Coleman Technologies Blog

Taking a sip of cocoa, Trinket leaned back from his computer and let out a long sigh. Here it was, barely after 9:00 in the morning, and his agenda was already impossibly full. Around him, Santa’s Workshop was in full swing, the other elves frantically working to ensure that all the deliveries were prepped for the Boss before the big day came. 

Opening his Glee-mail, Trinket made a face as three new messages appeared, all labeled “urgent.” From experience, Trinket was sure that they weren’t.

Clicking through them, the Manager of Toy Creation and Assembly was soon proven correct. One of the messages had been sent to the entire North Pole team, despite only being relevant to the Coal Department. Another was an email that he had already responded to days ago but had since deviated from its original purpose and was now debating if the menu for the end-of-season wrap party should include non-dairy milk options and gluten-free cookies.

The only message that had anything to do with Trinket was the request from Sleigh Maintenance and Repair to borrow himself and one of his team members to inspect the sleigh’s wish injector. As it turned out, Trinket’s team was well ahead of schedule this year, so the request could be filled with little issue. He called one of his team members over to him.

“Poppy!”

Poppy jumped up from her seat and bounded over to Trinket’s desk. “Yes, sir?”

“How are you with magical engineering?”

“Pretty good, sir. I interned there for a while before being assigned to Creation and Assembly.”

“Excellent. Come with me, they need a few extra sets of eyes in the garage.”

“Okay!”

Trinket and Poppy set off for the North Pole’s garage, where the Boss kept his famous sleigh and Mrs. Claus kept her less-well-known motorcycle. As they walked over, Trinket couldn’t help but sigh once again.

Poppy glanced at him, concerned. “Everything okay, boss?”

Trinket replied, “Yeah, it’s okay. There’s just a lot piling up on my day that it really doesn’t seem like I should be involved in. I mean, I shouldn’t be venting to you about this, but some of the technology we use just seems to get in the way.”

Poppy nodded. “I know what you mean. I couldn’t figure out why my workstation was running so slowly this morning. Cedar had to come over and help me fix it… and I’m not even sure that it helped all that much.”

They continued walking in silence. Almost hesitantly, Poppy spoke up again.

“You know, I have a cousin who works in a shoe factory, and he says that IT isn’t really a problem for them.”

Trinket snorted. “Yeah, maybe after they’ve invested half of their annual magic into it.”

“That’s just the thing,” Poppy persisted. “They don’t have to. They work with this company called Coleman Technologies, they’re something called a managed service provider.”

“A managed service provider? What’s that?”

“Well, you know how we usually handle technology issues? We all kind of try to figure it out ourselves, until we need to call someone else in to fix it. Kind of like we’re doing now, for the sleigh?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, a managed service provider handles things a little differently. Instead of us trying to fix problems after they’ve popped up, the MSP keeps an eye on our systems for us, spotting potential issues and fixing them before they interrupt us. According to my cousin, the shoemaking elves managed to up their productivity considerably.

“The MSP has even helped them make their systems more efficient by recommending upgrades and helping them keep up with their updates. My cousin says that the factory is also more secure, to boot.”

Trinket considered it, impressed. “Well, how much does this cost? It sounds expensive.”

“That’s the other thing—it’s a service, so the MSP charges the factory each month. However, that monthly cost covers a lot, so considering what you get, it isn’t so bad.” Poppy shrugged.

“I think I’ll have to bring this up to the bosses. What did you say this company was called?”

“Coleman Technologies. They’re based in British Columbia but since most of their services are delivered remotely, that shouldn’t be a problem. Even if they must make an on-site visit to fix something, their remote operations can save time by giving them a head start.

“They can help prevent viruses and malware, get a better handle on our communications, and help us streamline our processes, too.”

“Not bad, Poppy. I’ll have to bring this up to the Boss before the New Year starts,” Trinket said as they reached the garage. He held the door open for her. “Shall we?”

“Let’s!”

The two elves entered the garage and got to work, as elves do.

Hopefully, this has helped illustrate that everyone needs a little assistance, every now and then. If your business has also seen some IT challenges that it needs addressed and mitigated, give Coleman Technologies a call at (604) 513-9428 to start the new year on the right path.

In the meantime, we hope that your holidays are merry and bright.

Efficiency is extremely important for any business to maintain consistent revenue generation. Technology is a big part of that. Today, we’ll discuss two ways that technology can help build a more efficient business. 

Outdated Software and Hardware

Many small businesses rely on old or outdated technology, either due to budget constraints or a lack of awareness of more efficient alternatives. These legacy systems may seem functional but often lead to slow performance, frequent crashes, and an inability to keep up with modern software or customer expectations.

