automation in business Archives

Unlocking Conversion Potential: Strategies to Drive Results Through Email Marketing

Posted on October 30, 2023October 25, 2023 by Eleanor Hecks

Email marketing can still be one of the most effective ways to reach customers and build brand loyalty. While there are pros and cons to keeping an email list, the conversion potential is far greater than through almost any other method. You’ll have a direct line to people who have expressed enough of an interest in your product or service to subscribe.

Here are some of the best strategies to drive higher conversions through email marketing.

1. Choose the Right Newsletter Provider

According to research, emails are the leading reason people buy something, with 44% of surveyed consumers citing it as a motivator. Therefore, investing in creating a newsletter can be a notable strategy for your brand.

However, the way you send a message can make a difference in conversions. Some email newsletter providers garner higher delivery rates than others or provide more extensive feedback on user habits.

The right newsletter provider is the one that you can afford the monthly fee for and has the elements you most want and find useful. Additionally, it must be user friendly. Anyone in the company should be able to schedule a message without a huge learning curve to figure out the system.

2. Build Your List

Email marketing is most effective when you collect a list of people highly interested in what you offer. Building your mailing list may be as crucial as what you actually send out. You want people who are highly engaged and in the market for what you sell.

How do you find them? Start by creating buyer personas listing out the qualities of your typical customer. You can run ads on social media offering a perk if they sign up for your mailing list — perhaps a slight discount, free shipping or other freebie.

3. Set Up Drip Campaigns

Once someone signs up for your mailing list, what happens? The goal is to keep only those people who are highly engaged and likely to convert. In most cases, email marketing service providers base their fees on the number of subscribers. So, while having many subscribers often leads to higher sales, you want to ensure the majority of your subscribers are actually interested enough to convert in the first place.

The best way to narrow down your list is by setting up a drip campaign that starts when they subscribe. Send a welcome email explaining what you do. Throughout a few days and several emails, offer insight into what they gain by being on your list.

In each message, include an easy way to opt out and unsubscribe. Providing an easy out, even after downloading a freebie or other offer, ensures you keep only highly engaged customers and don’t pay for those who never open your emails.

4. Segment Your Audience

Another way to improve your email marketing is by segmenting your audience. By splitting your users into groups, you can highly personalize the offers you send. There are many different segmentation methods, such as demographics or past buying behavior.

For example, if your analytics show that a group of people click on a particular offer every time you send it and you get in a similar product, you can send a message to the segment of people who loved the initial item.

5. Schedule Emails

While it’s impossible to pinpoint the best time to send emails, your audience will help you see the prime moments for them to receive a message from you. Pay attention to your open rates. If you send a message in the morning, are open rates higher? What about in the evening?

You may find that a particular day garners more click throughs than another. Your email service provider should have an analytics system you can study to figure out timing. The only way to know the best time for your subscribers or even different segments of your audience is by testing and tracking results.

6. Improve Subject Lines

People get numerous emails every day. As they look through their inboxes, it’s easy to click the delete button. Your goal is to get them to open your email and read a bit more. Your subject line is the first impression they have of the campaign. You want to create such an interesting headline that they can’t resist clicking on it.

Some of the things to focus on as you’re formulating a subject line include:

Being short and to the point
Including action words
Being relevant to the offer
Making it clear who the email is from
Avoiding words or phrases that could be seen as spam

7. Create a Sense of Urgency

The way people generate email marketing is changing, and artificial intelligence (AI) plays a big role in email today. Around 33% of marketers surveyed stated they use AI “to some extent” in their email campaigns. Another 24% said they use it “extensively.”

One thing AI can help with is creating wording that creates a sense of urgency. Titles such as “Limited Time” or “Offer Expires in…” can encourage people to read your message today instead of letting the deal expire before they get a chance to use it.

How Can You Improve Email Marketing Efforts?

Email marketing is something you should consistently improve until you hit the goals you’ve set for open rates and conversions. Tapping into the power of modern technology gives you a chance to compete with others in your industry and find success more quickly than going into a campaign without the data needed to succeed.

Inventory Software: A How-To Guide To Effectively Managing Your Supplies

Posted on June 22, 2022July 5, 2022 by Matt Bernot

In a competitive market, high-quality businesses and their employees rely on established and practical systems to assist them to rise above the competition. Inventory software continuously improves and monitors, integrates, channels, empowers and monitors warehouse processes to ensure businesses will avoid unfulfilled orders and the misuse of necessary time.

