Entry Software Corporation

Entry

Archives for March 2018

Find Out What Customers Think About Your Business

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Businesses, successful or not, can always find ways to improve and better their success. The best way this can be done is by identifying how well you are doing by hearing what your customers have to say. Customers are a huge impact and part of a business, service or product base, since they are the people companies target, to buy and support your products. Although, how can a manager or owner find out how well their company is doing? Simply taking the time to send out an online survey, acknowledge and read review sites, or send out feedback forms.

Online Survey

With a large increase in technology over the years, it has evolved our world to be very technologically advanced. Why not take advantage of this, and turn to technology to reach out to customers. Creating an online survey, focused specifically, on how well you are doing, is a great way to keep in touch with your customers. This can give your company information that could be the answer to how you can improve for the future.

Not a lot of people are filling out your survey? This can be a common issue since some customers do not want to waste their time on a survey. A quick fix can be to reward your customers for their time, maybe with a special promotion or 10% off their next purchase or a gift card. By doing this your customer has incentive to fill out the survey, and your business gets reviews that can better their success, without breaking the bank too much.

Review Sites

Another way to reach out to your customers online can be through review sites. Review sites are a huge factor in shaping a business online reputation, regarding if it’s good or bad. It would be a waste for companies not to focus on these sites since it is a great way to collect valuable feedback. Customer review sites that are not initially set up by the business itself, also entices customers to be more honest with their reviews. Why? Asking for customers to review a company on a different, trusted review site is more authentic and is less “screened.” Negative feedback can be hard to digest, however, the businesses that acknowledge criticism and can strategize how to improve, will be the most successful.

Feedback Forms

Moving away from technology, another great form to get reviews from your customers are sending out anonymous feedback forms. Handing these forms out to your customers, if you’re a company that interacts with customers face to face, gets quick and valuable information. This can be done by assigning your employees to hand out these forms to customers as they enter the store, designating a spot to hand them in when they are done. As previously mentioned, rewarding your customers when they fill out the forms will entice them to complete the form, making it a win-win situation for both parties. Later, managers can spend time reviewing the information and determine any correlations with repeating issues that may arise. This can then be analyzed by a team, determining how to resolve these solutions.

Customers are a great way to see how well your company is doing since they are the people who are using your service and or product. Although having a solution such as a help desk, can manage customer satisfaction, in an easy and organized way, keeping your business on top of its game. Help desks are a great solution for businesses, to visually see how well they are doing and identify the areas that are maybe lacking. Evaluating and resolving the information gathered from online surveys, review sites, as well as feedback forms, is a great way to identify how well your business is doing, leading to better success down the road.

Businesses Should Use SMART Goals Too

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SMART goals are one of the best way to set, organize and achieve personal goals. Since the concept was first introduced in the early 1980s, it’s been imprinted into the brains of North Americans through schools, books and workshops. For those that need a refresher, SMART is an acronym for the qualities that goals should have. They should be: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. Using each category as criteria and as a guideline, broad goals can be outlined with detail and smaller targets can be set to reach the endpoint. SMART goals have proven very effective for educational, personal, and financial planning when used properly. Anyone with targets to reach should try the method, however, its use isn’t limited to individuals and small groups. Businesses and organizations can also benefit from the outstanding power and structure that SMART goals provide. Sales targets, projects, productivity, and quotas can be empowered using the 5-step outline. SMART can be used by all levels of employees and managers and offers a great way to maximize, track, manage, and review the targets that businesses set for their employees or for the overall company. Here’s how SMART goals can apply to the workplace and improve productivity.

S is for Specific

Without a specific desired outcome, it becomes difficult for businesses to set a goal and actively work towards it. The point of setting goals is to reach something at the end, not just to work for the sake of work. To set specific goals, organizations should agree on what is desired of a task, or what can be gained by having a continuous objective. Goals that seem general or broad to some of the workforce will limit their motivation to achieve, and therefore will be less effective.

For example, ABC Inc. realizes that employee retention and job satisfaction rates are dropping, and decide to make an effort to improve quality of their employment experience. Instead of aiming for “higher workplace morale”, a specific target would be to “grant employees more freedom to choose what they do in the workplace”. This allows ideas to come more quickly and will improve the speed at which goals are achieved.

