One thing that many businesses have in common is the lack of connected business systems across their organisation. What we often find is systems and departments working in silos and not realising the benefits of connected business systems.
This can cause real problems for companies and means they are missing out on efficiency gains. Below, we look at four benefits of connected business systems so you can see why you should bring systems together.
1. Improved Customer Relations
The most important part of any business is its customers – without them the company does not exist! Having connected business systems can help you deliver first class service to both potential and existing customers.
If a potential customer phones to ask if you can fill a large order quickly, can you give them an answer there and then? With connected business systems, your sales teams can quickly and accurately check if stock is available in the warehouse, if the delivery is possible, and how much it would cost, giving an answer there and then. This is only possible by having information from a variety of systems being shared and always updated.
This type of service is what gives a customer a good experience of working with you, making them more likely to return and even recommend you to others.
2. Reduction in Data Entry
Data entry is a slow and monotonous task that eats away at the valuable time of employees. This becomes even worse when it must be entered across multiple systems.
One of the biggest benefits of connected business systems is avoiding the need for double data entry. By sharing between systems, data only has to be entered once, saving time and reducing the chance of errors happening during the process. It even improves the quality of your employees’ jobs as they get to focus on the more important areas that add real value.
3. Better Business Decisions
If you want to make decisions to grow your company, then you need good reporting to aid you. Data should be both internal and external to find opportunities that the competition might be missing. To do this though you need to be able to access the data held in systems with ease.
Having connected business systems means data flows through your company and can be compiled into one report with ease. You won’t have to go around departments getting the latest figures before putting them into a spread sheet and trying to make sense of it all. Connected systems can pull all this data together for you with user-friendly dashboards available that will get you complex reports with ease. You also guarantee that you have one version of the truth, as all departments will be using the same data from the same source.
You will be able to get the latest information rapidly and use it with confidence when deciding your next strategic move.
4. Encourages Collaboration
The final benefit of connecting business systems is how it encourages collaboration across teams. By removing the silo mentality, you can get teams from different departments working on projects together and sharing their experience. The ease of access to correct information also ensures teams will be working with the same data, avoiding issues if they are working on separate parts.
Conclusion to the Benefits of Connected Business Systems
There are lots of benefits of connected business systems and for a modern business looking to grow it is vital. Having access to the right information quickly helps teams, decision makers, and encourages better collaboration across your organisation.
If you want to start working smarter and connecting your business systems, we can help. Our team has decades of experience so get in touch today to see how we can help you.