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What Is Business Consulting and What Advantages Does It Provide?

Posted on August 31, 2023 by Epic IT Automations

Consulting is notorious for being one of those jobs your friends don’t understand. If you’ve ever been interested in consulting but too afraid to ask what it entails, we’ve got you.

What Is a Business Consultant?

‌A business consultant is an individual who works closely with business owners and managers who want to improve operations and efficiency, grow their businesses or maintain existing positive trends.

Business consultants act as partners in identifying and overcoming the obstacles that arise along a company’s path to meet its goals.

What Does a Business Consultant Do?

There are consultants who specialize in specific industries, while others take a more general approach. Specific services vary by consulting firm, but here are some of the most common responsibilities of a consultant:

Identify obstacles preventing growth or efficiency
‌Pinpoint opportunities for change and help implement changes
Provide training and resources to staff and management
Bring out-of-the-box ideas to refresh processes or establish workflows
Assist in business planning and creating new businesses
Assess, hire and fire staff as necessary
Implement new programs
Analyze a company’s budget, suggest adjustments and implement suggestions
Locate vendors and partners

What Kinds of Businesses Need a Consultant?

Nearly any business can benefit from hiring a business consultant. Here are a few examples of scenarios in which a consultant might assist in various stages of growth or facing a range of challenges.

Startups can complete the planning phase and get a strong initial boost using third-party data analysis.
Growth-stage businesses can access a fresh perspective as they advance and try out new strategies.
‌Organizations that are not meeting their financial goals can dig deeply into their accounting history and practices.
‌Companies adding a new department can get support with setup and staffing.

What Are the Advantages of Business Consultants?

Having gathered insights and expertise from many clients and industries, consultants often have more and different resources than internal employees. Their “bird’s eye view” can complement the experience of seasoned business managers and owners. An outsider is often better at pinpointing strengths or weaknesses than someone entrenched in a business.

There are some cases in which consultants can also make processes much faster. Especially when a team is building a new campaign or business plan, a consultant can come in with clear steps and assignments right away. Many also have a strong network of service providers and external resources.

Whether the focus is a budget adjustment, a sales revamp or a marketing initiative, business consultants tend to generate a wealth of creative solutions.

What Tools Do Business Consultants Use?

‌Being a business consultant requires a lot of planning, researching and organizing. The right tools can help consultants perform at their best. Below are five of the most important categories of tech in consulting.

1. CRM Software

‌CRM software is for more than keeping track of client information and interactions, sharing files and tracking lead progress. With accurate data attached to a client record, it should ultimately help develop strong relationships and support accurate internal and external communication.

2. Proposal Software

‌Consultants send business proposals regularly, so using a platform that provides templates can save hours. Proposal software also maintains consistency in branding and style.

3. Project Management Tools

‌Most business consultants manage several different clients at a time — and multiple projects for each client. Ideally, they need project management tools built to support client-based businesses. ‌

4. Time-Tracking Tool

‌A business consultant typically charges by the hour, so keeping up with billable hours is a foundational aspect of consulting. Moreover, these hours need to be tracked per client and per project.

5. Cloud Automation Software

‌Automated work management software like Accelo can streamline your workflow and simplify your days. By integrating current apps into a single platform, business consultants can easily manage sales, projects and more — no matter where they are.

If you think you can benefit from hiring a business consultant, give Epic IT Automations a call! We’ll help you identify obstacles preventing your business growth or efficiency and help you pinpoint opportunities for change and help implement changes.

Source: Accelo

7 Reasons to Invest in Your Employees Learning Automation

Posted on August 7, 2023 by Epic IT Automations

In today’s increasingly competitive market, businesses should be looking at ways to keep employees engaged as well as maximize profit. One way of achieving both these goals is by investing in your employees learning automation. Not only does it upskill your staff but introducing automated processes makes the business more efficient, saves money, and increases profits. It’s a win-win!

According to a recent McKinsey report, “over the next ten to 15 years, the adoption of automation and AI technologies will transform the workplace…”. They also say that “these technologies will bring numerous benefits in the form of higher productivity, GDP growth, improved corporate performance and new prosperity…”. And finally, “to harness the new technologies to their full effect, companies will need to retool their corporate structures and their approaches to work. That change will require redesigned business processes and a new focus on the talent they have – and the talent they need…”.

So here are our top seven reasons why you should invest in your employees learning automation:

1. You don’t need a highly skilled IT team for automation

The first reason to invest in your employees learning automation is that it will save money as you won’t need to hire an expensive development team. Modern digital tools like Zapier are no-code applications that don’t require highly-skilled programmers to deliver streamlined, integrated systems. The employees who are doing the day-to-day tasks are the ones who are best placed to automate them. They will know better than anyone where efficiencies can be made, which systems are being used, and how to optimize their processes.

2. Increased productivity

If you invest in your employees learning automation then they will achieve higher productivity. Removing manual effort means they have more time to focus on being creative and supporting your business goals. This has many benefits, from lower costs and happier customers to increased profits.

3. Better data

If employees are fluent in automation then they will be able to spot opportunities for tracking data, and it won’t take any extra time to capture it once it has been set up. With Zapier it’s easy to configure triggers to count activities, sales, visitors, transactions, expenses, just about anything! Once you have the data then you can also use Zapier to help with analysis by triggering information to be sent to spreadsheets and databases, or even retrieving data from Google Analytics. Reports can be delivered seamlessly to the right people and monitored on an ongoing basis.

4. Scale your business

If employees are bogged down with manual tasks then it’s hard to scale without increasing the size of the team. Recruiting extra people is expensive and is not a great long-term strategy for growing a business unless the tasks can only be done by a human. A better idea is to invest in automation training, then systematize repetitive manual tasks so that staff can concentrate on business growth.

5. Improve efficiency

If your employees are confident automating processes then it makes everything run more smoothly, more efficiently. If you have invested in automation training then it will open their minds about new opportunities for streamlining the business. Things like work allocation, approvals, reviews, managing project tasks and marketing activities are just some of the day-to-day tasks which could benefit from automation. Zapier is so flexible and connects over 6,000 apps which are used in businesses every day, so the chances are there are many of the systems in your own business included. Automation will help you compete in a global marketplace and will help achieve an improvement in overall corporate performance.