M is for Measurable

Objective goals are the best way to measure, track, and analyze an overall goal. Using smaller “stepping stones” along the way, it can be simple and less intimidating to reach the overall milestone. Targets that can be measured on a monthly, weekly and even daily basis will provide a precise guideline for all stakeholders involved in reaching the big goal.

Measurable goals have small targets for growth that are reached in short fragments of time, ABC Inc. could make their goal measurable with short-term steps like: “in the first month, employees should be allowed to choose what times to come into work” with more stepping stones that increase each month.

A is for Achievable

Once the quantitative aspects of a goal have been laid out, it should be considered whether or not a business can use their resources efficiently enough to achieve the desired rate of success. It is important not to overestimate in this area because too much effort into an unachievable goal can be bad for productivity.

ABC Inc. could make their goal achievable by acknowledging the restrictions on employee freedom. Certain boring or repetitive, but necessary tasks may be left out in favour of more “morale-boosting” projects, but neglecting the tedious work can falter an organization’s success. To measure how achievable a target is, organizations should take into account how achieving this goal could affect other parts of operations in a negative way.

R is for Reasonable

The fourth stage of the SMART process is another where it is essential to accurately judge the capability of a business or department. Big, broad goals are great for marketing and for huge risk-taking companies, but the majority of businesses should be logical about the size of their goals relative to the timeframe given. A big, seemingly impossible target renders the concept of SMART ineffective. Improvement is the idea of goal-setting, not necessarily perfection.

ABC in. could make it their goal to pay every employee a 6-figure salary with unlimited vacation time and full coverage benefits, allow complete control over how much work is done, and leave the company’s fate in the hands of all employees. It would certainly increase morale, however,0 their efforts must be reasonable. such a tactic would likely mean the company wouldn’t be around much longer. Something like “the ability to come to work with a smile each day, have room for creativity and control over what they do, and have strong relationships with co-workers and clients” is a much more reasonable goal.

T is for Timely

It’s nearly impossible to spark motivation across an entire organization without setting some sort of timeframe or deadline. Each goal must have a broad timeframe, broken up into smaller stepping stones along the way. If the goal is ongoing, then certain deadlines for small aspects of achievement should still be set.

ABC inc.’s low morality is an immediate issue that shouldn’t have a deadline far in the future. To make the issue timely, they should make a measurable target in the next 6 months to increase employee retention by 50%, with a monthly increase of 7% to track their progress.

Knowing the Role of Business: Chief Information Officer (CIO)

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A Chief Information Officer (CIO) by definition is an executive job title commonly given to the person at an enterprise in charge of information technology (IT) strategy and the computer systems required to support an enterprise’s objectives and goals. With the evolution of technology, this role has become more and more important in business, making the CIO’s job ever more crucial. CIO’s are usually very high up in a business due to their high stake responsibilities for the company. It’s hard, specifically, to outline the responsibilities of a CIO due to the constant change in technology. As well, a CIO’s responsibilities can range from company to company.

The CIO of a company is very important as they are responsible for: strategic planning of the business growth objectives, creating a business value through technology, and ensure the tech systems and procedures lead to success for the business, as well as other management responsibilities such as Supplier Management and Information Risk Management (IRM). The CIO contributes greatly towards the organization of analytics and storage of electric information for of a business. To fulfill the responsibilities of a CIO, a team is constructed to complete tasks that are well thought out.

The CIO works hand-in-hand with the businesses IT department and in some cases the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of their company. Depending on the size and or success of the business, CIO’s can also be an executive. Although, these responsibilities are a base since in many cases their responsibilities vary depending on the company.

Now, how can you become one? There are many requirements for becoming a CIO of a company. It is required to have at least a bachelor degree in business administration and is strongly recommended to have a bachelor degree in computer science or a related area. Next, you will need experience with project management. This can be done through internships, previous jobs, and online or in-class courses. Building your technical credibility is very important as it will help strengthen your portfolio in our technological business world. Choosing the right area to specialize in and certificates that are offered will help with your technical credibility. After you earn your bachelor you need to go out and gain real experience in the IT department and risk management. This is crucial since CIO’s need to know these areas well; in order to succeed for the company. Lastly, receiving a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) will connect the world of technology and business together which is what a strong CIO needs. Working on leadership skills is also crucial as CIO’s lead and manage an organized team through many different jobs every day. However, this job does take time and a lot of effort to fulfill, needing a lot of experience and promotions to reach a C- level in a business.

