting expectation given that resources are tight and staff time is even tighter. While good customer service will always require a personal touch, technology has helped small businesses consolidate customer information, automate routine processes and act faster on new opportunities than ever before.

A customer relationship management (CRM) solution is quickly moving from a “nice to have” to a “must have” for businesses to provide the level of service customers expect. These solutions enable businesses to track customer information such as purchase history, follow-up actions, preferences and more to build loyalty among current customers and uncover new revenue opportunities. Many CRM systems integrate with a business’s existing technology to provide a seamless experience. For example, Outlook Customer Manager is a simple but powerful new feature available to Office 365 users that offers businesses a complete view of interactions with individual customers, helps track tasks and deals in progress and sends reminders for important meetings and milestones. And, as business needs grow, companies can move from Outlook Customer Manager to Dynamics 365 to take advantage of enhanced customer information, insights into process efficiency and consistency and deeper financial insights.

Trend 3: Technology can do the work for you

In many small businesses, IT management isn’t afforded a full headcount. Often, it’s either the business owner or the employee who knows the most about technology who carries the burden. The cloud takes the responsibility of technology maintenance and updates off the business and puts it on the cloud service provider – freeing up business owners and employees to focus on other revenue-generating tasks.

Today’s cloud platforms and applications empower small businesses to reduce the cost and complexity of their IT investments while also boosting compliance and security with automatic updates that give them peace of mind. Fifty-two percent of businesses worldwide say the cloud makes their IT staff more productive, and data from Boston Consulting Group shows that businesses that leverage cloud technology improve their efficiency and productivity.

Trend 4: Data is taking the risk out of owning a business

Small business owners invest their blood, sweat, tears and – in many cases – their entire worth into their business. So, making decisions on behalf of the business based on assumptions or gut feelings isn’t enough. Data is a small business’s secret weapon in keeping pace with the competition and keeping customers. To understand how to grow and evolve their organization, a business owner should lean on data to help them anticipate the next big thing – whether that be an untapped industry opportunity or emerging customer need.

Most businesses today have a wealth of data on hand that will provide insight into exactly these things, but many don’t know how to stitch it all together to uncover the opportunities that will propel their business forward. For instance, customer purchase history data can help businesses better identify when they’ll need to stock up on certain products. Web traffic patterns give insight into the best times to target customers with ads and offers. Data is key in unlocking insights from the data businesses already have at their fingertips, and takes the guesswork out of running a company.

Technology built to work for you

The key to good technology is that it works for you, and not the other way around. Microsoft cloud solutions bring together the best platforms like Windows 10 with best-in-class applications like Office 365, Skype, OneDrive, Dynamics 365 and others to make work easier for businesses and help them better compete and grow. With Microsoft’s cloud solutions, small businesses now have access to the same calibre of technology that their enterprise counterparts use, removing the long-standing barriers that used to give big business a leg up and empowering small businesses to drive forward industry transformation.

Want to find out more?

As Microsoft Gold Partners, Complete IT Systems can offer you expert advice on the solutions and how they could be effectively deployed in your business.

To find out more please call us on 01274 396 213 or use our contact form and we’ll arrange a good time to call you back. This handy infographic from Microsoft also outlines succinctly how its solutions can assist your organisation’s GDPR needs.