Without tracking the amount of inventory a business has, where each item is located, and forecasting an accurate quantity needed for future sales, a company will fail to turn a profit and generate growth. As a result, inventory management software rids a successful business owner of the tedious time spent tracking inventory with pencil and paper and replaces this process with more efficient technology to track when shipments arrive, where raw materials are, and when products are on the move.

Multiple types of businesses use inventory software, equipment inventory software, or even warehouse inventory management software to raise their business to the level of which they previously only dreamt of doing. In a simplified example, an individual company owner may have various suppliers and could be working on an ad-hoc basis in terms of their supply. How long can they maintain effective business practices under these conditions solely using spreadsheets or other less efficient methods of inventory tracking? The answer is that it is more effective, both in cost and time, to use an all in one inventory management software that serves you and your business to ensure that inventory is not over-ordered nor under-stocked.

Inventory Management via Inventory Software

The first step for small and growing business owners after acquiring their inventory is to sell their product to the market. However, this process may be overwhelming, especially when attempting to manually input and interpret your inventory levels and order flow. Having a clear and accurate view of your ROI is integral for all businesses, so inventory software is an obvious choice for any type of business owner that is looking for a better way to track this data. Inventory software controls stock levels, saves space, maximizes the value of labor, satisfies customers, and reduces the use of other fixed assets to also save you and your business from unnecessary costs.

The Cost Of Inventory Software

Most inventory management software is cloud-based and will not necessitate the individual to maintain servers, hire an IT staff, or make other excessive hardware purchases. All of the servers and necessary equipment are managed by the software company itself, saving companies a lot of money, time and energy.

The cost of cloud-based inventory management software is based on a monthly subscription rate, but it is also determined by several other factors, including the size of your business. Retail point of sale software (POS) may be a starting point for most businesses, but when your business is ready to grow and scale, many businesses find that POS software alone is insufficient. This is because POS systems solely keep track of sales and accept payment from customers, which ignores tracking inventory, establishing the quantity and time that inventory needs to be reordered, effective inventory turnover, and does not mitigate human error by automating tasks that help to fulfill sales quickly.

Approximately 46% of the businesses surveyed in Wasp Barcode’s State of Small Business Report fail to track inventory and/or use manual processes. Those companies are not receiving the same benefits in relation to maintaining competitiveness in the marketplace, increased efficiency, saving money in the long run, and freeing up employees to do less monotonous tasks.

Inventory Software’s Role in Inventory Turnover

A key metric for all businesses is inventory turnover: the cost of goods sold divided by the average inventory on hand. If the rate is too low or too high, a business is in danger of overstocking, not meeting consumer demand, and dealing with the deteriorating value of stagnant products on a shelf.

Podium LLC, a manufacturer based out of South Carolina, saw their inventory counting time decrease by 90% when taking advantage of an inventory management solution.

Inventory software helps businesses meet their desired inventory turnover ratio by providing inventory tracking, effective and time-efficient reordering, and accounting integrations which serve to prevent double-entry of data and automate yet another task that can free up time to focus on other needs for your business.

Takeaway

Inventory software is the most effective manner in which a business can successfully manage maintaining proper inventory levels while maintaining high levels of customer (and employee) satisfaction. It can provide business owners with the ability to spend their time doing other tasks besides manually organizing their spreadsheets or over ordering products that are not necessarily needed in bulk at the time. Inventory management software acts as a digitized assistant, allowing for professionalism, profitability, and efficiency to shine through where, without it, only ambiguity and indecisiveness are present.

How Task Management Software Helps Businesses Achieve Productivity and Profitability

Posted on October 14, 2021May 9, 2023 by Lisa Brian

Business operations involve numerous task management activities, including task creation, planning, assigning/delegating tasks, tracking, reporting, and execution. These activities demand significant time and effort.

No matter what size of business you run, the benefits of efficient task management are beyond comparison: when customer and market demand increase beyond manual management capabilities, businesses should opt for automated, digital task management to instantly scale capacity up, to handle complex tasks efficiently, and to increase productivity. It also allows businesses to avoid the time and cost of mismanagement, miscommunications, and inefficiencies that can directly impact business profits.

