These days, making your business as efficient as possible is one of the top priorities of employers and entrepreneurs everywhere. Thanks to the rising costs of practically everything, it’s crucial that modern companies are as lean as possible in order to maximise their productivity and grow their revenue.

 

Yet time and again, when we’re out and about in the offices of Manchester’s business community, we see endless examples of office inefficiencies continuing, and often for no better reason than because ‘that’s the way we’ve always done it’! But the good news is that it doesn’t have to carry on like that; with a little bit of creative thinking, you could tackle the biggest problem areas in your office and instantly see your bottom line soar as a result. 

 

1. Paper

 

It’s one of the biggest giveaways of an inefficient office; great towers of paper dotted all over the place. Just think about the process that every single one of those pieces of paper must go through – receiving, reading, logging, responding, filing etc. – and then multiply that by the number of pieces of paper you’ve got. That’s a lot of time your employees are handling simple, repetitive tasks when they could be doing something dynamic and productive.

 

 

Now obviously we understand that getting rid of paper from offices is quite a radical notion and, more often than not, not even possible. Especially for many industries and business sectors, paper will forever be indispensable, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things you can do to reduce the paper burden.

 

Streamline Your Processes

 

To begin with, simply reviewing your processes can shed a lot of the excess; let’s be honest, you probably haven’t overhauled your systems for a while, so sitting down and working out what is absolutely essential and what can be jettisoned is always a productive exercise. Maybe you don’t need to send out invoices in triplicate anymore? Perhaps quotes and proposals could be emailed instead of printed and bound before sending? You’ll probably be amazed by how much you can simplify things when you look at it with a fresh perspective.

 

Likewise, looking at the way similar or even just comparable companies from around the world do business can give you a good example of where you could be more efficient, or adopting a system such as the Lean Principles could instantly advance your waste reduction goals. Simply eliminating unnecessary stages or duplication in your processes could help identify additional capacity, improve your overall productivity and, best of all, make your staff happier.

 

 

2. Filing Cabinets

 

It’s a widely accepted fact that, the more filing cabinets you have, the less efficient your office is. It’s obvious really; all that paper that has had to be processed and filed, all that saving and archiving of documents that may never see the light of day again, all that time your staff spend searching for a piece of paper every time they want to reference anything, that burden of training new staff in your unique (but endlessly complex) filing system whenever you employ someone new, or even – heaven forbid – the chaos that erupts when the one person in the office who actually understands the filing system is off for any length of time.

 

 

Well enough! In today’s technologically advanced world, there is absolutely no need whatsoever to hoard a small rainforest of paper in your office forever more. We’re not saying that every business can and should instantly torch their filing cabinet repository, nor will it be an instant or painless job to digitise your records, but there are ways of starting the process of casting-off these leviathans of old commerce that shouldn’t break the business or the bank.

 

Purge The Paper

 

Again, the best way to start with these things is to start at the very beginning (a very good place to start). First of all, be honest with yourself about when the last time you had a decent clear-out was; company records only need to be kept for the previous 6 years so, even if you have the most cautious of accountants, there’s no need to go back more than 10 years. That means, that if the Crazy Frog was in the charts the last time you overhauled your filing cabinets, you’re long overdue for a clear out!

 

But if you really wanted to drag your office into the 21^st century, then the most efficient and cost effective way of doing it is through software. As we’ve already mentioned, it may not be practical for your business to go completely paperless, but there are steps that you can take in that direction that really could revolutionise the way you work.

 

Just imagine if, instead of having to go to a specific location and spend 10 minutes hunting out a document, any member of your staff could find any document they wanted in seconds. And instead of wasting half a day each week sorting out the dreaded filing pile, your secretaries could instantly scan, categorise and archive a document within seconds of it arriving in the office. Sounds appealing? Well it’s more achievable than you think. Thanks to numerous software packages that are now available, such as Papercut or Filestar, you could revolutionise the way you work and free up your staff from repetitive and unproductive jobs, enabling them to focus on the productive ones!

 

3. Office Equipment

 

And finally, but by no means least, one of the biggest inefficiencies in your office is probably your equipment! From old computers that take an age to process the simplest of tasks, to out-dated photocopiers that take far too long to copy anything, to ancient printers that use a full ink cartridge every time they print a colour document, the chances are that your office equipment is wasting your business time, resources and money.

 

 

Even if the actual equipment itself works fine – and you live by the maxim ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ – then that doesn’t mean it’s still serving you well. In fact, it could be costing you a small fortune in electricity, consumables, paper, time, even space, and whilst upgrading your equipment might seem like an unnecessary luxury, not doing so might actually be a false economy.

 

Audit Your Resources

 

Simply by taking a fresh look at the way you work could have a dramatic impact on your bottom line. For example, switching from several individual devices to one single, multifunction device could save you a significant chunk of your budget, plus running one efficient machine instead of several not only reduces your costs but also reduces the amount of physical space you need, as well as slashes your energy usage and therefore boosts your carbon footprint, all of which helps both your bottom line and your public image!

 

And just to make the whole process even easier for you, North West Digital are on hand to help you figure out just how much you could save and where. With our free audit, we’ll come to your workplace and do a full assessment of all your usage, looking at who uses your equipment and how, and also where your major inefficiencies lie and what can be implemented to rectify the unique problems your company faces.

 

 

Thanks to our decades of experience in this area, we understand how businesses function, but we’re also experts in the products and services we supply, so we can recommend the best combination of software and state-of-the-art machinery to make you the most efficient you can possibly be.

 

Get In Touch

 

So if you’d like NWD to help you weed out the waste and create a sleek and efficient modern company, then why not get in touch with us today? You can phone us on 0161 477 8950, email us at info@ or fill out the contact form on the website and one of our fabulous team will get back to you ASAP.