Practical tips for improving your business performance

Boost your business performance with practical tips

High competition forces companies to improve their performance on a daily basis to ensure that they use the best processes and get the best results. In the hectic days of the business world, it is not always easy to find ways to improve performance and we often focus only on cost savings and we forget the other things. In this article, we present you practical tips to improve your company’s performance!

Analyze the business

Sounds like a basic tip, but it fails so many times. In most companies, managers base their decisions on reports a few days late, which makes their action always responsive and non-proactive. Analyzing the business in real time is increasingly a trend in the business world by which software like Multipeers make more and more sense. If you know at every moment what is going on in your business, you will be able to make the best decisions and you will always be one step ahead of your competition.

Invest in training

Training employees is an investment that brings a positive return in the short term. The more skilled the employees are, the better they will be able to perform their tasks and consequently the company’s performance will be better.

Keep focus

In your day-to-day life you should eliminate all kinds of distractions that could delay your work. This doesn’t mean cutting off access to social networks or stopping coffee breaks. The most important thing is to keep employees motivated and committed to doing the tasks because if they are committed to their tasks, it will be easier to eliminate the distractions in a natural way.

Avoid unnecessary meetings

It is a common practice in business world to have meetings for all reasons and without realizing this is one of the main reasons why we waste more time. It is advisable to have meetings held standing so that people do not sit back and talk objectively about the main issues.

Advance work

“Do not leave to tomorrow what you can do today” is a valuable rule and has positive consequences for a more productive day. If you arrive early to work don’t wait for your schedule to start and go ahead with that complicated task you have been putting off.

Take short breaks

Contrary to popular belief, spending too much time in front of the computer is not synonymous with higher productivity. Taking small breaks throughout the day is advised to keep you focused for the rest of the day. This will free up your mind and will be able to accomplish your tasks with greater focus.

7 Tips for Making Better Decisions for Your Business

Find the best tips to make the best decisions

Managing a company is making choices daily and knowing how to deal with the consequences of those choices. In the chaotic world of business, it is not easy to know which way we should go, but there are a number of tricks that help us to make the best decisions. Here are 7 tips to make the right decisions for your business!

Have an analytical thought

Making decisions involves a deep understanding of the context and the implications that the decision will have for the business. All scenarios should be analyzed taking into account the various variables involved in the process. Within this analytical thought, you should put into discussion the mistakes previously made in similar situations. Mistakes of the past are good teachers for the decisions of the present.

Review the data correctly

The data are the most important assets of your business and they have very important information for a conscious decision making. Software such as Multipeers, which allow you to analyze your business in real-time, are essential in today’s business world as changes happen at a rapid pace and managers need to keep abreast of what’s happening so they can make decisions on right time.

Accept that there is not only one right answer

The choice that seems like the ideal today may not be the best tomorrow. In business decision-making there is not just one right answer and decisions have to be made keeping in mind the current context of the business. The manager should put all possible answers on the table and analyze the pros and cons, keeping in mind that there may be more than one right answer to the same situation.

Consider the long term

Most managers favor decisions that seem to bring greater returns in the short run, eventually forgetting about the long run. Making decisions that only aim at the short term means that in the future the business can be compromised. All decisions must be taken after analyzing the impact they will have in the short and long term.

Listen to the opinion of others

Company employees should be involved in the most important decisions. Listening to their opinion is important because it will increase their sense of belonging. In addition, they live the business daily and will certainly have a different view on some aspects of the business, so their opinion is essential for a more effective decision making.

Be rational

It is critical not to be guided by emotions when you are making a decision. It is impossible not to get emotionally involved with your business, but when it comes to making decisions you should put emotion aside and act rationally, otherwise it may compromise the future of the business.

Don’t delay decisions

We tend to postpone difficult decisions even though we will have to act sooner or later. If you already know what decision you are going to make and the consequences this will have for your business, it is not worth putting off any longer. The business needs dynamism and it is through the decisions that it evolves!

5 Advantages of digital transformation for your business

Find how digital transformation can help your business

Digital transformation is revolutionizing the business world and goes far beyond of eliminating paper in companies. This is a technology-enhanced process that should fit into the company’s strategy. Digital transformation is a complex and time-consuming process, but the advantages it brings to companies are vast. In this article, we will explore the top 5 advantages of digital transformation for your business!