Businesses that leverage task management software tools can witness immense benefits and stay ahead of the competition. These tools help optimize resources, control workflow, drive collaboration, meet deadlines, enhance communication, and improve efficiency. As per reports from Fortune Business Insights, the global task management
software market size will reach USD 4,535.5 million by 2026.

Let’s see what features reliable task management systems provide and how these tools help businesses revamp productivity and profitability.

Prominent Task Management Software Features To Help Achieve Effective Productivity

task and productivity management software

Task management solutions offer comprehensive tools and features to control various stages of the task management lifecycle. Here are the most trending task management software features that can help businesses achieve effective productivity.

1. Task Planning

Task management systems help managers plan tasks systematically from the start. The software provides a platform to break a complex task into stages or smaller tasks through a structured approach based on the budget, resources, scope, and timeline. These subtasks can be assigned to different people and managed effortlessly.

Besides, you can organize, prioritize your tasks, and modify these easily throughout the planning stage. The best part is that you can view the split tasks collectively on a unified task management software platform.

2. Task Delegation

Appropriate task delegation is a challenge for managers. It is crucial to match the right task to the right person and ensure that no team member is overburdened or underutilized. Reliable task management software enables seamless task assigning.

Elimination of manual assignment ensures better accuracy and quicker task delegation. The software also sends relevant alerts to the team members when a task is assigned to them. Additionally, team members can better view subtasks and understand which person is responsible for them. It improves accountability.

3. Prioritization

With too many tasks running in parallel, it is challenging for managers to prioritize the tasks. Some tasks are dependent on others, and some have shorter deadlines. Managers need to assign these based on the complexity, deadline, and available resources.

Task management tools help automate and control task prioritization, deciding what tasks need to be completed at the earliest. The tools enable classifying these tasks into subtasks, dependent tasks, and priority tasks. The software also automatically alerts relevant people about what tasks are on priority and need immediate attention. Moreover, all the stakeholders can view the task prioritization on the software platform anytime as required.

4. Status Tracking

Task status tracking is the most common and essential task management software feature. An abundance of tasks need to be efficiently controlled, optimized, and granularly monitored at all stages. Task management systems offer task-tracking tools that help managers and teams keep track of the status of each task and identify the bottlenecks. They can thus take appropriate measures to correct the issues and ensure task completion.

5. Security

Data security is essential for every business, be it for business data or client information.

Manual data management is prone to security breaches as data is stored on multiple platforms where various people have the authority to access it.

Moreover, it becomes challenging to grant selective, role-based access to people. When sensitive data is lost or altered, it can irreversibly damage the company’s growth and reputation.

manual data management by a man reviewing charts and graphs on paper

Task management systems allow the storage of all information on a unified platform, making it more accessible for administrators to monitor security effectively. Task management software provides robust, multi-layer data security features with data encryption and role-based access controls.

The system administrator can centrally control security permissions, provide data access to relevant/specific personnel, and restrict others from accessing or modifying it. Additionally, the software records and helps track which user has accessed or altered data, making it easier to detect unauthorized access and take appropriate action.

6. Communication and Collaboration Tools

Task management software provides comprehensive document management, communication, coordination, and collaboration tools like contact management, calendar management, synchronous editing, messaging, and more. These tools help enhance team collaboration and streamline task management processes. Everyone agrees: task management systems momentously improve project management (after all, projects are comprised of tasks), task efficiency, team productivity, and overall performance.

7. Notifications

As discussed above, task management systems automatically issue notifications and alerts as needed to all the task stakeholders when there is a need for action, for example, task assignment notification, deadline alert, etc. The software also allows customized email templates for personalized notifications.

8. Analytics and Reporting

Modern task management systems provide business intelligence (BI) tools, analytics, and reporting. These features help managers make informed decisions to save time, costs, and resources. Analytics offers valuable insights into possible outcomes based on past data, while the reporting feature helps generate customized reports on performance, issues, and shortcomings requiring immediate attention.

9. Integrations

The right task management system is the one that allows seamless integration with your existing systems as required, for example, CRM, HR, and accounting systems. Without these integrations, it’s difficult to share data across these platforms. Top task management solutions allow all the necessary integrations without hassle, out of the box.