CIO’s are very crucial for companies nowadays as the world becomes more dependent on technology. This career carries many responsibilities that require technology and business education, alongside great leadership and communication skills. All in all, with the vast increase in our world today through technology the demand for this job will increase as well, which may be a good job to consider for the future.

Importance of Properly Setting Project Milestones

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Every project manager knows the importance with keeping a project on track. When a project falls behind, the team needs to put in a great deal of effort to put ensure it is back on track because of the time-sensitive stages of a project; most of the time it leads to the project being delayed or cancelled entirely. Keeping employees motivated to complete a project can be difficult, the easiest way is with the use of project milestones.

Project milestones are important points on a project’s timeline that employees can look at for visual progression of the project. The thought behind making milestones is to categorize the parts of a project into digestible sections opposed to viewing the whole project at once; this should motivate your team to complete tasks on time. However, it is important to understand there is more to making project milestones than just setting them. Setting meaningful milestones will motivate your project team members more than setting frequent or unreachable milestones. Here are some things to consider when deciding your project milestones.

Tip #1: Frequency and Timing

As a project manager, you may be tempted to overuse milestones as a motivation tool to keep the team moving along the ladder to reach the surface of success. Don’t fall into the trap of labeling every task completion as a milestone. With more milestones, each one becomes less momentous, inadvertently taking away from the motivation of work. On the other hand, don’t adopt the other extreme approach by ignoring or not recognizing significant and relevant events as milestones. A good compromise is to consistently designate important deliverable’s as milestones.

Tip #2: Visibility

Milestones need to be placed prominently in the project’s schedule and tracked periodically. Make sure that your milestones have been incorporated into your project scheduling, calendar, or other project tracking software program. This promotes positive work productivity closer to the goal; similar to a runner getting closer to the end of a marathon.

Tip #3: Accountability

Milestones are commitments that must be met on time. If a milestone is missed, it needs to be addressed immediately by re-examining the resources to determine if they are properly matched to the objectives. This reinforces the meaning behind each milestone and the importance of the impact when achieving each milestone.

Tip #4: Fallibility

It may sound counter-intuitive, but you should select challenging milestones that carry a degree of risk for failure. Treat milestones as learning experiences and opportunities to make adjustments, so the final product can be flawless. People learn from mistakes; applying this philosophy to your projects will assist you to do your best work.

Understand project milestone management and reporting. Contact Entry Software for more information.

Biggest Workplace Pet Peeves

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Workplaces, for most, can be a place where a vast majority of your time is spent. However, it can be very easy for workers to become annoyed with co-workers in the workplace, regarding their actions. People want to keep their workplace as an enjoyable/tolerable environment since they spend a significant amount of time there. Time management and organization are common areas employees lack. This can lead to late assignments, messy work areas and lost files down the road, which is not the “ideal” employee managers and owners want. Pet peeves are always rising issues within the workplace, although with simple solutions it can be fixed

Procrastinating is a rising cause of poor time management these days, from the rise in technology and social media. Time management is an area many people struggle with, especially in the workplace. For instance, imagine you are working on a project that has a short timeline with a co-worker, and as the due date approaches you realize that your partner has little to nothing done. This can become quite frustrating in workplaces, as it not only hurts the worker that can’t manage their time but also has a negative effect on co-workers and the company.

Lack of organization is yet another pet peeve that highly occurs in the workplace. Why? Organization and time management go hand-to-hand with each other if someone is unable to manage their time it can lead to poor organization. This adds a negative, unwanted weight to the company that isn’t helping them. From a manager’s perspective, they are responsible for making sure their employees are productive with completing the required work. If employees are not being efficient with their time, it can become very annoying for the manager. Failing to manage time can raise many problems down the road, creating unhappy managers, owners and customers. Easily enough there are many tactics for both employees and managers to help ease their “annoying” traits in their workplace.

Create a List

Keeping track of what you have to do for either a day or month can help remind you about important deadlines or tasks that are coming up. Seeing visually all the tasks that need to be done can help you organize the importance of each task; helping you accomplish each in time. Now, having forty tasks jotted down on a piece of paper is too overwhelming and can cause you to fully ignore the list entirely. The key to a list is keeping it very simple so that you can instantly see what needs to be done.