Increases efficiency and productivity

Entering data manually, lack of inter-departmental communication, and delayed processes limits final production. These aspects are conditional for efficiency and can be eliminated with the use of appropriate technologies. Replacing manual processes with automated workflows ensures complete control over business activities. Adopting tools such as Multipeers that allow you to analyze business data in real time will eliminate delays in the reports and productivity will be greater.

Increases competitiveness

Digital transformation makes processes more fluid and managing all departments of the company becomes an easier and more intuitive task. The definition, implementation and improvement of business processes for a more practical and facilitative approach is the goal of adopting new technologies in business. With a more organized and fluid structure, the company will gain a competitive position compared to its direct competitors.

Improves customer satisfaction

Technology enables customers to become closer to brands and establish a stronger loyalty relationship. With the use of social networks, nowadays it is possible to make a presence in the daily life of potential clients through sharing on social media and special offers. Companies are also adopting the sending of special offers by SMS and e-mail, which makes the customer feel special. On the other hand, e-commerce also makes the customer more satisfied. Anytime and anywhere, we can easily purchase products, so adopting online stores is an essential strategy for anyone who wants to win in today’s competitive and digital world.

Opportunity to innovate

When companies implement digital transformation in their business, they are able to include improvements in their processes, thus promoting innovation. They also have greater scope to innovate their products and services because the inclusion of new technologies allows them to include significant improvements in their offer.

Reduction of costs

The main concern of managers is always to find ways to reduce business costs. Digital transformation, particularly the use of cloud services, enables companies to significantly reduce their operating costs. Using this technology allows you to reduce or even eliminate your local IT infrastructure, decrease the volume of impressions and hold meetings via Skype, eliminating long travel expenses.

Technology has come to stay and if we know how to use it, we can make the most of its benefits. A company that doesn’t adapt to the digital world we live in, will see its success quite compromised!

Get to know Multipeers and implement a change in your company today!

7 habits that all leaders must adopt

Know the 7 most important habits that all leaders should adopt

The leadership ability is to be able to lead a group of people that results in a team that produces good results. The role of a leader/manager of a company is not always easy: he has to be able to manage, motivate and encourage his teams so that they feel committed to the individual and global goals of the organization. In this article, we’ll introduce you to 7 habits that all leaders must adopt to make their management effective!

Know how to listen
This advices fits into any area of personal and professional life. People say that as we have two ears and only one mouth, we should talk less and hear more! In the business world, the leader must know how to listen to his employees because only then he will be able to find problems and implement improvements. When the leader listens to his or her employees, a closer relationship is established between them and together they will be able to find answers that will be beneficial to management.

Constantly evaluate the business
“A business that produces nothing but money is a poor business”: the celebrated phrase is by Henry Ford and still stands today. A good leader should evaluate a business as a whole and not just focus on money. The manager should be able to assess the financial aspects, but also the aspects related to employee motivation, working conditions and social impact of the business.

Be resilient
Resilience is the ability to deal with defeat and is one of the characteristics that must be worked out so that we know how to succeed. All managers have to be prepared to make mistakes and fail. A weak leader, after a defeat, will feel frustrated and will stop taking risks and will inevitably fail to get good results. A good leader will look at defeat as “a stepping stone to success” as they will be motivated to do more and better on the next try.

Simplify processes
“Simplicity is the supreme sophistication”: this phrase was on the first flyer of Apple and was a philosophy followed by Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs eliminated all the accessory elements and focused only on what was really important. Managers tend to complicate everything from creating reports to holding extensive meetings. A good manager should be able to present the information to his team in a simple and easy-to-understand way so that the work can flow at a good pace. This increasing need for this simplicity was one reason why software such as Multipeers has emerged, allowing you to analyze information in real time in a simple, practical and intuitive way.

Give Feedback
A good leader should always give a constructive opinion to the work done by his team. When there is no communication from the leader or manager, the employees will feel discouraged and will feel that their work have no importance. If a job has many mistakes, the leader should not criticize the employee in front of his colleagues as this will have a negative effect on his work. Criticism must be done on its own and always in a constructive way.

Know how to delegate
It is essential for a leader to delegate tasks. Otherwise, you will be overworked and you will not be able to complete all the tasks. Often leaders don’t delegate because they don’t trust the team enough and this causes them to have a work overload, which is not beneficial to them or to the team. The manager has to know his team well to know who can deliver each task.

