TDS offers 10 tips to lower costs and increase productivity
For more information contact:
Cindy Tomlinson, Associate Manager – PR
TDS Telecommunications Corp.
608-664-4471 / cindy.tomlinson@tdstelecom.com
(Sept. 23, 2009) — Whether it’s new ways to motivate employees or fresh ideas on how to control costs without sacrificing service, small and large companies alike report it’s challenging and frustrating. Perhaps the most difficult challenge, regardless of a businesses size, is getting the most for every dollar spent or invested in the business.
To help, TDS Telecommunications Corp. (TDS) offers 10 tips to make it easier for businesses to get the most of every tech buck.
1. Make working together easy.
Boost efficiency and reduce costs by enriching collaboration between employees, partners, suppliers and customers. Consider an intelligent network that allows interactive calendaring, video conferencing, unified communications and other technologies for easy, interactive communication.
2. Liberate employees.
Missed calls create project delays, wasted opportunities, lost revenues and frustrated employees and customers. With networked voice and data solutions, employees can have one phone number set to ring simultaneously on multiple devices. The result: Employees can manage all communications (email, voicemail, faxes) from anywhere – how liberating!
3. Reduce travel time.
Instead of traveling to meetings, which is simply unproductive, leverage technology to get the work done. Network phones with video calling and Web conferencing. Result: more productive employees; reduced travel expenses.
4. Hire a professional managed service provider.
Managing a communications network is hard, intricate work, and not always the best use of employees’ time. Consider the advantages of hiring a managed service provider for network administration. Result: IT staff is freed up to focus on mission-critical IT tasks, increasing overall productivity.
5. Develop a long-term technology strategy.
Unexpected downtime due to obsolete hardware brings the entire office to a standstill, interrupts employee work flow and effectiveness, and creates customer discontent and employee dissatisfaction. All short- and long-term technology strategies should leverage communications network vendors to employ technologies that center on achieving business objectives.
6. Improve employee satisfaction.
Reduce employee frustration caused by aging or obsolete phone systems and slow networks by choosing a secure and reliable provider who can deliver quality systems and a fast network.
7. Maximize Internet speeds.
Increased reliance on Web-based software and managed services makes network speeds and configuration more important to business success than ever before. Look beyond the slowest, cheapest speeds. The few extra tech bucks spent will generate ROI in no time when Web applications speed along and streaming media doesn’t suffer.
8. Deliver anytime, anywhere access to employees on the go.
To stay productive, it’s essential employees can reach people and the information they need – anywhere, anytime. Employing technology, such as virtual private networks, lets employees work outside the office and still have safe access to the business network, day or night.
9. Secure the company against sophisticated threats.
Understand and prioritize security risk management activities to protect the businesses infrastructure. Result: IT focuses on high-priority risks to protect the company and avoids wasting efforts (and resources) on low-priority risks.
10. Don’t overspend on computers.
Carefully review the function each employee uses a computer for. If it’s to run heavy-duty multimedia software, process HD video, or crunch massive databases, a high-end $1,500 computer may be a necessity. Otherwise, plan to spend about $400 for a functional desktop with monitor. Consider investing in a second monitor to boost productivity.
Discover more ways to solve communications needs by visiting the TDS Resource Library, http://www.tdsbusiness.com/ROI or calling 1-866-9-TDSBIZ (1-866-983-7249).