6. Better culture

Investing in any training has the benefit of improving your overall business culture. Having an ongoing learning program improves overall employee performance and job satisfaction as well as making staff more competent and confident.

Continuous training increases loyalty too as people can see that you’re investing in them, and also improves agility. Having a multiskilled, agile team will create a more flexible workforce.

7. Improve communication

Investing in your employees learning automation improves communication, both internal and external. Tools like Zapier integrate with many email, messaging, and other communication platforms that it is simple to automate notifications to anybody.

Internal apps such as Slack can be used to notify members of staff when key business milestones have been reached, when sales are made when a customer has contacted you – almost anything you can think of. If employees are aware of the power of Zapier then they will think of new ways of keeping everyone in the loop. External marketing activities can be automated, you can create a sales cadence for new business prospects, you can thank customers for paying invoices, and manage calendars and appointment setting.

If you are ready to introduce automation to your employees and daily business processes but don’t know where to start or what technology is best, give us a call at 608-496-8660 to talk with one of our experienced consultants. We’re happy to get you on the right track!

Source: Solvaa

Not sure when to automate a task? Start here.

Posted on July 26, 2023 by Epic IT Automations

Chances are you’ve automated something without even realizing it.

Do you get an automatic email before calendar events start? That’s automation. Do you get a text alert when it’s almost time to renew a prescription or to remind you about an upcoming appointment? Automation again!

But if you aren’t used to building automated workflows on your own, it can be daunting to think about how you might use automation to save time for yourself, either for your personal life or your business processes. How do you decide what to automate? What can you do better by not doing it yourself? Where do you even start?

We asked Zapier superusers and employees about how they know when to automate a task. Here’s what they had to say:

What is task automation?

Before we tell you when you should automate a task, it might be helpful to explain exactly what we mean when we talk about task automation. Task automation (also called workflow automation) is the act of streamlining and automating a series of tasks within the apps you use.

Automation boils down to a simple command: WHEN and DO. “When this happens, do that.” With a task automation tool like Zapier, even the most complex automation can be broken down into this simple command.

For example, if you want to automate some of your lead management tasks, you might set up a Zap—Zapier’s automated workflows—that follows this command: When you get a new email from a lead, then notify my sales team via a text. That’s task automation!

It’s a task you have to do frequently or on a schedule

When you’re trying to decide which aspects of your work you should automate, a great first question to ask is: What tasks do you perform the most frequently?

Tasks that need to be done often or on a set schedule are perfect for automation because the benefits are immediate. You’ll spend less time every day on repetitive tasks, which can quickly become burdensome or annoying.

“If it’s something I have to do three times, the odds are that I’ll have to do it a fourth and a fifth,” says Kristie Wirth, who works at Zapier as a data scientist. “When I’m tempted to add something as a recurring task in my to-do app, I know it’s probably a good fit for automation. Even if it’s just an annual thing, I’ll still take a stab at automating it.”

Similarly, front-end engineer Caleb Peterson says that he tries to identify the parts of his daily work that are repetitive but also frustrating to do manually.

“I’ll look at automating a task when it’s a part of my daily workflow that’s repetitive or obnoxious,” he says. “A great example is digging the meeting link or location out of my Google Calendar. I’ve got a Zap that drops the location of Google Calendar events into Slack, so I can just grab it right there—instead of having to hunt for it for every meeting I have in a day.”

It involves moving information between apps

Let’s be honest: copy-and-pasting is time-consuming and dreadfully dull. So are other manual ways of moving data, like exporting CSV files from one app and then importing them into another. And if you have to repeat the process multiple times over the course of a day or week, it quickly becomes unmanageable.

“When I’m deciding whether a task is a good fit for automation, I ask: Does it use software/SaaS products from start to finish?” explains Bryan Golkhajeh, a Zapier expert with Workload.

Tasks that involve moving data between apps are perfect for automation. For example, you can create new leads in your CRM whenever someone fills out a form on your website or subscribes to an email marketing campaign.

It’s boring and doesn’t require higher-order thinking

Another key thing to consider is whether a task truly needs a distinctly human touch. Does it require creativity, problem-solving skills, or emotional intelligence? If so, you might not want to automate it. But if it’s a boring, simple task that doesn’t require complex thinking, it could be easily handled by an automation tool like Zapier.

Andrew Davison, a Zapier expert at Luhhu, suggests identifying the tasks that you wish you didn’t have to do.

“Simply put, I ask:

Is this a task I do more than once per month?
Does it involve the same steps every time?
Do I wish I could be doing anything but this?”

It takes you away from what you really want to be doing

And that, ultimately, is the answer for most people: They automate tasks that keep them away from what they wish they would be doing.

Sometimes, those tradeoffs are business-critical functions.

“I consider how much time a task is taking away from core business functions, such as sales or talking to customers,” Golkhajeh says. “If the answer is more than 15 to 20 minutes a day, and it’s a rules-based process that uses software from start to finish, I’m already thinking of automating the heck out of it.”

He explains that, for him, automation isn’t just about saving a few minutes here and there. It’s about how that time adds up over the long term.

“All those little time blocks add up over the course of a year,” he says. “Just do that math: 15 minutes saved per workday, over 252 average workdays in a year, equals about 3,000 minutes saved. That’s more than 60 hours.”

If you are ready to start adding automation to your daily business processes but don’t know where to start or what technology is best, give us a call at 608-496-8660 to talk with one of our experienced consultants. We’re happy to get you on the right track!

Source: Zapier

7 ways to automate spreadsheets

Posted on June 23, 2023 by Epic IT Automations

Spreadsheets are way more versatile than we like to think they are. They can be used to store data, of course, but also used as to-do lists, a browser homepage, and even for games. They’re also a great way to more efficiently analyze data or share information across teams, especially if not everyone has access to the same apps.

