Advantage IT Management Blog

Projects are a big part of doing business. When we mention projects it’s typically in reference to IT projects, but for your average business, when they think of projects it means specific jobs coordinated for specific clients. In this environment it is essential to get the people on a project team on the same page and working towards a shared end. In this week's blog, we thought we’d discuss the importance of solid project management and how certain technologies can help project managers improve their turnaround times. 

If you’re anything like me, you’ve always got a thought in the back of your head regarding your business and how you can make it more productive. While there are a lot of different ways you can do so, we wanted to focus on one that might not be the first to come to mind: communicate more.

Oh, the afternoon meeting, the woe of many office workers around the world. Sometimes they are fine, but other times, it’s very clear that they are not always an effective use of your time. Despite this, there is still a heavy emphasis on meetings in the workplace, to the point where some employees feel that their time is being wasted and misused as a result—a premise that is supported by surveys and research.

If we asked you to identify the one hour of your day when you get the most done, would you be able to tell us? Even more interestingly, do you know how to get the most out of your so-called “power hour?” Let’s take a look at some of the theories about how you can make the most out of your most productive time in the workplace.

Last week, we wrote about how patience plays a big role in people’s ability to be productive and efficient. This week we want to explore a few ways to help the people in your organization to become more patient. We all know people in our lives that seem like they could definitely take a chill pill. If that is you, using these four suggestions can help you be more patient in situations that demand it. 

People can be very productive. They can also be pretty terrible at being productive. The staff that can find consistency in their productivity typically results in a pretty successful business. Obviously, people have all types of suggestions on how to improve staff productivity, individual productivity, and a lot of it is just hitting on the same stuff. There is one variable, however, that is found in a lot of productive people: Patience. 

Productivity is the measure of how your business operates. Without a certain standard of it, any business will stagnate or fail. The overall productivity of your business comes down to a combined effort of the tools you deploy and your employees’ ability to maximize individual productivity. This week, we will take a look at how the emergence of technology built specifically for your business directly correlates to higher degrees of productivity.

It’s incredibly important that your business understands where it’s allocating its time, money, and resources, especially with technology-related challenges. Today we want to discuss what is called the digital employee experience, or DEX, and how understanding your employees’ relationships with technology can shape the way they approach the workday.

Smartphones are a critical part of your business’ productivity, but sometimes you and your employees might have differing views on how to translate that productivity into profitability for your business. If you want to avoid the pitfalls associated with smartphones, well, today’s article might just be for you. Here are four tips and tricks you can use to get your smartphones to work for you.

Picking up on the fact that the workplace is changing isn’t exactly difficult nowadays—the past few years of remote work and mass resignations have made it abundantly clear that today’s employees are looking for more control in terms of balancing their work lives with their personal ones. One means of doing so that has gained steam is the idea of a shorter workweek.

Customer relationship management is an important facet of any operational business’ processes, which makes the benefits a CRM platform provides all the more needed, and welcomed. Let’s take a few minutes to review what these benefits look like, based on the features your CRM should provide. 

Downtime is often associated with losing power or an Internet connection, but in reality, it’s far more than just that. It’s any situation where your team cannot perform their duties as expected, and it can be extremely costly if it’s not addressed. Here are some ways you can address these situations.

People on average spend nearly 3-to-5 hours of their day on their phones. Today’s smartphones are not only one of the coolest pieces of technology ever invented, it legitimately could be one of the most useful devices any person could use for business; if they are willing to use it that way. Today, we will establish what smartphones are mostly used for and how to readjust your smartphone usage to be your most productive. 

Sometimes the last thing you want to do is type on your keyboard, especially if you have already been doing it just about all day. In cases like this, you can give your fingers a break and use Microsoft Word’s dictation features to “write” by speaking into your device’s microphone. Let’s go over how you can use this feature on a desktop, your web browser, and even your mobile device.

If the pandemic has proven anything, it’s that companies need to be flexible in their operations, perhaps more so now than ever before. However, this flexibility has also led many to reconsider what the office of the future looks like. Companies are starting to ask how much space is truly necessary and whether or not they actually need an office to remain operational.

While we all like to think we are paragons of productivity, the reality of the matter is that it’s far too easy to become distracted while trying to get work done. How do you stay focused when there are so many distractions out there? It all starts with controlling your environment and changing the way you approach these distractions.

While email has remained a major communication tool for businesses for quite some time, a lot of us might still be struggling to keep it organized. Alternatively, a lot of us may have just given up, allowing our inboxes to become a virtual dump of old communications and check-ins.

Fortunately, with a little bit of time now, you can turn your inbox into an organized and useful resource again. 

Automation, as a concept, is a clearly useful capability… whether an employee is working remotely or is located in the office for regular operations. Indeed, many businesses are now encouraging their team members to do both. Let’s review how a hybrid workplace can have a positive experience with automation in place… and why it's important, for security’s sake.

You may have heard of the RICE prioritization framework for developing new products, but we believe that it can be applied to not just products, but also to services and even project implementation practices. What is this framework, and how can you use it when developing new ideas for your business?

The traditional 40-hour workweek feels like a staple in the business world, where employees work 8 hour shifts and then head home for the day. This was not always the case, however, and there can be a case made that even the 40-hour workweek should be adjusted to at least some degree. Let’s take a look at the modern workplace, how it has changed, and how it can still be changed to better employees of all levels—including you.