Lead by example
“Look at what I say and don’t look at what I do” is a philosophy that cannot be followed in the business world. The leader is a mirror to the collaborators and is the crucial example. More important than words are attitudes and actions and therefore, the leader should have as main concern lead by example. It is only through this kind of leadership that it will enable people to follow and commit to the goals of the organization.

Google tools that will help your business

Find how Google can help you with your business

Google is the biggest Internet giant and anyone who works with technology can no longer live without it. The term “google it” (looking for information about something in the search engine) is part of our day-to-day life, but Google is much more than a search engine: it’s a powerful tool that can help you with your business. In this article we introduce Google tools that will help you have more effective and productive days!

Google My Business

Google My Business

Google My Business provides very useful information about a business, such as address, phone number, and hours of operation. It also allows you to call the company with just one click. This is a free tool and you can enter all the information about your company there. It works very well locally and is especially appropriate for small business. Through this tool you can have driving directions to the company and ask for the company itself to get in touch with you.

Google PageSpeed ​​Insights

Google Pagespeed Insights

This free online tool allows you to verify the speed with which the content of your site is uploaded. In addition to indicating the speed at which the site loads, Google PageSpeed ​​Insights also gives you improvement tips so you can optimize your website’s load time to the maximum level. It’s important to keep in mind that the speed of a website is one of the most important factors to have a good position in Google. Nowadays, the consumer is very impatient and will not have the patience to wait for your site to load and it is more likely that he or she goes to another site and you miss the opportunity to have a new client.

Google Trends

Google Trends

It’s one of the most powerful tools but one of the most underestimated too. Google Trends is mandatory for companies that like to produce relevant content. This tool gives us information about the most searched themes at the moment, according to geographic location. It is good for SEO and for increasing visits for websites and blogs. It allows to monitor in real time everything that goes on in the World.

Google Alerts

Google Alerts

This tool allows you to set alerts to be informed whenever any mention about your company is made by any website or blog. It’s also very important to follow the competition. You can set alerts about your two or three biggest competitors so you do not lose anything of what they’re doing right now. This way you will always be informed and you can act immediately so that you don’t get out of the competition.

Google Analytics

This is a must have tool if you want to have a good online presence. Through Google Analytics, you can track your website results: number of visits, organic visits, visits from social networks, bounce rate, country with more visits, among many other metrics that will help you understand the state in which your website is. With Analytics you can implement actions to improve the performance of your website and consequently sell more.

Keyword Planner

Keyword Planner is part of Google Adwords. Adwords allows you to create paid ads that put your company website first. However, Keyword Planner is free and is a powerful tool to find the right keywords for your business. This tool tells you the average monthly search for a certain keyword and also tells you if you have a high, medium or low competition. So you can see if the keyword is good or bad and if it is worth investing in it on your website!

5 Infallible Tips to Increase Productivity

Improve your productivity with our tips

All professionals want to do their work within the established deadlines, without compromising the quality of the final result. Throughout a day’s work, the tasks are immense and sometimes it’s difficult to make a good time management, which compromises daily productivity. We present you with 5 sure-fire tips to increase your productivity without harm the quality of your work!

Balance between working time and rest time

When we have a lot to do, we tend to opt to work longer hours. But actually working more hours doesn’t mean working better. If we are tired, our income will be very low and then the quality of the work will be totally compromised. It’s advised that for each hour of work, take a rest period of ten minutes. In your daily work plan, include time for breaks. With these short breaks, you will feel more energetic and have a greater intellectual capacity to face all the challenges!

Dedicate yourself to one task at a time

It’s good to be able to do several things simultaneously and today multitasking is a very appreciated competence in companies. However, to increase your productivity you should focus on one task at a time. If you decide to do several things at the same time you will reach the end of the day without having finished any of them. Set a priority task for each day and devote all your attention to getting it done.

Don’t be too perfectionist

In all the tasks you perform you should always strive to do your best. However, the pursuit for perfection can become an obsession and hamper your productivity. Don’t be too picky to set unreachable goals that will only make you feel frustrated when you realize that you cannot achieve them. Set rigid deadlines to complete a task and don’t constantly look for defects that will delay the delivery of the work.

Be proactive

“Don’t leave for tomorrow what you can do today”: it’s an old saying that is really right. If you have time to solve a situation today, why are you going to solve it tomorrow? In the world of work, unforeseen events occur and urgent situations appear frequently. So if you have time to do a task today, don’t pass it on to tomorrow. Surely tomorrow something important will come up to do and you will run out of time to sort it all out. Don’t procrastinate in the freest hours: go ahead and see your productivity increase!