Spreadsheets can be central hubs of information connecting your business-critical apps. But manually moving information from app to spreadsheet to app doesn’t allow you to scale your processes and increase the impact of your team and company’s work.

With Zaps—our word for Zapier’s automated, no-code workflows—your spreadsheets can do a lot more than help you keep track of data. They can update themselves, send information to your team or customers, and help you scale your workflows.

Add leads to a spreadsheet

While you likely use a CRM to collect lead information, not everyone in your department or your company may have access to the apps you use every day—seats may be limited, too expensive to share widely, or include sensitive customer data you don’t want to share with everyone.

Large amounts of lead data can also be difficult to parse in a CRM, especially if you’re collecting info from multiple sources. You might also send lead data to other tools for more in-depth analysis. Spreadsheets can make it easier to analyze and share data across teams, helping you improve the performance of your lead campaigns.

Create tasks from your spreadsheet

Whether it’s keeping yourself on track or organizing your team for the week, to-do lists are an essential part of getting things done. Using these Zaps, you can take advantage of the organizational power of spreadsheets, and turn rows into tasks in apps like Trello, Asana, and Notion. Easily create cross-functional tasks for team members across your company or keep your day organized without the extra effort.

Keep your spreadsheets in sync

Do you love Google Sheets, but Marsha in Accounting insists on using Excel? End the spreadsheet debate once and for all by linking everything together with these Zaps.

You can also use Zapier to send information from one sheet to another, if you keep one sheet for personal or team use and then need to send specific information to a shared sheet for wider use.

Add form responses to a spreadsheet

When you’re collecting customer feedback, selling a product, or just trying to get everyone’s lunch orders, using a form is a great way to make sure everyone gives you the information you need. But collecting information is usually just the first step.

By connecting your form app to a spreadsheet, you can automatically create a backup of your form responses so your important data is never lost, easily share your form data with other teams or apps, and more. Use the following Zaps to send form responses to a spreadsheet automatically, so it can be sorted, organized, and acted on efficiently.

Get notifications from your spreadsheets

One major benefit to collaborative office platforms like OneDrive or Google Suite is that you can collaborate on spreadsheets and documents with your team. If you need to know when changes happen or if it’s important to share updates with others at—or outside—your company, adding custom notifications with Zapier helps you keep an eye on what’s happening without sitting in the file all day.

You might also have one team collect data and others act on it. Sending instant notifications for new or updated info will ensure you’re acting on the latest data—which can often mean the difference between a sale or a churned customer.

These Zaps keep you posted on new and updated rows, so you’re never out of the loop.

Create calendar events from a spreadsheet

If you’re putting on a big event or scheduling shifts for your team, looking at everything in a calendar can get confusing pretty quickly. And if you’re manually adding events one by one, scaling your efforts will be next to impossible.

Using these Zaps, you can add each event’s information to a nice clean spreadsheet, and let Zapier fill out the calendar for you. More easily scale your work by adding events in bulk without the manual effort so you can focus on more important tasks—like planning your event or appointments.

Use webhooks with your spreadsheets

Zapier connects with thousands of apps, but depending on which app or workflow you need to achieve your goals, there might not be a Zapier integration that does exactly what you need. That’s where webhooks come in.

Webhooks allow you to collect data from or push data to an app. With these Zaps, you can use webhooks to send information to or from your spreadsheets.

Easy spreadsheet automation

Spreadsheets are powerful tools that help you organize and analyze information. Add automation to make it easier to collect the data that matters for your business and keep you and your team informed about changes.

Give Epic IT Automations a call at 608-496-8660 to talk with one of our experienced consultants and learn how to Zapier can bring automation to your spreadsheets.

Source: Zapier

How to automate ChatGPT

Posted on June 7, 2023 by Epic IT Automations

Add the power of ChatGPT to your Zapier workflows.

ChatGPT is many things. A conversationalist. A writing assistant. A summarizer. Even a translator. And while you can use it to do all of these things inside ChatGPT’s interface, Zapier’s ChatGPT integration lets you pull the power of AI into your workflows.

For example, want ChatGPT to automatically read your incoming emails—then write a draft response in Gmail? Or perhaps you want to build your own ChatGPT bot inside a workspace like Slack, so your whole team can ask questions and get responses without context-switching.

Whatever your use case, we’ll show you different ways to pull in the power of ChatGPT into your automated workflows—what we call Zaps.

What’s the difference between Zapier’s ChatGPT and OpenAI integrations?

There are a ton of different ways to use our ChatGPT integration, and some of them are quite similar to our OpenAI integration. But there are a couple of differences to keep in mind.

What’s pretty neat about that is the ChatGPT integration can remember conversations, so in certain instances you can build workflows with a memory. Say, for example, you’re building a Zap that has ChatGPT answer questions that are posted in a specific Slack Channel. You can set up the rules or basic knowledge (whatever company info or guidelines you want ChatGPT to abide by) within the Zap’s instructions field. Then, you just add a word to the memory key field (like RULES-THREAD_ID).

Now, every time the user asks a follow-up question in the same Slack Thread, ChatGPT will remember the user’s previous conversation history. If you build other Zaps with ChatGPT and want them to have the same context, all you need to do is add RULES-THREAD_ID into your memory key field and ChatGPT will remember those specific instructions for your new Zap.

For any workflow you set up with the ChatGPT integration, you can provide it with more tailored training instructions and incorporate important company information like FAQs, writing guidelines, or other rules you want ChatGPT to incorporate into its answers. It’s a pretty handy way to instruct ChatGPT to have better conversations versus just one-time prompts.

On the other hand, the OpenAI integration (which uses GPT-3) enables you to generate text but does not have built-in conversation memory. You might use the OpenAI integration to summarize meeting notes, create email and Slack responses, or draft up articles.

It also has multiple actions (in contrast to ChatGPT), which are broader and incorporate more of OpenAI’s features like DALL.E or Whisper. That means you can send prompts to generate text, create images with DALL.E, create transcriptions with Whisper, and more within your workflows.

