Today’s twenty-first-century technology offers lots of possible software solutions to increase productivity within your business, often with one click of a button to sign up. But who do you ask for the right one? How do you know what is the “best” software?

If you ask your friends or colleagues, you’ll often find they each recommend a different tool.

We see ourselves as offering Strategic IT Consultancy, and with that our job is to advise and consult you on the best decisions tailored to your small business, with what we see from our full consultancy exposure. What may work for you might not necessarily be suitable for another business, And we are fully aware of this, that is okay. Focus Technology is always on hand and here to help.

This blog is going to walk you through some, not all of the software we recommend, but the top ones we see the most creating productivity gains.

Let us start at the heart of business communication and your E-mail.

Microsoft Office 365 – It’s your Email Server and Office licensing all within one easily managed online portal. A monthly fixed fee license which is always up-to-date with valuable data saved to a cloud server.

What are the benefits?

• Reliability – With a 99.9% uptime, there is little chance this software will hold you back from working
• Security – Your Emails are encrypted and secure with Microsoft’s 5 layers of Security.
• Cloud – Gone are the days of bulky and expensive physical server infrastructure. Say hello to cloud storage and e-mail back-up.
• Productivity – With all applications having the ability to link your data into a productive workflow the productivity of your people and time increases.
• Office and other applications – Running old software with outdated licences make it much harder for you to keep your system secure. Office 365 also includes frequent application updates, which means if security threats are detected, patches will be released to help minimise your risk.

Why do we recommend this software over other providers?

• Microsoft are the leaders in office applications and cloud security.
• With security at the core with two-factor authentication across the whole environment.
• Cloud storage means it is accessible, especially when on-the-go or across devices with a mobile workforce
• Your operating system may well be Microsoft Windows, what better than to use applications that are specifically designed to work together.

PeopleHR – Running a human resources department will come with an administrative burden. Sometimes, chasing after employees to sign important documents or waiting for HR to approve documents can be a stressful experience.

PeopleHR helps take away some of that administrative burden.

Holiday

PeopleHR calculates how much holiday allowance your employees have left in the year and provides an easy interface for employees to check their entitlement and request time off.

By simply putting the request into PeopleHR the employee’s manager will receive a notification email and can respond to the request.

This means, even if you’re stuck in meetings all week, one simple click in an E-mail, is all that is needed for approval.

Sick Leave

As well as an employee being able to log in whether they are sick, or late, PeopleHR tracks any trends which may occur.

This means if employee X is always ringing in every second Monday, it is easy to track and work with the employee to determine any underlying cause.

Signatures

Have you ever needed documents signing and the employees never seem to be at their desks or you have a mobile workforce when you’re there?

PeopleHR allows digital signatures and tracks those who haven’t signed important documents assigned to them. This way, there is no excuse for not signing and reading the ‘Employee Handbook’ and everything is stored digitally.

Hosted Microsoft Phone System

It’s a given. A phone is a staple in pretty much every office.

Traditionally, setting up a company phone system requires hardware, phone line installations and engineer time to set everything to your business’s needs. This can be a costly and time-consuming process.

With a hosted phone system, to get the basics all you need is to add a subscription, plug in your phone and you’re all set. It works over your internet, requiring a reliable line, but not much bandwidth.

A Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone service is a phone system hosted in the cloud. A key benefit of this service includes spending less money on hardware and maintenance. Not to mention, it’s easy for you or your IT Support Partner to configure.

Backup and disaster recovery are made simple, as being hosted in the cloud means should something happen, you’ll be set up again in no time. Our clients find that switching to a hosted phone system can result in up to 40% reduction in phone call costs.

With collaboration applications on your workstation and mobile, your productivity will increase no matter where you are, even if you are visiting clients off-site.

What’s Your Next Step?

At Focus Technology, we understand that businesses have their unique needs when it comes to IT. However, the above software solutions have universal benefits.

If you have more questions on what type of software your business should be using, let us know by clicking here.