Wrapping Up

Task management systems are tools that help organizations/businesses streamline and control the complete task management lifecycle. The software helps prevent delays, eliminate manual errors to improve accuracy, enhance communication, achieve better coordination, ensure data security, increase process efficiency, and achieve employee satisfaction. Task management software helps boost overall business productivity.

As Jim Rohn rightly stated, “Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time.”

So, save time, resources, streamline workflow, witness perfect task management, and boost profits by choosing the right task management software for your business.

Mapping The Field Service Customer Communication Journey

Posted on August 27, 2021May 9, 2023 by Cristina Maria

In any relationship, communication is key and your customers are no exception.

Before communication technology made targeted advertising easy, trying to attract and speak to customers followed a fairly straightforward strategy, albeit with inconsistent results. For instance, field service companies would bombard prospects with generic fliers, billboards, Yellow Pages ads, etc, and all in the hopes that somewhere in the midst of it all would emerge someone who, not only needed a plumber or an electrician, but who’d then take the time to engage, and hopefully transition into a customer.

There’s little need to point out why this strategy wasn’t the most efficient.

Of course, things are completely different these days. Service companies now have the option to speak to customers more directly, and send them highly personalized offers, and, as a result, many have seen an increase in sales by 10% or more. Thanks to effective digital technologies and the ability to map customer communication journeys, hundreds of thousands of companies have found success and reached their audience, even if they run a niche service business.

There are still challenges to overcome, but to help you get a grasp of your own communication strategy, we’re going to look at it from the customer journey point of view. We’ll break it down into a few touchpoints, and explore how you can improve your own journey. Let’s get started!

Define The New Communication Customer Journey

Customer journeys have become more and more complex, especially in the field service industry. Buying a service isn’t simply a matter of a person walking into a store and picking up a product from a shelf.

Between local Google search results, 3rd-party review websites, paid ads, personalized emails, review requests, and all the other interactions now available to business owners and managers, it’s no wonder businesses can feel overwhelmed.

The new communication journey is a reciprocal process, where the customer gets to have a say throughout, rather than simply voting with their wallet during an exchange of services for money. Nurturing a customer is an essential part of an ideal relationship, one that leads to higher-value jobs and repeat business. And like nurturing anything else, the customer wants 3 things, to be:

Valued as an individual, through personalized communication
Taken seriously, by using a suitable and consistent tone of voice in all your communications
Feel in control, which is where customer self-service comes into place

At the same time, keep in mind that communication doesn’t refer just to actual messages and emails; everything you do in order to convey information about your business to the customer is a form of contact, from your brand identity, company logo, to your website, to your invoices.

Why Do Field Service Businesses Need To Look At Their Communication Journey?

Have you ever tried hiring another field service business? Or, even better, have you tried hiring yourself? How did the experience compare to other services you use in your day-to-day life, like booking a vacation or ordering a meal? Is there anything they do that you don’t?

It’s tempting to think this exercise is silly because you’re not selling vacation packages or meals. But the fact of the matter is that the average customer won’t compare you to other plumbing or HVAC companies; they’ll compare the booking experience you provide to those they know: Booking.com, JustEat, Amazon, and other big companies.

If you do a deep dive into field service reviews, you’ll notice a trend with many customers saying something along the lines of:

“They did a good job installing my ventilation unit, but I never got a booking confirmation so I had no idea when they’d arrive. Then the installer wouldn’t take card payment on the spot so I had to wait for weeks to get an invoice letter. And no one asked for my feedback at the end of it all.” – 3 / 5 stars

It’s hardly what field service owners and managers want to hear, but the cold hard truth is that if you deliver 5-star work with 1-star customer service experiences, the average review score won’t be in your favor. And are you really a 3-star company? Of course not!

Understanding where your customer communication strategy is lacking is what will push you to go from good to great.

How To Map The Communication Customer Journey

Customer journey map, process of customer buying decision, a road map of customer experience

Mapping the communication journey goes back to the scenario where you try to hire yourself. List every individual touchpoint, then award yourself a rating based on how satisfied you’d be if, as a customer, a service provider treated you the same.

1. Company persona

You might be familiar with building a customer persona, but having a detailed understanding of your own company is just as important. It could be that you’re the owner and you identify the company with yourself, but even then, writing it down and turning it into a fleshed-out character will help you understand what your customer expects from you.