To help you decide which integration is right for you, we’ve outlined 6 ways to use the ChatGPT integration. Let’s dive in:

Build a chat experience in other apps

Like we mentioned, one of the best things about Zapier’s ChatGPT integration is its ability to have conversations. This is particularly relevant to bringing the ChatGPT experience into shared workspaces like Slack.

You and your team can ask ChatGPT questions and get responses directly inside a specific channel in Slack—so your employees don’t have to log in to ChatGPT individually.

For example, say you’re asking your ChatGPT Slackbot to help you come up with something together, like a prompt. You might ask it to come up with a prompt for error messages and give it the requirements for understanding an error (like possible root causes, details, etc.).

Once ChatGPT provides a prompt that fits your requirements, you might want to see how this all comes together. So you give it a specific error and ask ChatGPT to provide that information back in the same format it just came up with. Its ability to remember the prompt it gave you previously helps you break out your conversation step by step versus just a one-time command.

Generate and share content

As a writing tool, ChatGPT is a pretty decent time-saver when it comes to generating first drafts. But with the ChatGPT integration, you can take that a step further by incorporating the creation of blog outlines, emails, and articles into your automated workflows.

Or, if you need to draft customer stories based on submitted interview questions (or other key information), you can pull in the customer details from an app like Airtable or Google Forms, get the AI to write the content, then add the text to a Google Doc.

Summarize business information

You can also use AI to generate summaries of important information that is fed into your company. Because who has the time to process it all?

For example, you could generate summaries of every new job applicant that applies through your company’s recruitment page (replete with each applicant’s qualifications) to save your HR team time. Or, you could do the same thing for prospects stored in your sales CRM.

Alternatively, you can even extract key information from short PDFs, articles, and other business information.

Streamline customer communication

By integrating ChatGPT into your chatbot and form workflows, you can generate dynamic responses to incoming messages from leads and customers and store them for future reference.

For example, say a prospect fills out a question form. You can use AI to generate a response based on company information you’ve given it inside your prompt. Or, if a customer reaches out to you through your chatbot, you can use AI to generate a response and send it immediately to a Slack channel or email the customer with a broader and more helpful response.

By creating personalized chat experiences, you can enhance user experiences, improve customer support, and ultimately get valuable insights into your business.

Build product features and websites

Whether you collect feature requests in a tool like Jira or use Zendesk to process support tickets, AI can help you do the heavy lifting when it comes to adding context. For example, you can use these Zaps to add acceptance criteria to your tickets, product requirements, or even snippets of code you might need to carry out these requests.

Or, maybe you routinely create websites or landing pages. Even if you’re using a no- or low-code website builder, ChatGPT can help you by giving you those code snippets to add in custom elements like CTA buttons or embedded content.

Manage projects and tasks

We’ve all been there: Someone asks you to do something in Slack or via email, but you forget to add it to your project management tool.

While automation can send these requests straight to an app, AI can do things like provide more context on the request, add titles and descriptions, and format each request in an easily digestible way, so your to-do list never slips through the cracks.

Alternatively, you can flip this workflow on its head so that whenever someone adds a project to your task management tool, AI can write a digestible summary and bullet points of to-dos for each person, then send it to your entire team in Slack.

Get event reminders and prioritize your workload

Keeping track of important events throughout the day while your to-dos pile up is no joke. Whether you’d like it to help you prioritize your workload based on your to-do lists or projects outlined in your project management tool, ChatGPT is excellent at breaking down your day into manageable chunks.

You can even build workflows that will pull information from Google Calendar events and create a reminder of what you need to do (or read) before the meeting happens.

Make ChatGPT work for you

Whatever you’re already using ChatGPT for, you can harness its power and deliver more value to your business with the ChatGPT integration.

Whether you want to build ChatGPT Slack bots to introduce the value of AI to your team or you just want ChatGPT to take care of the tedious parts of content creation, this integration is key to maximizing your productivity and efficiency.

And remember: Zapier supports thousands of apps, so you can automate almost any task at work.

Give Epic IT Automations a call at 608-496-8660 to talk with one of our experienced consultants and learn how we bring ChatGPT to your Zapier workflows.

Source: Zapier

How To Use Time Inventory To Increase Productivity

Posted on May 26, 2023 by Epic IT Automations

If you ask most people, chances are, they’d say they’re pretty productive.

And while there’s no denying that there are definitely productivity powerhouses out there, the truth is, most people waste a lot of time. One study (outlined in a 2018 Inc. article) found that the average worker wastes a whopping 21.8 hours each week—including 3.9 hours on mindless online activities (like watching YouTube videos or checking social media), 3.4 hours managing low-value emails, and 1 hour sitting in non-productive meetings.

21.8 hours is a lot of time to waste. But the problem is, many people don’t have a full grasp on how they’re spending their time—or how they’re wasting it—which makes it hard to reclaim that time for more productive activities.

That’s where a time inventory comes in.

A time inventory is a time management strategy that helps you to gain clarity on where your time is going—and determine how you can get time back to focus on the tasks and activities that make you feel like your most productive self, both at work and at home.

But how, exactly, do you conduct a time inventory—and how do you use it to increase productivity?

Find The Right Time Tracking Tool

In order to successfully conduct a time inventory—and use it to increase productivity—you need a way to track your time.

And that means finding the right time tracking tool.

There are a ton of time tracking tools on the market (popular options include Toggl, TimeDoctor, Life Cycle, and Clockify); it’s just about finding the right time tracking app for you.

The “right” time tracking tool will depend on a variety of factors—including how you spend most of your time. For example, if you spend most of your day on your computer, a desktop time tracking app would likely make the most sense. If you’re more of an on-the-go person, you’d get the best data from a mobile time tracking app—and if you split your time between the two, an app with both desktop and mobile capabilities is probably your best bet.

When choosing a time tracking tool, you’ll also want to consider additional factors like price, ease of use, and reporting capabilities.

If you like to keep things simple, you might not even need an “official” time tracking tool—and instead, might prefer to manually track your time on a spreadsheet (or, if you’re a more tech-averse person, in a notebook!).