Older hardware is prone to breaking down or running slower, which can frustrate employees and significantly reduce productivity, and can complicate things if it were to break down. Outdated software is another major problem. Older software sometimes can’t be updated or patched meaning these systems have to operate offline or become a major source of expense trying to secure them. Antiquated systems also don’t integrate well with newer tools, making it difficult to build efficient processes because people have to work around your technology instead of with it. 

In order to keep this technology-based inefficiency from affecting your organization, you will need to keep all of your systems updated with patches and updates. This reduces the chances that vulnerabilities from unpatched software will be exploited. You will also need to make a decision about old or poorly-functioning hardware. The more proactive you are about making sure your technology doesn’t fail, the less likely you will have to deal with large swaths of downtime. 

One other solution is to look into cloud-based tools where you can. The cloud now has reliable and secure solutions available for any business and can bring a load of benefits. You gain financial flexibility since you only have to pay for the technology your business needs, you also can scale pretty quickly to meet increased or decreased demands your business has. Options in the cloud also have the benefit to be available from anywhere with an Internet connection, significantly reducing any access-related downtime you would be subject to.

A Lack of Automation

Employee-driven processes remain a significant burden for many small businesses. Some are simple, but some are more complex and can be costly and inefficient if you rely solely on humans to do them. Automating some tasks of your business can be a real game changer. There are things like invoicing, payroll, inventory tracking, and more that can be automated, removing the increased chance of human error.

Some business owners stick to the “that’s how we’ve always done it” method that has worked in the past. The problem is that the world has changed and doing things that take more time can really put a business behind. Think about simple data entry: what a human can do in a normal 8 hour shift, software with AI can do in seconds. All that saved time saves money. What’s more, human operators make more mistakes with any data entry than do automation platforms. Finally, the slower your business is to make connections, the more revenue you miss out on. Automation can give you answers about your business in real time that can make a huge difference on the bottom line. 

To combat this lack of automation, we suggest first finding a robust Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution. Many options will also integrate with accounting and invoicing tools, payroll tools, and more. CRMs can help even the smallest business get the added automation and data analytics to improve efficiency across the board. Implementing a  comprehensive project management solution is also a good plan as it gives your team a robust system in which to run projects through. By focusing on automation when you are considering your next technology investment, you can significantly build better organizational efficiency.

At Coleman Technologies, our team of IT professionals specialize on helping businesses build the type of operational efficiency that is both functional and sustainable. If you would like to have a conversation about it, give us a call today at (604) 513-9428.

We hate to be the bad guy, but we’re certain that you cannot multitask nearly as well as you think you can. Multitasking is just not how the human brain works, and whether or not you believe in the psychology of it, we think you stand to benefit by outsourcing some of the tasks on your plate to a managed service provider.

Managed services are effective to help you spend less time on your IT and more time on your actual job duties and responsibilities.

The Proof is in the Proverbial Pudding

To put things in perspective, only about 2.5% of people can effectively multitask, so it’s highly unlikely that you are in the minority who can do so without compromising the quality of your work.

What you think is multitasking is really just your brain switching gears over and over, and the more complicated these tasks are, the less effective it is at switching between them. Your performance is sure to suffer if you can’t keep up.

How This Shows Up in the Workplace

It’s difficult at best to do multiple tasks at the same time, so let’s take a look at some of the tasks that might be pulling you away from your important work:

• Managing employees to ensure they are reaching your organizational and operational goals.
• Managing the public face of the company, including how you appear to the community, clients, and vendors.
• Ensuring compliance with laws and regulations.
• Managing the sales and marketing efforts of your organization.

Notice how we haven’t even mentioned IT on that list yet; it’s a whole other beast to tackle.

Managed IT Removes Some of the Burden on Your Business

Really, you shouldn’t be managing your technology anyway—you should be relying on a professional like Coleman Technologies. Give us a call today and we can discuss how it’s beneficial for you to work with us.

Real-Time Analysis

It’s been said that knowledge is the best weapon. For the small and medium-sized business looking to navigate this situation, this couldn’t ring more true. To be able to make the best financial and operational decisions possible, SMBs are turning to data analysis, in real time. By being able to look at the data that is coming in and going out in real time, a decision maker can swiftly make educated decisions. This can help businesses stay afloat in times where they are at their most vulnerable.

When decision makers can get insights as they happen, they can take action quicker. Additionally, many of today’s most dynamic analytics platforms can be deployed near the edge of their company’s computing infrastructure, meaning that data coming represents the flow of information in and out of a business. 

Some other benefits include:

• Managing location data - Helps decision makers determine the relevant data for multiple locations.
• Anomaly detection - Quickly detects outlying data sets to avoid impulsive decision making. 
• Improved marketing - With a lot of the information coming in, decision makers can make decisions based on demand when it otherwise wouldn’t be noticed.