For example, if your company persona was called Gary, the friendly neighborhood plumber who’s always there to fix a leak or put in a new sink, that would mean the rest of your communications have to stay consistent: a bright and cheerful website, technicians who wear short sleeve t-shirts, and budget or mid-level prices. On the other hand, you could also be a Gaspard, the artisanal plumber who’s a specialist in visible drain welding & soldering and often works with museums and installation artists.

The expectations would be completely different, so the final question is: would your customer hire Gary or Gaspard?

2. Visual Communication

Once you’ve decided on the kind of field service personality you want to relay, it’s time to make it visual. Visual communication includes:

Company logo
Company colors
Employee attire (either uniform or dress code)
Website graphics
Website videos

Once you’ve decided on the first two, the rest need to stay consistent, otherwise, you risk confusing the customer in regard to the message you’re trying to transmit.

If you’re targeting premium customers and have tailored your logo and website colors to match (e.g. by using more elegant colors like navy and silver), but your employees show up either sans uniform or in bright yellow t-shirts and muddy boots, the customer won’t feel like they’re getting the premium experience they paid for. The same goes for your website and other visuals you might want to create (or commission), the expectation you set should be met by reality.

3. Written Communication

The final step in your communication customer journey is to highlight the smaller touchpoints and ensure they also have a cohesive feel and, especially, carry the same tone of voice. Written communication includes but is not limited to:

Booking request confirmation
Service reminders (for more on these, check out this service reminder guide)
Price book
Invoice emails
Certificate emails
Debt chasing emails
Review requests
Review answers
Website about & team page
Contact page

Similar to the situation we’ve described above, your written communication style should also fit your company persona.

If we go back to the Gary/Gaspard comparison, imagine that Gary would open his emails with: “Hey, Matt! How’s your week been?”, while Gaspard would be more of a “Dear Madam Spencer, I sincerely hope you’ve been well.” Mixing them up would leave Matt scratching his head and Madam Spencer tasking her butler with firing someone. Written communication is all about delivering on your brand promise.

The Value Of Having Everything On One Screen

If all this sounds like a lot more than you expected, we don’t blame you. Customer communication journeys are complex relationships that require time and effort, at least, they are if you want to do them well.

A lot of this complexity is due to communication technology advancing so rapidly and creating more and more avenues to interact with people. However, this should be seen as an opportunity, rather than an obstacle. That’s because field service management technology also allows you to harness more efficient strategies that come at a lower cost than, say, traditional advertising and branding.

Keeping track of your communications starts with recording customer information in a centralized database. The more you learn about them, the better you will be able to personalize your messaging and expand your brand. The next step is to combine your database with a message/email automation tool so that you can send out personalized communication as efficiently as possible.

Finally, an all-in-one field service management software will keep all this, along with calendar appointments, employee shifts, quotes, and more, all on a single screen. From there your business is in a better position to grow sustainably and it’ll help you implement more and more complex customer communication strategies down the line.

The Takeaway

All in all, customer communication journeys are all about knowing who you’re targeting and having a good grasp of the tools you have access to in order to reach this person. Technology has made things more complex, but, at the same time, it has also made amazing strategies widely available to companies of every size and budget. Make sure you’re not missing out and start investing in your communication strategy today!

Contractor Management Software: Benefits and Advantages

Posted on July 28, 2021May 9, 2023 by Reesa David

The world of construction and contracting contains a lot of moving parts, literally and figuratively. Tools, materials, and machines need to be transported, assembled, and installed at every job site.

Beyond the physical labor lies the real headache of contracting—legal documents, compliance measures, appraisals, estimates, budget reports…the list is seemingly endless.

Every business that handles construction and contractor management does things a bit differently. Some have completely integrated business management software solutions while others still rely on manual, analog business practices.

The reality is that most businesses find themselves somewhere in between when it comes to technological integration.

Benefits Of Contractor Management Software

Construction and contracting companies (and businesses in other industries that rely on various types of contract work) share a common goal, no matter the specifics of the project, customer, or client—that common goal is creating value and increasing revenue.

construction and contractor management software

Experts on construction and contracting productivity estimate that 35% of construction time is spent on non-productive activities. It’s not necessarily the activities, objectives, or the people themselves that are inefficient—it’s the methods and processes that cause stagnation.

Contractor management software helps businesses streamline the processes that their business already accomplishes on a daily basis. Job costing, equipment tracking, and estimating are just some of the processes that contractor management software helps your business improve upon.