Track Your Time For A Week

Once you’ve got the right tool in place, it’s time to officially kick off your time inventory.

Keep track of how you’re spending your time each day. Categorize each block of time based on the activity you’re engaged in—whether it’s a personal task or work-related. When you move from one activity to another, mark it with your time tracking app.

And do this for at least a week. (In order to get a real sense of where your time is going—and see clear patterns emerge—you need to track your time for a significant stretch.)

The key to a successful time inventory is to track every second of every day—and to be as specific as possible when categorizing each time block.

For example, let’s say you spend 9am to 5pm working every day. In order to get the most out of your time inventory, you wouldn’t want to label that entire stretch of time with a broad category like “Work.” Instead, you’d want to get granular about how, exactly, you’re spending those work hours—which might look something like this:

9am to 9:30am: Email
9:30am to 9:40am: Snack break
9:40am to 11:15am: Project work
11:15am to 12pm: Conference call
12pm to 12:30pm: Lunch
12:30pm to 1:15pm: Exercise class
1:15pm to 2:15pm: Project work
2:15pm to 3:15pm: Team meeting
3:15pm to 3:45pm: Break/walk outside
3:45pm to 4:00pm: Email
4:00 to 4:15pm: Check social media
4:15pm to 4:30pm: Responding to Slack messages
4:30pm to 5pm: Project work

The more specific you are as you’re tracking your time, the easier it will be to identify the most—and least—productive parts of your day, which will help you better formulate a plan to ramp up your productivity.

Dig Into Your Data

Once you’ve tracked your time for a full week, it’s time to dig into the data and see where, exactly, your time is going.

Most time tracking apps will generate reports that allow you to easily see each of your time categories—and how much time you’re spending in each. (If you’re using a spreadsheet or notebook, you may want to consider a coding system to make your data easier to visualize—for example, coding different categories by color). This allows you to clearly see where your time is going each week—and can help you figure out if how you’re spending your time aligns with how you want to be spending your time.

Pay special attention to any categories that are taking up significantly more—or less—time than you thought they would. For example, are you spending eight hours each week on social media—when you thought you were clocking less than two hours? Or, on the flip side, are you spending five hours of time with your kids each week—when you figured that number was closer to 10 hours?

Leveraging the data to get a clear idea of where your time is going is a crucial part of using a time inventory to increase productivity, as it allows you to…

Eliminate Time Sucks And Reclaim Your Time

Once you have your data laid out in front of you, it’s time to identify “time sucks,” eliminate them from your schedule, and reorganize your time in a way that’s more aligned with your productivity goals—both at work or at home.

Time sucks can be defined as any tasks, activities, and/or categories that are preventing you from spending your time in the most productive way. This can include:

Tasks you don’t actually have to be doing
Tasks you don’t enjoy
Tasks you can delegate to someone else
Mindless tasks that don’t bring you enjoyment (for example, mindless phone scrolling or internet surfing)

For example, let’s say you’re spending five hours every week in meetings you don’t feel like you actually need to be a part of—and you’d rather spend those five hours focusing on project-related work. In that situation, you might connect with your boss and ask if there’s any way to opt out of those meetings to get more done.

Or let’s say you’re spending five hours every week doing laundry—and you’d much prefer to use those hours relaxing at home or engaging with one of your hobbies. In that scenario, you might consider hiring a service that will pick up, wash, fold, and return your laundry each week—and reclaim those hours for yourself.

Increase Productivity With Time Inventory

The point of a time inventory is to eliminate time-wasters, streamline how you’re spending your time, and reorganize your schedule in a way that supports your highest level of productivity—so make sure to leverage your inventory to do so. Give Epic IT Automations a call at 608-496-8660 to talk with one of our experienced consultants and see how we can help streamline your time and increase productivity.

Source: integrify

Build Custom Notification Bots For New Leads

Posted on May 25, 2023 by Epic IT Automations

Hooray! Leads are flooding in from your website form, chatbox, and a new ad campaign. *Cue the dance music.* Take a moment to celebrate because having multiple lead channels is critical for business growth. But if those leads end up in different places, it can make it nearly impossible to nurture those potential customers effectively.

To make the most of new leads, your team needs to know when a new lead enters your lead funnel—so you can reach out and send them to the right place immediately. Instead of checking multiple inboxes, downloading spreadsheets, or manually alerting team members when new leads are ready. Epic IT Automations can help create custom notification bots, so your whole company gets info where they want it and when they need it.

Custom Notification Bots

Get notifications for new form responses.
Get notifications for new email leads.
Get notifications for new leads in your CRM.
Customize your notification bot.

Get Notifications For New Form Responses

Forms are the bread and butter of collecting new leads. And it’s essential to know when a new lead fills out your forms so you can respond and cultivate them immediately. But manually checking for new form submissions can slow down your response time. Instead, set up customized notifications that get sent to the right place at the right time.

Send notifications in your team chat app—where everyone hangs out anyway—so the right team member can take the necessary next steps. Or use SMS to send yourself (or the right team member) an automated SMS message with every detail you need. If you use your email as a to-do list, you can also set up an automatic email for every new form submission. Whatever tool you use, send notifications where you and your team will actually see them.

Get Notifications For New Email Leads

A busy inbox is a sign that business is booming! But it can also be overwhelming and messy—especially when a new lead emails you out of the blue. To stay on top of it all, send notifications about new email leads to where you’ll see them right away, like your team chat app or your phone.

Automatically forward lead emails to a specific channel in your team chat app. That way, the information you need is in the communication tool you use most often. Or set up to get an SMS alert for only the most important emails, filtering out the emails that aren’t urgent.

Get Notifications For New Leads In Your CRM

A new lead just entered your CRM. But that’s just one step (of many) in turning that lead into a customer.

Streamline your lead lifecycle by automatically notifying yourself or your team about a new lead added to your CRM. Use your team chat app if you want transparency across your team, your email if you spend time in your inbox anyway, and an SMS message if you want to give a lead a call instantly. This will make sure all new leads get the proper outreach right away.

