At the start of 2017 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) accountfor 99.9% of all UK businesses, contribute 51% of all private sectorturnover and makeup 60% of all private sector employment in the UK. As such a vital part of the UK economy, it is important that theyachieve their goals to grow and prosper. Optimising usage of availableresources and internal business processes is key to this success.
However, resources for SME’s are often limited, and poorly managed usingoutdated manual processes such as spreadsheets, files or email. This wayof doing things results in high operational costs, human errors, delaysand a general lack of resource visibility. Fortunately, there are new,affordable cloud-based solutions that make it easy to manage andautomate resources from virtually anywhere.
A good automated resource manager should have the following features:
Automatic work allocation
Allocating work to the most appropriate member of staff or team can bedifficult when taking into account holidays, sickness, availability andlocation. An automated resource manager should allow staff members toset working hours and area coverage. Tasks can then be intelligentlyallocated to the best available person, using criteria such as skills,experience, specific training and certification. This ensures acompliant and productive workflow, with jobs only being assigned toemployees equipped to deal with them.
Integration with 3rd parties and clients
If you act as a “middleman” or sub-contractor, and a client needs you toarrange appointments with their customers, the process can become quiteconvoluted, with both parties going back and forth before agreeing on atime. Or, you may have to liaise directly with their customers,requiring you to employ a customer service team. An automated resourcemanager should either provide a portal for your client or integrate withyour client’s system to allow appointments or communications to beorganised directly by a third party. This saves time for both you andthe other business, as well as giving you a unique selling point toprospects.
Allocation of physical business resources
Hot desks, vehicles and meeting rooms are all examples of physicalresources that require efficient allocation. By having a comprehensiveoverview of what resources are available and when, employees are betterable to make efficient use of them, thus improving productivity andwell-being. Staff should be able to book what suits their needs, at thecorrect time. Managers and directors should be able to see whenresources are stretched and further investment is necessary.
Scalability
An automated resource manager should allow companies to quickly scaleall resources and tasks from two to two hundred employees or two to twothousand tasks. Web-based solutions that are offered on a subscriptionmodel allow companies to scale up or down depending on business demands.
Recoverable Information
With an automated resource management solution, all records ofassociated resources are stored in the cloud, thus encouragingeasily-searchable standardised records management. With a paper-basedsystem information is not easy to find, nor is it recoverable if abackup is not made and the original is lost, stolen or destroyed.
Swiftcasefeatures automated resource management, allowing you to takecontrol of all of your resources in a way which benefits your staff andsaves you time and money, leaving your business free to focus on whatreally matters./
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