The world of business and the world of technology get along very well with each other. Businesses want to deliver a quality service, technology offers the software that allows them to do so. Businesses want to become more effectively productive, technology has the latest in team and project management to download.
Whether your business relies on industrial machinery, AI integration, the latest in biochemical research, or you simply want to make the work day a bit more convenient, useful tech is the thing to man the office with. That way your employees can cut the time they need to get the job done by half, and everyone gets home on time. That’s the kind of modern workplace talent is interested in working in!
So let’s get to that all important question: is your office working with all the tech it needs? Or could you squeeze a bit more software into the equation to really oil the machine? It’s a matter of what you need to do day by day, but if you haven’t already invested in tech on the list below, you may want to find room for it in the budget.
Install Wifi Extenders
If you find that the wifi signal in your office tends to dip in some places but be really strong and fast in others, it’s likely you haven’t got significant enough range to cover the whole place. Don’t worry – you’re not going to have to buy a better or stronger (re: more expensive) wifi package. This is where much more affordable wifi extenders can be used.
Wifi extenders aren’t all that hard to install, as you already have all the information you need to set them up. Make sure you have the wifi’s SSID and password before you get started and you’ll be good to just follow the set up instructions once you’re all plugged in.
The hard part, however, is finding the best place to install the extender. You want it more or less halfway between where the signal is weak and where your router is currently placed, but in a large office space, this can be difficult to quantify. Test the connection in each socket you try to see what gets the best results.
Use a Password Manager
Sick of employees constantly having to change their passwords because they forgot them? Or maybe you think it’s a pretty big security flaw for everyone to have a sticky note of a password attached to a computer monitor? Either way, it’s time to get a password manager for your business.
With a password manager, anyone who works in your office can come up with a unique password for any and all of their business accounts and store them in a secure database. They then just have to check this database when they want to log into something, whether it be the payroll software, scheduling software, or the intranet portal assigned to your network.
This way they don’t have to actively remember the password, won’t keep asking for it to be changed, and the manager software itself can even suggest strong password combinations for them.
Get a Phone System That Can Do it All
You might be using a personal number to stay in touch with clients. You may be using a separately hosted service to manage an SMS list. You may be struggling to stay in touch with everyone who reaches out when relying on a traditional voicemail box.
Ultimately, it’s a bit difficult to conduct business via the phone. Your texts are inaccessible, your messages may be being auto deleted, and your home phone is indistinguishable from your work phone.
Don’t let problems like these persist. Get yourself a business phone system that can do it all. If you can access your calls and texts all in one place, with a robust and spacious inbox you never have to worry about, you won’t be constantly chasing after the telephone.
Your team will also be able to pick up calls and respond to messages, thanks to business systems being fitted with grouping features. Even if you don’t get back to someone, you know someone in the office has.
And most importantly, you’ll free up your personal phone and add a little more of a boundary to your work/life balance.
Invest in a 3D Printer
You might not think a 3D printer is a good investment for your office, but if you’re involved in research and development, having one on hand will make it a lot easier to get prototypes drawn up.
And seeing as most businesses have to research and develop a product or two at some point, buying a 3D printer as early on as possible will save a lot of time and money.
As long as you’ve got an employee in the office who’s skilled at using such a printer (and feel free to send someone for training for this), you won’t need to rely on external R&D firms much at all in future.
Instead you’ll be able to do much, if not all, of the work in-house. Your team can be relied upon to take a project from its first stage to the final one, and the more people who know how to use the printer, the quicker this work will be completed.
Got the Tech You Need? Let’s Make Sure
If your office is working with all the tech it needs, you probably have little to no trouble in the workplace day by day. From a new phone system to a 3D printer that cuts out the need for external R&D, office tech has evolved to the point where businesses are becoming self-sufficient.
Of course, downtime can always be an issue, but if you’ve got a pretty reliable IT team on the case, you’ll be up and running again in no time. And remember, tech in the office doesn’t mean giving up on analogue systems; use them in tandem where and when you like.