Customize Your Notification Bot

Want to get a notification for a new lead sent to your chat app, email, and phone? You can! Epic IT Automations can help create a multi-step process that sends a customized message to multiple communication channels at one time.

Here are a few other ways you can take your notification bot to the next level:

Use a path step to send the notification to different places based on your lead data.
Add an item to your task management tool at the same time you send the notification.
Use a format step so your notification shows the info correctly, like splitting up the first and last name.

The Right Notifications Mean Easier Lead Outreach

Efficient communication is key to making sure your new leads are nurtured and turn into customers. Automation gives you the ability to control how you get notified—allowing you to make the most of every new lead as quickly as possible.

Ready To Create New Leads?

Turn to us at Epic IT Automations to assist in generating new leads and improving workplace process efficiencies. Our team works to provide the perfect strategy tailored to your goals through the use of technology solutions. Talk with any of our knowledgeable advisors to learn more on how we can assist with producing and implementing the right strategy fit to your business and goals. Give us a call at 608-496-8660 or schedule your consultation.

Source: Zapier

Digital Transformation And The SaaS Market

Posted on May 25, 2023 by Epic IT Automations

Digital transformation is affecting pretty much everything right now, and companies are being forced to adapt. But guess what? Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions might help them with all the changes.

If you read about trends and technology, you have surely heard about digital transformation or at least browsed through articles that talk about it.

The problem is, many companies that claim to have gone digital, have not properly carried out the process.

Digital transformation is not about building an app or joining social media.

It is about going completely digital. It is a structural change that involves inserting technology in all areas of your company.

This reality has already been adopted by many SaaS companies, which are often examples of businesses that find it easy to transform themselves digitally.

The simplification and optimization of internal processes are much more recurrent when using software as a service.

Plus, SaaS is web-based and more flexible as customer behavior changes.

So, in this article, you will see the benefits of digital transformation (with examples of successful companies) and how to change with the help of SaaS.

Check it out!

A New Business Model

Digital transformation is more than simply employing SaaS and expecting achievements to come without effort.

Organizations that invest in digital transformation and successfully drive it forward are growth-oriented and willing to put in the time and effort to make internal changes.

This is because technology doesn’t wait. It is always evolving, and society keeps up with its new possibilities.

This factor forces companies to start thinking from the inside out.

How do I put the customer at the center of my strategy?
How can I improve the customer experience?
What change is needed to improve retention?
How do I listen to my customers and deliver value?

These questions loom large in the minds of leaders responsible for digital business transformation.

And they really need to be considered.

Companies that decide to migrate to this new model have to change how they operate and the interplay of their functions.

This is especially necessary for the SaaS model, where technology is central, and the impact is more potent.

Benefits Of SaaS For Digital Transformation

As you can see, customer needs are not the only thing that is changing really fast.

Technological innovations are also arriving at high speed, and SaaS provides organizations with a cloud-oriented mindset.

This perspective enables business leaders to create solutions at scale together with the IT and Marketing teams.

Learn about some of the many benefits SaaS brings to digital transformation:

Cost Structure

Many organizations are in a situation where they can afford an ongoing structural cost but may struggle with huge upfront payments.

SaaS allows organizations the flexibility to pay for advanced technology within their operating budget, increasing the chances of approval for transformative projects.

Growth Possibility

Cloud-based software delivery allows even smaller organizations to become players.

As the cost of data storage continues to decrease, SaaS may be the biggest game-changer in business, offering greater growth opportunities to companies of all sizes.

Agile Change

Having the flexibility to make quick changes in your strategy is not an easy task in traditional software models and can include more than 12 to 18 months of scoping, contract negotiation, and finally, development.

With SaaS, new off-the-shelf features can be activated and configured quickly, promoting a reduced time to achieve higher ROI rates.

Scalable

Again, SaaS provides organizations with the ability to start with smaller budgets and scale quickly.

It also allows seasonal organizations to scale down for a certain period of the year and scale up quickly as needed when business picks up.

This would be nearly impossible to structure with traditional software collections.

Furthermore, SaaS uses traceable and measurable functionalities to understand which would be the best investment at any point in time.

Markets With SaaS-Based Digital Transformation

Several companies we know have taken advantage of this model to perform their digital transformations.

These companies are not only technology companies, and you probably know a few that we are going to mention throughout this article.

Various sectors are embracing the possibilities that technological advancement has brought us to change the way they work.

Let’s get to know some of them:

Industries

Businesses such as Uber brought a new mobility concept that affected several chains.

Car manufacturing companies that didn’t want to be left behind started to invest in the subscription car service.

Through an app, the user can purchase a high-end car and exchange it every 12 months, paying only a monthly fee.

Smartphone companies are already doing this as well.

Apple, for example, has the iPhone Upgrade Program, which allows you to exchange your phone every year for the newest model.

Quick delivery companies like Postmates, instant-read book services like 12min, and online movie consumption platforms like Netflix are making a difference.

And many other businesses are emerging on a daily basis to revolutionize industries.

Even the way we communicate has changed dramatically in the last ten years.

Instead of picking up a phone to contact someone, you are much more likely to send a message on social media, WhatsApp, or even Skype.

Therefore, leaders in these industries must be agile and able to change with customer demand — making the SaaS model so attractive.

Insurance Companies

Companies’ willingness to adopt SaaS depends on their comfort with data security, which is particularly true for insurance companies.

However, as cloud providers have increased investment in security and scalability over the past years, customers and prospects are becoming highly confident.

For instance, Microsoft alone invests over a billion dollars a year in security research and development.

With market speed, some insurers are completing digital transformation projects in months, not years.

In addition, they are launching new cloud products and segments — whether IT augmentation or the so-called “greenfield” opportunities — that are going into production even faster.

Another benefit relates to the fact that technology is constantly evolving.

Maintenance and upgrades are time-consuming and can have unintended consequences for systems, which can severely disincentive innovation.

In a mature SaaS environment, where the provider manages the maintenance, updates, and integrations, these problems do not arise.

So insurance companies reap the rewards of digital transformation almost immediately.