Use a management software

We need information to work and it isn’t always easy to access all the data we need. Adopting business monitoring software such as Multipeers helps to reduce the time it takes to find information in a drastic way, which frees you up for other tasks. This software allows you to analyze the business in real time, through an intuitive and simple dashboard, where you will find all the information from the most diverse data sources that you need to perform your tasks. Multipeers also allows the definition of business alerts that warn you whenever a situation requires your intervention, allowing you to act immediately.

Is your business data secure?

Find out if your business data is safe

About 30% of people who use a computer don’t make backups. Many of these people don’t back up their personal information, but they also don’t guarantee copies of business information. A good technological infrastructure is as important today as having solid foundations that physically support the organization. Nowadays, information is one of the most important assets of a company and it’s imperative to invest in its security to survive and win in a competitive business world.

Companies today face major security threats because of the mobility, big data, and Internet of Things. Antivirus is no longer able to guarantee systems and access protection by itself, and it’s only the first layer of protection that must be encompassing and cross-cutting across the entire organization.

Threat of mobility

Mobility allows you to access company information from anywhere and from any device. The management of this risk must be considered by the company’s managers. To do this, they must ensure good management of threats and incidents through protocols that monitor all system failures. They must also prevent the loss of information in all areas, whether through access, system failures or accidental data deletion by the employees themselves. Finally, they must implement compliance policies and rules that ensure the proper functioning of security mechanisms.

Alliance between productivity and security

A good security plan ensures that accesses from the most varied devices are safe, regardless of the platform used. Thus, companies guarantee the productivity of their resources, through the protection of sensitive data. Nowadays it’s possible to share machines with different users without giving passwords. Biometric technology ensures fast and secure authentication.

Define multiple layers of protection

The dangers to information security are increasingly diverse and come in many forms. Companies must rely on several layers of protection that are articulated together that result in an insoluble protective shield. Solutions like antivirus, firewall, data encryption, security of mobile equipment and anti-ransomware solutions are mandatory in any company.

Be proactive

Repair is not a valid choice when it comes to information security. However, there are still companies that don’t have an active security plan and after the incidents have attempted to fix situations. A company nowadays cannot run the risk of seeing all their data exposed or made illegible and having the awareness of the importance of activating security plans is the first step to protect their information.

Disaster Plan activation

Disaster Recovery is a plan that ensures that a disaster doesn’t affect the company’s performance and guarantees the desired level of performance. They also have a reactive action because they carry out actions in emergency situations that were previously planned. Companies dealing with large volumes of data should always opt for this system because they guarantee the protection and recovery of data even in more extreme situations.

The security strategy must be seen as mandatory in today’s companies, so that there is no possibility of getting lost in digital transformation. Security must be a commitment assumed by all elements of an organization and top management must promote a comprehensive strategy for implementing a strong and secure organizational culture.

Find the most frequent Cloud Computing mistakes

Find the Mistakes to Avoid in Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing means that you don’t need a place to access files and programs: everything is done in the cloud through an access to remote servers. However, it’s necessary to take into account that there are vulnerabilities in this type of technology and that some errors can have great operational and financial implications for the companies. Get to know in this article the main mistakes made in Cloud Computing!

Lack of planning by managers

You must decide which files and programs will migrate to the cloud. Likewise, it’s necessary to always have a prepared Plan B: if the Cloud service fails, how can employees continue to work? Activating a disaster plan and frequently doing backups are two good options to minimize impacts if something goes bad.

Failure to define accesses

In order to ensure the privacy and security of your information, different levels of access must be defined for different users. It isn’t advisable that all employees have free access to all of the content in the Cloud. To ensure data security, each employee must have access only to the information he needs to perform his work.

Lack of security concern

Nothing is a hundred percent foolproof and one of the major disadvantages of cloud technology is that a company’s data and files run the risk of being unprotected. Security issues should be planned at an early stage at the time of transition from the location to the cloud. Really sensitive information shouldn’t be migrated abroad. However, cloud technology is proving to be more and more secure, and security-related risks will be increasingly reduced.

Having an unsuitable Internet service

Cloud technology calls for good Internet access. If there isn’t a good server and a good data connection, access to the cloud will be more time consuming and complicated. The tendency is to blame the Cloud Computing services but problem is internal.