Set Reminders

Nowadays technology has become very popular, and with this, we are able to do many things on just one device. Setting reminders on your phone, about important projects or jobs that need to be completed for work, is a great way to keep yourself on track with meeting deadlines; keeping your manager happy.

Set Deadlines/Goals

Set a deadline for a project or task you have been assigned to, and try to stick with it. To help you from being late on projects, set your deadlines a couple of days before it is actually due, so that if any unexpected circumstance arises you have extra time to ensure it will be completed on time.

Project Management Systems (PMS)

As an owner or manager, you may find it very beneficial to invest in a good project management solution, to help boost your time management. These solutions are usually always, easy to use and extremely useful when it comes to keeping businesses on track. PMS’s organize and display tasks and assignments that need to be done and what employees are working on what. With this, managers can assign employees different tasks and delegate tasks efficiently. PMS’s can also help identify the areas employees or the company is lacking, which allows managers to add extra time or help to make sure the work is getting completed on time. PMS’s come with many strong benefits that can assist managers with their time management in a much easier and more organized way. This saves crucial time, that can be used in other areas maximizing the work efficiency, leading to an increase in success for a business.

All in all, there are many pet peeves like time management and organization that occur within a workplace irritating co-workers, making their work environment unenjoyable. In addition, having poor time skills can lead to problems that may hurt the company down the road, with unhappy customers, partners or clients. It also does nothing towards your reputation but bring it down. However, not to worry, because there are many easy solutions previously mentioned, that can help you stay on top of your assignments at work!

How to Streamline Your Workplace Scheduling

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Traditionally, workplace scheduling has been done by creating a timetable that was given to employees or displayed at work, so employees could record their shifts as they come into work. Specific schedules were made for employees that outline their duties during their shifts. This system works, however, it is sloppy and has much room for error. Centralized schedules make it difficult to track employees unavailable days, unexpected sick days or changing project outlines. This system has grown to be simply outdated, with the many other beneficial systems now available.

With the strong tech-based society we live in, there is no surprise that tech companies have found a solution to the outdated scheduling issues for businesses small and large. Scheduling solutions provide a hub that gives employees a visual playground of the individual tasks designated to each person. Tasks can be added or removed by the employee and their superiors and can easily be adjusted if any unforeseen events occur. Additionally, any important events that need to be noticed, like meetings or interviews, can be scheduled in notifying everyone involved over email or text message. The beauty of using scheduling solutions is that it simplifies the work that needs to be done by the business! 

Still not convinced? Here are some more benefits of using an online scheduling solution:

Wide Selection

Online scheduling solutions come in various shapes and sizes. With the wide expanse of the internet, there are many scheduling systems out there; one is bound to best suit your business. Some scheduling solutions are built with certain users in mind ( e.g. TeamHeadquarters for IT Managers and CIOs). With a wide selection, this means solutions will fit in your price range. By researching you can find a scheduling solution that offers you exactly what you need, for the price you want.

Easy to Maintain

One of the biggest issues with the traditional method for scheduling is that it takes added time and effort from a business. However, an online software solution does most of the busy work for you! When you input information into the schedule, it will automatically notify each employee about their shifts or new update. Additionally, some scheduling software integrates with other known software, where they can notify you as well. Scheduling solutions reduce some of the workloads off your back, so you can redirect it towards building a better business.

Accessible Wherever, Whenever

About one-third of meetings scheduled online were scheduled during closed hours of the business. This statement shows how important online scheduling software can be to a business. With a traditional system, it would be difficult to notify everyone, that a meeting was scheduled for a certain time. With an online scheduling solution, you can access the database from home to input meetings easily notifying everyone involved!

The traditional system of scheduling, although it can be effective, is not “the best” for the modern tech-based business world. There is a variety of software available that will fit your business’s wants and needs. Online scheduling solutions are simple to use and maintain because they do all the “heavy lifting” of scheduling for you! Best of all, it is accessible from mobile devices or personal computers which will help organize your business better! It is worth the time and money to invest in an online solution of scheduling.

See how TeamHeadquarters can help with resource scheduling.