Financial

Although the financial services industry has traditionally been at the forefront of technological change, this sector has been cautious about adopting the cloud because of its data.

However, as the roles of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) have changed dramatically to strategically align IT with digital transformation, the overall goals of the entire enterprise are shifting.

In this context, using the cloud has become a priority.

With SaaS, finance professionals can:

Better manage their savings.
Easily migrate to better systems.
Increase mobility and agility.
Improve operational efficiencies.
Focus on business results.

It’s no wonder that the public cloud market is set to reach US $597 billion by 2023.

These significant investments are proving instrumental in bringing cloud-based software-as-a-service solutions to market, designed to meet the specific needs of users in the financial sector.

How To Do Digital Transformation With SaaS

Learn how your company can accomplish the digital transformation of your business with SaaS:

On-Demand Self Service

Organizations are rethinking their business models for the fast-paced digital age.

On-demand self-service models are creating new digital routes and services for consumers. Spotify, for example, offers music on-demand, Netflix offers video streaming services, and Uber offers mobility services.

Broader Access For Consumers

Consumers are connected via cell phones, tablets, laptops, and desktops. An online service model addresses all of these customers using an integrated platform.

This approach is convenient and easy for consumers, leading to widespread adoption across all geographic locations.

Speed And Scalability

The on-demand service model enables user applications to utilize resources in direct proportion to customer requirements.

Resources such as networks, servers, storage, and services can be scaled up or down depending on the application’s needs.

Measure And Configure Services

With on-demand services, customers pay only for what they use. Enterprises can also measure their service usage.

Therefore, a measured service allows an enterprise to examine resource usage, billing, and capacity planning, and to think proactively about the application’s use.

Site Independence

With software as a service, there are no restrictions on the location of customers. The service provider can choose and configure the options.

In addition, customers all over the world can access the same services. For example, media and news companies can use digital channels for expansion between locations. This allows users to access digital news from any place.

Integrated Data

The on-demand service model allows companies to integrate all application data. This integrated data is crucial for standards and information control.

Performance targets, customer service, and complete administrative activities can be planned using such data. For instance, you can extract information to look for user age groups, locations, times of frequent use, complaints, and more.

Infrastructure And Security Layer

The cloud infrastructure layer can be provisioned depending on the requirements of the enterprise’s applications and services.

With cloud capabilities, companies can reduce the IT infrastructure and the staff needed to manage them.

Another important issue is that you can achieve application security with the right cloud infrastructure, with security policies for access, permission, and identity management.

Seamless Integrations Of Legacy Systems

Companies are looking for digital ways to optimize their processes. When services are new and you try to introduce them into business processes, it is vital to integrate legacy systems and their data.

This happens, for example, when a real estate rental company starts using digital contracts and electronically signed documentation for leasing its properties.

All lease renewals, rent payments, and documentation now run on cloud-based services. In this context, data from legacy systems also account for the seamless transition.

Continuous Updates And Evolution

Digital transformation is a continuous process. Tools and technologies change frequently, and companies need to keep up with the changing times.

With SaaS, organizations can continuously update their services. In addition, updates and enhancements can be enjoyed by customers at once without significant downtime for the company.

Experimentation And Innovation

Innovation is a dire need in the business world, especially when waves of digitalization constantly challenge businesses.

On-demand services and cloud software make room for experimentation and innovation that encompasses new technologies.

Companies are using the SaaS model to reshape their existing products and services. They apply digital innovations to deliver customized experiences, enriching customer interactions and transforming their enterprises.

Ready For Digital Transformation?

As you can see, technology is a strong ally in the process of improving your marketing efforts if used effectively. Contact Epic IT Automations to access interesting insights on how to strengthen your marking strategies through technology! With our insight and highly trained staff, you can maximize the efficiency of your business workflow through successful digital transformation and effectively using SaaS solutions. Give us a call at (608) 496-8660 to discuss your needs with one of our team members.

Source: rockcontent

A Quick Introduction To KPI Dashboards

Posted on May 18, 2023 by Epic IT Automations

A well-designed KPI (Key Performance Indicators) dashboard can give you and your team key performance metrics at a glance, providing insight that can help drive business decisions at every level. By incorporating dashboards into your business workflow, you can shore up weaknesses, discover your strengths, and identify opportunities for growth. Here is an overview of KPI dashboards and how they can help your business thrive.

What Are KPI Dashboards?

KPI dashboards are pieces of software that display key pieces of data in an easy-to-read, interactive format. Your dashboard might show chats and graphics, key performance indicators, and progress toward goals. A well-designed KPI dashboard also allows users to click on certain reports to explore the data represented on the interface. For instance, clicking on the sales metric should take users to detailed records of sales totals for the individual user or the entire department.

These dashboards provide in-depth information that users may otherwise have to go looking for. Instead of compiling reports and metrics, these programs automatically integrate information that can guide decisions at both the individual, departmental, and senior management level.

For instance, sales agents can use these dashboards to track their activity in different markets. Adding these tools to their business workflow can help them target their efforts on the most profitable clients. Executives, on the other hand, can use a customized KPI dashboard to track responses on customer satisfaction surveys and the performance of each department.

How Can You Implement An Effective KPI Dashboard?

Effective KPI dashboards should be visually clean and streamlined and feature all the information the user needs on a single page. They should also be easily customized to show only the information users need. Additionally, the platform should be easily scalable, so it can be used by front-line employees as well as executives and decision-makers.

Ready To Build And Implement An Effective KPI Platform?

Building an effective KPI platform can be challenging, but Epic IT Automations offers the expertise and technology you need. With our insight and highly trained staff, you can maximize the efficiency of your business workflow and harness the power of modern systems. Give us a call at (608) 496-8660 to discuss your needs with one of our team members.

Automation Isn’t Just For The Shop Floor

Posted on May 16, 2023 by Epic IT Automations

Picture an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) moving through a factory. Quietly and efficiently, it moves materials, components, subassemblies, and finished products between warehouse, production lines, packaging, and shipping. There’s no human involvement, no accidents, and no mistakes; the movement just happens in a dependable and predictable manner.