Wrong choice of Cloud Computing service

There is the general and erroneous idea that any Cloud Computing service is perfect for a company. However, a Cloud Computing service is just like any other and should be chosen according to the specific needs of the company.

Technology and business management: main changes

Get to know the main changes that technology has brought to the management

The technology is here to stay and its evolution is getting faster and faster. Companies need to adapt to change so they will easily be outdone by competition. In today’s business world, day-to-day routine is dominated by machines, which in most cases represents higher levels of productivity and lower costs. In this article we will present you the key changes that technology has brought to business management.

Reduction of time spent dealing with administrative issues

Administrative issues consume a great deal of time in companies but they are strictly necessary for the proper functioning of organizations. However, thanks to management software and process automation, today it’s easier to manage the administrative part of a company, automating processes and freeing up human resources for other tasks.

Better time management in the commercial area

One of the most recurring complaints of commercials is the lack of time. Trips to a meeting are often time consuming and this causes a waste of time without a real production. Due to the technology, it’s possible to make a meeting via Skype and videoconference, which eliminates the time spent on travel. Meeting in person is essential, but in a first phase the face-to-face meeting can be replaced by a “remote” meeting. CRM systems also allow professionals in the commercial area to have a more organized day-to-day life, which is an indispensable tool for their work.

Growth of digital marketing

The current consumer lives online. If before we only surfed the Internet through computers, nowadays, due to the growing of the use of mobile devices, we can “live online”. Thus, companies have increasingly bet on digital marketing, investing in appealing and responsive websites and communicating products and services through social networks. Digital marketing brings very positive results to companies because it’s easier to target the audience we want to reach as well as create a stronger relationship with the customer.

Deeper study of competition

Nowadays it’s very easy to know what our competition is doing. The market is no longer static or closed and companies are aware that with the great use of Internet they can no longer live without communication. Nowadays, through websites, blogs, social networks and newsletters, we can always be aware of what our main competitors are doing.

Business monitoring and follow-up

Thanks to business monitoring systems such as Multipeers it’s possible to analyze the status of the business at any moment. In this way, decisions are based on up-to-date information, which makes them more aware and effective. Analyzing the business in real time through appropriate performance indicators has changed the whole way of running a business. Nowadays, it isn’t necessary to access reports that are difficult to read and analyze, because all information about the company can be available on the desktop and on mobile devices.

5 tips from Gartner to analyze your data in real time

Get the tips from Gartner

Gartner is the world’s largest leader in technology advice and research and supports the importance of real-time data analysis for better decision-making. “Real-time analytics can enable data science teams to perform modeling, simulations, and optimizations based on a complete set of transaction data, not just samples,” said one Gartner analyst. In this article, we present you 5 tips from Gartner to properly analyze your data in real time!

Turn time-consuming operational decisions into real-time decisions

Operational decisions are repeated very regularly in a structured way. Changing slow decisions to real-time decisions requires new methodologies. Make data readily available so that operational decisions are based on facts that are happening at the time and not based on old data.

Make frequent changes to simplify processes

Review how decisions are made in your company and find ways to improve it. Let’s use the example of the template used to approve transactions by the company’s credit card. This model is developed once in historical data and is now used to evaluate credit card transactions in real time for several weeks or months. It’s important to monitor the results to ensure that the models work correctly. If they don’t work, you need to modify the rules and analyze often to get the best possible way to decide correctly.

Use business alerts

Business monitoring systems work continuously, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Software such as Multipeers track all events as they occur. You can and should set business alerts to be warned whenever something out of the standard considered normal occurs. In this way, you will be alerted via e-mail and/or SMS about the situations that require your attention. It ensures that you don’t lose any important information about the business and you have the possibility of acting immediately.

Be consistent with the operational method

The use of dashboards with real-time information about the company possibilities you to create a common operating framework for all employees. However, it’s possible to define which indicators each employee will receive so that he receives only the information necessary for the execution of his daily work. In this way, the company has a more organized and focused day-to-day life.

Consider decision-making as a discipline

The management of information for the correct decision making is the progress of the design of systems that make decisions. Decision-making systems are run through rule mechanisms, which are divided between software and people-real decision-makers. Look at this component as important to business success as a discipline, creating rules and working methods that allow you to analyze data correctly and decide securely.