Ever since the times of the Industrial Revolution, innovation and technical advancement have translated to economic growth and higher operational efficiency. In the decades up until now, however, the world of tech was kind enough to progress at the pace that was easy to follow and adopt across the industrial landscape.
Things begin to change with the arrival of digital technologies. These days, we know that investing in the cutting edge tech lowers the operational costs and pushes the company forward. However, the tech field has become so dense we don’t truly have an idea of where to start.
Let us try to clear up some things for you.
Moving up to the cloud
To put it simply, moving up your documents to Cloud effectively eliminates the need for paper, office material and drastically cuts the amount of money you are spending on a month-to-month basis. On the other hand, the prices of Cloud platforms and services are often scalable so you can easily adjust the plans according to your needs. Furthermore, Cloud computing ramps up the efficiency and opens up the new opportunities for collaboration, so you are speeding up your business while still making it more sustainable.
Start using CRM software
When we say CRM, we are, of course, thinking about Customer Relationship Management, one of the pillars of the modern business world. If we take a look at the recent stats, we can see that increasing customer retention for a mere 5% boosts the profit of the company by 25% to 95%. Keeping this in mind, managing the customer relationship improves the profitability of one enterprise just as much as luring the new ones in. All these duties are much easier to handle with the help of smart CRM platforms that take care of analytics, communication, and similar tasks.
Invest in more efficient equipment
This comes especially true if you are running the company that utilizes heavy tools and machinery. Even the smallest of savings you can make in terms of operational efficiency and energy consumption can save you thousands of dollars long-term. Let’s take a look at the Oil and Gas sector that serves as a perfect example of heavy industry. By abandoning decades-old legacy tools and moving on to more efficient oilfield equipment, the O&G companies are becoming far faster, leaner, and overall more sustainable.
Embrace the eco-friendly agenda
First of all, this move can be considered to be branding 101 – the green companies tend to summon up a lot of goodwill in the contemporary media landscape. But, if we are to speak in more tangible terms, we can see that making your company and greener has a very positive impact on operational efficiency. For instance, the CFL and LED bulbs consume up to 80% less energy than their incandescent counterparts. Smart IoT appliances are doing a great job of self-regulating and keeping the consumption at the optimal level. Bigger investments, like solar panels produce even greater benefits.
Automate what you can whenever you can
When we talked about improving the sustainability of your company, we said that automation makes this task noticeably easier. These observations are not limited only to the topic of energy consumption. Automating processes like analytics and data processing, as well as menial tasks like paperwork, accounting, etc. can cut the time necessary for completing work-related obligations and eliminates the human error and all painful backtracking that comes with it. The improved results more than make up for the money you are asked to invest.
Outsource what you can whenever you can
Automating accounting, marketing, and other non-essential sectors does have a very positive effect on operational efficiency. But, unless you are running an accounting or marketing company, all these duties are only that ‘non-essential.’ They are consuming your valuable human resources, using the valuable space, and consuming expensive energy. Outsourcing these departments altogether makes the company leaner and more efficient. Much like Cloud platforms, the outsourced services are scalable so you can manage them as the needs command.
We hope these strategies gave you some general idea about the strategies you can use to lower the operational costs of your organization. We are living in a time when the economy has become very harsh and competitive. Wasting money is the fastest way to grind your company into the ground. Do your best to avoid this trap.