Online Sales

Many businesses feature ecommerce platforms already, but since all non-essential store locations are closed as lawmakers try to stymie the spread of the Novel Coronavirus, businesses are quickly ramping up their online sales capabilities. In fact, in the retail sector, some businesses are now seeing two-to-three times the amount of online orders than they would typically. It may not be the same as it was when foot traffic was allowed, but by having a strong online sales platform in place, businesses can stay in operation until the stay-at-home orders are lifted, and they are allowed to resume business as usual.

VoIP

It seems that Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone systems are the single most useful tool during this entire situation. VoIP provides businesses with strong and reliable telephone systems, with options that you would expect out of an enterprise phone system, for a fraction of the cost of what a business would normally pay for a comparable system from a telecom. 

Additionally, VoIP has a lot of optional features that a business can add when remote work is necessary. Solutions like instant messaging, text messaging, and audio and video conferencing can be major benefits for the remote workforce. Many businesses have taken advantage of their VoIP system’s more dynamic features during the stay-at-home period to ensure that communication and productivity isn’t stymied. 

Automate

Cutting costs during an economic downturn is an art form. Many businesses looked at their pre-coronavirus operations as efficient until they were forced to embrace a digital workforce and cut additional line-items from their budgets. If there is one element that will help any business streamline their operations it is finding ways to deploy automated tools. 

For the business that is looking to enhance their automated processes, they will first need to identify which of them they can effectively automate. These typically include:

• Tasks that involve moving information around
• Frequent and mundane, but necessary tasks
• Tasks that frequently interrupt focus on business critical tasks

Investing in ways to automate tasks like these can go a long way toward streamlining your operations now when it’s most necessary. Best yet, these automated processes will be in place when business returns to some semblance of normalcy.

This is an unprecedented time for the small business, and we would like to help see you through it. Call us today at (604) 513-9428 to find out more how we can help you streamline your business processes.

Change is inevitable, especially in the dynamic world of business, where it is the driving force behind growth and innovation. Yet managing change can be a daunting task. It requires strategic planning, effective communication, and strong leadership.

This is where change management optimization comes into play. It's about refining your approach to change, making it more efficient and successful… particularly when it involves your IT and related processes.

Let’s explore the world of change management optimization to understand its significance, IT's role, and leadership's importance in driving change. By doing so, we’ll be able to hammer out a strategy that will ensure that your approach to change is well-matched to your business goals.

What is Change Management, and Why Does It Matter?

In essence, change management is the process required to ensure the success of any movement from one status quo to another. If you want your business to grow and adapt to changing circumstances over time, some aspects of change management will need to be incorporated into your operations.

To be absolutely clear, the nature of business today effectively guarantees that an organization that doesn’t invest time and energy into change management will ultimately slip behind its competition. It also risks internal strife, operational confusion, and hindered productivity.

However, successfully implementing change management can have some serious benefits:

• It helps make the entire process smoother and more likely to succeed.
• It helps reduce the negative impacts of change on your team members.
• It helps maintain communication and collaboration throughout the process.
• It helps make future changes easier for your team to adapt to and accept.

Innovating on Your IT is Important to Your Change Management Efforts

Unsurprisingly, putting the right technology tools in place makes change and change management much easier and can inspire more changes later. In this way, it isn’t unreasonable to say that any successful change management relies very much on having modern technology at your disposal, while implementing this technology will also require change management.

How to Match Change Management to Your Business Goals

Every business process is closely integrated with every other, so change management should run in tandem with the entire organization's objectives. What changes can you make that will advance your progress toward these objectives? Adopting this focus can make your change management efforts more effective.

You must also communicate the benefits of this change and the process to come with your entire team. Informing your team and answering questions also helps smooth the transition and keep everyone on track, engaged, and on board.

What Can Your IT Do to Boost Your Change Management Efforts?

You can use your technology to push your change management towards optimization in a few ways. For instance:

• Project management software can keep everyone on task as changes are implemented.
• Communication tools can smooth over potential pitfalls by ensuring everyone has the information needed when they need it.
• Data analytics can help you make better choices in directing your changes.
• Training platforms can make the transition easier for your team as they adopt new processes.

Change Management Should be an Ongoing Process

Technology is always changing, so change management is something that you always need to pursue. Don’t stop evaluating and improving your business routines and procedures, taking the time to evaluate your success based on the appropriate key performance indicators.

When planning your future changes, it never hurts to look back and evaluate what worked well in the past, either, as these trends can help inform your choices. Doing so can make your efforts more successful for your business.

The long and the short is that change management is critical for a business seeking to grow, and so it pays to invest in IT that can help you optimize your efforts. Coleman Technologies is here to help you do so.

Interested in learning more about the benefits of our managed IT services? Give us a call at (604) 513-9428.