Have you experienced the pitfalls of tracking equipment with pencil and paper? Have you had to repeatedly run the same numbers to make sure you’re still under budget? Have you had to pause your labor to call your office staff numerous times from the same job site on the same day to acquire crucial information?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, it’s time to consider exploring the use of contractor management software within your organization.

On the other hand, if you haven’t experienced any of these headaches yet, consider yourself lucky. You have the chance to proactively build better processes before any of these hurdles arise.

Better Communication, Better Bottom Line

Communication is important in every line of work. However, when it comes to working with a variety of subcontractors and contracted parties, communication takes on an increased importance.

Quality communication—or lack thereof—has a tangible impact on job sites. In construction and engineering projects, 52% of rework is caused by poor project data and miscommunication. This translates to nearly $31.3 billion in rework in the U.S. alone in 2022.

construction professionals communicating over blueprint

By utilizing the tools that contractor management software offers, you won’t have any ambiguity about budgets, schedules, or the status of work.

Imagine this: many businesses use emails to send documents, isolated hard drives to store files, text messages to share images and status updates, paper and pencil to sign out equipment and materials, and expensive third parties to craft contracts.

Using so many disconnected software systems (not to mention some entirely paper-based systems) leaves the door open for errors, delays, and miscommunication of all kinds. Contractor management software puts everything you need in one place, able to be accessed anywhere, anytime, without the high risk of errors and faulty data.

Reduced Risk Exposure

The task of maintaining full legal and regulatory compliance is a multifaceted, challenging endeavor. Businesses deal with complex and oft-changing tax codes, strict OSHA regulations, and countless types of insurance guidelines.

It’s easy for disorganization to run rampant if your systems and processes are not efficient and in unison. Though it may be tempting to safe keep all pertinent company documents in your private, isolated filing cabinet, it’s important to understand that there is a better, safer, more effective way.

One of the biggest benefits of contractor management software is that you’ll be able to set parameters for your organization’s specific compliance requirements. From there, you can upload documents and let automation handle the rest.

With a quick search query you’ll be able to:

Make sure that all of your contingency workers have their certifications up to date
Verify specific tax considerations for each job site
Manage documents relating to incident reports and insurance claims

Beyond the increased level of organization and speed of access, your documents will be safer, too—a cloud-based, cryptographically protected, backed-up document storage solution will make sure that your data is never lost or damaged.

Compared to the single, lock-and-key filing cabinet, contractor management software is a much better solution for making sure that you and your employees are fully protected, both physically and legally.

Better Talent Acquisition and Onboarding

Your employees are the lifeblood of your business—making sure that your pool of prospective talent stays warm should be of the utmost priority.

The hiring and onboarding processes are never without hiccups and a substantial time commitment. This becomes even more true when your business relies on the services of subcontractors and freelancers.

Hr Manager Hand Hold Cv Resume Of Construction Worker Over Group Of People Different Professions Choose Candidate

Building a better and more efficient hiring process takes time, energy, and yes, money. Investing in your employees and their well-being begins before they officially sign on—it starts with the hiring process itself.

The good news is that your talent acquisition solution doesn’t have to break the bank. Instead of relying on costly sites such as Indeed, ZipRecruiter, and LinkedIn to manage your hiring processes, you can (easily and cost-efficiently) handle it internally. Better yet—most of the process can be automated.

Beyond cost savings, you’ll be able to find candidates that truly match your organization’s needs.

The best contractor management software solutions offer an integrated HR portal that handles everything you need to attract, hire, onboard, and retain top talent. Create job postings, store background checks, resumes, and other documents, and automate recruiting workflows by position.

Operational Overview

While delegation and trust are important qualities of being a business leader, it’s still just as important to maintain an accurate, informed overview of all of your business operations.

Though you may not be directly involved in certain aspects of a project lifecycle, it’s still crucial to be able to access all of that information at a glance.

Let’s take a look at this example:

A customer drastically changes their mind about the direction of a project. In the beginning, they were looking for something “simplistic”, but things have changed—new decision-makers have been appointed, and they have their own vision of how things should look. They’re signing the checks, after all, so you do your best to accommodate.

Your project manager comes to you for input about the client’s requested changes.