Why can’t administrative processes happen the same way? Well, the simple answer is that they can. For a long time, manufacturers have focused on automating what happens on the shop floor. They’ve sought to eliminate manual labor, and this effort has yielded immense benefits. Now it’s time to apply the same thinking to office workflows.

Manufacturing Productivity And Efficiency

Recent years have seen many factories become highly automated. Not only do the machines themselves run without human involvement, but so too do the handling systems. These deliver products, load and unload, and take processed material or items to the next step in the process.

In high-volume manufacturing – consumer goods and automotive production spring to mind – conveyors of various types have provided the movement. Robots take the strain when parts need loading and unloading from machines, saving people from the heavy lifting. Today manufacturers are starting to deploy AMRs that move material, components, and even tools to where they are needed.

Factory automation is known for removing people from dull, dirty, and dangerous work, but there’s another, often overlooked, benefit: automation increases consistency. When a task is automated, it’s performed exactly the same way every time. That’s something human workers can’t manage, no matter how hard they try.

An inspection provides a good example. Tired and distracted human inspectors miss defects that should be caught before they reach the customer. At the same time, as humans are inherently subjective, a good product is sometimes scrapped unnecessarily. By being repeatable and consistent, automated inspection solves these problems.

Human variability is a problem when processes are supposed to be standardized. It leads to omissions and errors, and tasks can take longer than they should. That disrupts downstream operations and hits productivity and efficiency. Conversely, once automated, they are repeatable, consistent, and reliable.

Key Elements Of Factory Automation

Industrial manufacturing is currently going through a fourth revolution. The history looks like this:

Steam power takes over from human and animal energy sources – the First Industrial Revolution
The Second Industrial Revolution involved a switch to electricity, oil, and gas, accompanied by the development of the telephone and telegraph
Computers and PLCs brought about the Third Industrial Revolution and gave us the automation seen today in most factories.
Inexpensive sensors, coupled with internet communication, advanced analytics, and even AI, are bringing about a digital transformation, a Fourth Industrial Revolution sometimes referred to as “Industry 4.0.”

As we see it in factories today, automation is characterized primarily by PLCs and computers running programs that control motions and actions. Motors power slideways, spindles and conveyors, with encoders reporting speed and position. Solenoids open and close valves and gates in response to signals from the controllers while sensors report back so that processes can continue.

The digital transformation will reduce waste while increasing utilization measures like OEE and boosting efficiency. Breakdowns will go away as machines become able to report their condition to a maintenance system that schedules overhauls and repairs. Quality will rise as machines become able to adapt to changing conditions, environmental or material-related, and people will move from repetitive tasks to more creative, forward-thinking, problem-solving roles.

Office Workflows And Automation

Now and increasingly in the future, factory automation is essentially about moving data. The same is true of the processes used to run every business. In some cases, these are codified as procedures (usually when required for the Quality Management System (QMS)), and in others, there are informal or loosely defined ways of doing things.

Examples of well-defined work processes (in most organizations) include:

Paying bills
Documenting training
Calibrating measurement devices

Processes that are often poorly proceduralized, (or not at all) include:

Near-miss reporting
Supplier selection
Monitoring indirect material consumption

These, and the many others that exist, are characterized by paper forms, folders, spreadsheets, and the occasional template. For each, the workflow involves people creating or initiating documents, adding information, and passing them along to other people. In many cases – most types of requests, for example – need feedback from the originator that tells them what to do next. Many also need storage to provide an audit trail or a (somewhat) searchable history. In manufacturing terms, automation of office and administrative tasks is somewhere between the second and third revolutions.

What Is Workflow Automation?

For certification to a Quality Management Standard like ISO 9001, the way in which tasks are done is documented as a series of steps. This is the workflow. Most organizations used descriptive documentation, but flow charts work just as well. (Some will argue they are less ambiguous and therefore better.)

Workflow automation refers to using software that implements those flow charts. It doesn’t take away human involvement or decision-making but automates data movement. In a sense, it’s analogous to a factory conveyor or AMR: it moves the data from one step in a process to the next. Moreover, because it prevents shortcuts and non-standard ways of doing things, it could even be thought of as a poka-yoke for paperwork!

Taking the analogy further, in an automated workflow, the software notifies the “machine” that a new job or batch has arrived and is awaiting processing. This is like having sensors on a conveyor. We could even imagine monitoring the length of the queue and raising a flag if it becomes too long.

As is quality control, storage and analytics are integral to an automated workflow. Metrics are readily implemented. Errors and omissions are detected immediately they occur, or better still, prevented by poka-yoke type “mechanisms”.

Examples Of Workflows That Can Be Automated

Any sequence of tasks that needs performing regularly is a candidate. Examples can be seen in:

Document approval processes
Safety reporting
Raising purchase orders
Travel expense approval
Product lifecycle development

The Benefits Of Workflow Automation

Automating workflows in office and administrative processes yields very similar results to automating manufacturing processes. They include:

Higher quality – in an automated workflow process, the software can check for errors and notify those responsible immediately. Not passing incomplete or incorrect data through the system saves a lot of time and improves record accuracy. Workflow management also stops people from taking shortcuts and prevents promises of “following up with the paperwork later.”
Less manual work – completing the repetitive, predictable activities integral to so many office processes saves time, freeing up people for more productive work.
Faster processing – automation reduces the variable delays that clog bottlenecks and slow progress everywhere to a crawl.
Quicker new product development – documentation and approvals often cause delays while working on the next generation. By accelerating processing, automation helps get new products to market faster.
Lower costs – as with manufacturing automation, faster processing, higher accuracy, and less need for human input- lead to lower costs.

Process Automation In The Office

In manufacturing, using automation to cut costs, lead time, and improve quality has long been a way of life. It’s past time that the same thinking was applied to workflows in the office. Today it’s both feasible and practical to save time and money by automating many office processes.

Connect with Epic IT Automations today and learn how we can help you work more efficiently by automating repetitive, high-volume workflows. Call us at 608-496-8660 or schedule a consultation to get started.