Making Remote Work Productive: Tools To Keep Productivity Thriving

Employers find themselves stressing about their employees’ productivity and fear increased time on breaks when there’s no one watching. When you can’t walk into an office to have a chat, it’s difficult to know where your team stands.

Fortunately, surveys are indicating that remote working results in increased productivity. While break times are longer, the overall time spent working is also increased. This is in large part due to employees being able to focus on their work without the distractions of hallway chats and loosely defined meetings.

Another integral part of increased productivity is the company’s access to tools that support getting things done. Less time spent on routine tasks means more time to focus on strategy and effective work. We put together a list of solutions to the biggest productivity challenges faced by remote offices today:

1. Get Paid

It’s 2020 and cheques are still a predominant part of exchanging goods and services for money. Features to increase the security of cheques exist, but business process changes led by COVID-19 have left many B2B businesses waiting to get paid. The COVID-19 pandemic has slowed down postal services across the world and redirecting mail from closed offices to homes is costly.

Electronic Funds Transfer, or EFT, is a cheap, secure, and quick way to transfer money. With a click of a button within your ERP, you can transfer money to different accounts in multi-currencies. EFT is 45% safer than normal cheques. Solutions like EFT for Acumatica and Epicor connect with any Canadian bank.

2. Fulfill Orders Quickly To Meet Demands

Shelter-in-place orders have sent consumers online— where they can safely shop from a distance. We’ve known for years that integration of ecommerce into any retail or distribution business was a must for its survival, but circumstances have had a dizzying effect where this is no longer optional.

Demand has ramped up for many and keeping up with this demand has proven difficult. For others, maintaining customer loyalty and providing the same level of customer experience is fatiguing with fewer resources. While a shortage of supplies is an expected hindrance, the inability to keep up with orders shouldn’t be. Manually inputting order information and shipping details for your courier is taxing and error-prone.

Cloud software like ShipStation works directly with your ERP and removes the nitty-gritty work of sending out an order. As soon as an order comes in through your site, your ERP starts working on making accounting and inventory changes. With a click of a button, your ERP sends all order information to ShipStation so your order is ready to ship in seconds.

ShipStation automatically creates labels and documents for you. It works with all major courier services and provides users discounted shipping rates. In conjunction with your ERP, you can speed up delivery times, better your customer’s experience, drop shipping costs, and spend more time on marketing your business. ShipStation integrates with major ERP systems like Acumatica, Epicor, and we just introduced integration with Spire.

3. Cut Down On Communication Channels

There’s an abundance of collaboration tools used by organizations that don’t work together. Time is wasted on sifting through files and conversations finding information, converting, and exporting files, causing frustration and decreased motivation. Solve this by picking the right collaboration tools that work for you and your business needs.

ICYMI: Microsoft Office has gone online. You might be familiar with Google Docs, which allows co-authoring on documents online so multiple people can work on a file at the same time, replacing the need to send files back and forth. A common problem with Microsoft Office was the time lost in exporting files to Microsoft Office and confusion over sharing permissions. Using Google Docs can also potentially open your sensitive data to hackers.

With a new Microsoft Office 365 subscription, you can now take your Microsoft Office documents online and work as a team on a single file. Use all the advanced capabilities of MS Office on any device and even within Microsoft Teams.

If you’re thinking, is that all I get? Online documents? The subscription also comes with Teams, up to 1 TB of cloud storage on OneDrive, free security updates, data protection, Sharepoint to automate specific office tasks, and a lot more. It’s an all-in-one productivity tool that supports all different workflows on a single platform. 

4. Modernize Cloud Infrastructure

Organizations that once favored on-premise solutions are seeing the inherent problems that come with it in the digital age. Employees have been sent home to work, but the applications and documents necessary to keep working are all locked at the office. It’s a good time to start thinking about making a transition to cloud technologies.

A modern infrastructure that is managed in the cloud gives employees access to your ERP system so your business’ financials can be managed. This also makes it easier to keep track of the health and security of your network, as well as allows work to securely flow from one employee’s device to another regardless of where they are.

Beyond the current COVID-19 crisis, a cloud-managed system will prepare your business for the future of teamwork. Talented workers are increasingly expecting the flexibility remote work offers, forcing a 44% growth in remote workers over the last 5 years. Having a cloud network is an essential part of providing for this growing need.

Evron is an end-to-end IT solutions provider with over 36 years of experience. Recently nominated for a business innovation award, Evron develops software solutions and customizations to make their clients more productive, more efficient, and more profitable. Evron’s partnership with ShipStation began with their team developing an integration connecting ShipStation to Spire. You can learn more here.