Archive for 2013

Business process outsourcing

When an individual decides to set up their own business, they will have a clear vision of what they aim to achieve. In an ideal world, this mission would be the sole focus of the business with all staff working to deliver it.

In reality, secondary issues and tasks become involved. IT issues, HR processes and finance problems can all reduce the amount of time your staff members can allocate to achieving the dream. After all, less time equals less team output. If you would like assistance with your business finances, then go to the site to contact a professional. 

With this in mind, it comes as no surprise that so many companies outsource their business processes. There are a number of advantages and disadvantages to doing so, as this post will explore.

Reduces pressure

As you will be aware, offices can be incredibly stressful environments. In fact, research carried out by Viking and published in the Daily Mail has found that 40 per cent of office workers are stressed to the point where their health is at risk. As this shows, the last thing you or your employees will need is added tasks on your to-do list.

One of the main benefits of outsourcing business processes is that it removes the pressure on both you and your staff. Letting another company deal with these tasks will significantly reduce your company’s workload, helping to alleviate stress in the process.

Aids time management

As we have already mentioned, outsourcing business processes saves your staff a lot of time by delegating some tasks to an external company. This allows extra time for more pressing matters within the business.

However, it can save you time in other ways too. In order to keep costs down, many companies will try and turn their hand to a number of tasks. Having a limited knowledge base and trying to do so could result in tasks taking longer than they should to complete. A specialised company will have all of the programmes and skills to carry out tasks quickly and efficiently, so are a much better option.

Privacy issues

One of the main concerns of many business owners is the privacy and security of their important data and details. Generally speaking, many people think that if they keep all of their processes in house, they are protecting them from theft and hacking. Giving their information to a third party company is unsecure, in many people’s eyes. If you need any additional information on data privacy, visit here.

However, there are ways of combatting this. Choosing a reputable business process outsourcing provider is one way of doing so. Nashtech is a good example of this. As they are a worldwide company who provide a service to millions, you know they are going to be both reliable and effective.

This post has documented just a few of the advantages and disadvantages associated with business process outsourcing. However, as many companies will agree, the pros definitely outweigh the cons, making this kind of outsourcing a vital cog in the workings of any business. As time progresses, we are sure to see even more businesses making use of this useful service.

Manage Emails So They Don’t Manage You

The convenience of email can be both a blessing and a curse: never has it been so easy to keep in touch with so many people across the world. At the same time, most of us have inboxes that are creaking under the strain of their simply being too many messages to cope with.

And once email overload starts to take a grip, it’s tempting just to ignore it altogether.

Using email should be a pleasure and/or a convenience, not a chore, and the key to improving the quality of your inbox experience lies in email management. Whether you set up a system of your own or employ a selection of apps and extensions to do the job for you, getting an organized routine in place can make a world of difference to the way you use email. Here  are ways on how you can do it:

Take control

Emails can quickly swallow up a substantial part of the day, if you let them. It’s important that you dictate how much time you spend checking messages, rather than simply responding to the volume of messages that come in. Decide how often you’re going to spend managing email, and resist the temptation to keep checking in too regularly. If you’re going to look at your emails, deal with them at the same time.

How this works in practice will be different for everyone, both in and out of work. Email communications may be crucial to your job or a distracting annoyance. Whatever the scenario, it’s crucial that you’re calling the shots and setting the ground rules, rather than reactively organizing the rest of your day around the demands of your emails.

Software and apps

If you’re at your wit’s end with email overload, don’t despair: help is available. Whichever app you’re using to access your messages, whether on the web or the desktop, you should find anti-spam and filtering tools that can help you take charge. Consider filtering out messages from all but your most important contacts, for example, ready to be dealt with at a later stage.

There are also many extra add-ons, extensions and third-party applications that you can employ to manage your email. The majority of these tools take the stress and strain out of organizing your email for you, cutting out unwanted messages and protecting you against viruses and phishing attempts at the same time.

Enterprise management

For those managing a business, a more comprehensive enterprise management system is required. Again, there are many options to choose from, such as the solutions offered by Mimecast, covering security, archiving and migration from other services. Pick a cloud-based service and much of the hard work is done before the messages arrive on your local system, which means you can enjoy a more optimised email experience.

Any time you take in waiting to address the issue of managing your emails is going to compound the problem and make it more difficult to untangle yourself from the mess. Get help with email management and it can transform the way you deal with emails and your communications with the outside world.