“We’re going to need a bigger daily budget, more highly-specialized contractors, new materials that need to be shipped from halfway across the world…”

As you’ve probably witnessed firsthand, the list of variables that change during the lifecycle of a project is seldom only three items long. If your processes are disconnected and disorganized, the logistics of making these changes a reality will be a major headache.

Double-checking figures, searching for missing documents, scouring through old text messages and emails, manually taking inventory—in all reality, these few hang-ups only scratch the surface of what you’ll need to account for.

Project managers, and employees in helmets

Contractor management software keeps the small details neatly organized while never losing sight of the big picture. Create interactive workflows, organize tasks for each employee with smart labeling technology, and easily adjust job scopes and timelines.

Not only will this make you and your workers’ lives easier, but it’ll also provide your client with up-to-the-minute, fully transparent information.

Even after the contractors are done, it’s important to remember that they’re not the only people involved in the business surrounding buying, selling, and maintaining it. It’s important to make sure that the software you choose to help increase efficiency and boost profits also acts as software for real estate development teams that are affiliated with this property.

Contractor Management Software Keeps Your Business Moving

Contracting is never a one-size-fits-all industry. No matter the project, there will always be changes, updates, and hurdles. This will never change. As a leader, your job is to navigate these choppy waters with planned precision and professionalism.

Contractor management software helps immensely—it allows you to plan ahead while being able to make adjustments with ease. It allows you to intuitively remove inefficiencies in order to cut costs. It also allows you to plan for the future by ensuring that your pipeline of contractors and subcontractors is skilled and plentiful.

all in one contractor and construction management software

If you find yourself consistently looking for a better, less stressful path to completed jobs and sustained success, contractor management software will allow you to accomplish just that.

Automation: Linking Manufacturers and Localization

Posted on April 21, 2021May 9, 2023 by Julie Basello

For a long time, manufacturers have operated within the parameters of globalization as a necessary strategy for success in a worldwide marketplace.

What is the definition of globalization? According to the World Economic Forum, globalization can be defined in simple terms as “the process by which people and goods move easily across borders. Principally, it’s an economic concept – the integration of markets, trade, and investments with few barriers to slow the flow of products and services between nations.”

In manufacturing, globalization has long been a strategy. Because of this strategy, products produced in large factories in low-cost areas such as Asia have benefited consumers. Low costs for doing business have generated operational cost savings that have been transferred to end users. The volume of available products has also been a benefit to consumers.

Yet globalization may be moving past its prime in terms of effectiveness in the world of manufacturing. Labor pools are dwindling and costs of doing business continue to rise. There is a shift towards localization happening in manufacturing.

This shift provides economic opportunities for companies of all sizes and it’s changing how manufacturers are doing business. When you add automation into this shifting paradigm, it becomes even more effective.

What is localization?

In manufacturing, localization is having a network of smaller manufacturing facilities around the world rather than a few large production centers. Why is localization important in manufacturing? It allows manufacturers to be closer to where their customers are. With a localization strategy, large companies can still think globally but build locally. This is efficiently achieved through automation in the form of micro factories.

What is a microfactory?

Microfactories are smaller factories that utilize automation rather than human labor, saving money while increasing the quality of production and consistency of output.

Normally, smaller factories serving regional markets would seem at odds with the goals of large companies with production centers. Through automation in the form of microfactories, however, large companies can effectively achieve localization strategies. This opens the door to lower costs, more efficient operations, and greater scope of use for manufacturers. It gives large companies the best of both worlds.

Microfactories have another added benefit in the world marketplace. They even the playing field because they make manufacturing more accessible to businesses that can’t afford massive manufacturing overhead but still have products to produce.

Small businesses looking to better utilize automation can now utilize the scale of manufacturing for their products without the overhead costs that exist in a global strategy. With machine automation and localization, and the cost efficiencies that accompany them, manufacturing becomes accessible to just about anyone.

There are many cost benefits to automation as it affects localization. But there are other benefits for manufacturers as well. Proximity to customers means businesses can be more in tune with customer wants and needs. Marketing plans can be geared towards a specific regional audience and campaigns can be responsive to what customers respond to.

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Globalization is losing the impact it once had in a world where consumer demand for authenticity and affinity is steadily increasing. Automation, as a bridge for manufacturers, increases the ability for companies of all sizes to embrace localization and succeed in a rapidly changing marketplace.