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Technology Solutions Can Help Tide Over Recession, Says Leading IT Solution Provider
Published Jun 2, 2009
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The most effective way to tackle recession and financial crisis is to make prudent use of technology solutions in certain key areas, according to Adventure Middle East, an established IT solution provider.
The unprecedented financial crisis, and the resultant impact on every business and enterprise, demand innovative solutions and out of the box thinking.
Before taking drastic measures, such as sacking employees or cutting down so-called unnecessary budgets, managements can achieve amazing results if they use IT ingenuously and skillfully.
Praveen Bhandari, Director, Adventure Middle East, lists some key technology solutions that can boost cost-saving efforts and ensure optimum productivity as well as full use of existing resources.
Bhandari has identified the following areas that need to be tackled: better attendance management, effective monitoring of vehicle use, using digital solutions for marketing and promotions and switching to small-size, energy-saving desktop computers.
Attendance management holds the key to cost savings and productivity, according to Bhandari.
A company should ensure a firm control on monthly payroll bills by accurately capturing the attendance of each employees and the number of hours he clocks in, by using an Automated Attendance Management System.
"The IT-based Attendance Management System not only increases discipline among staff but also saves a lot in monetary terms by generating accurate payroll.
One can make substantial savings by not paying for 'un-informed absenteeism' and 'unauthorized overtime' - which can be as much as 20-30% of the total payroll bill.
From our experience we have seen that ROI of this system is within 1-2 months and sometimes in less than a month."
Quoting a real case, he said a big company in Dubai discovered that some 300 employees were not reporting to work daily but the payroll would have their salaries. Similarly, several employees claim overtime without actually working.
If there is an advanced system in place, each of these malpractices could be detected.
Prudent vehicle management is another area of crucial importance, according to Bhandari.
"The modern Vehicle Tracking System is used not just for tracking and locating the vehicle in real time, but it also helps monitor and analyze some critical areas, such as Fuel consumption per vehicle, Ignition On/Off, Vehicle Idle-Running Time, Route Deviation, Vehicle Break Down, Speed Report, Estimated Time of Arrival, Distance Traveled, etc."
"This system is very useful for Construction, Manufacturing, Clearing/Forwarding and Logistics companies where vehicle running and maintenance is one of the major costs of operation in their business.
This system is also highly useful for Educational Institutions, especially where schools have the responsibility of picking and dropping students. This system can generate ROI for itself by saving 10-20% on just fuel and maintenance costs."
Recession is also a time for monitoring and optimizing IT infrastructure.
For small to medium size companies, the key point to be kept in mind when investing in IT Infrastructure is the "Running Cost".
People have gradually shifted from large-size monitors to thin and light LCD monitors initially maybe because of their sleek looks, but in the long run everyone realized how LCD monitors are cost effective in terms of power consumption.
"Studies have proved that there can be at least 50% savings on electricity bills by investing a little extra on small form factor, energy-saving desktop computers.
A small form factor PC comes with same or even higher specifications than a normal desktop PC and it consumes less power.
It also has other major advantages in terms of its storage space and low heat emission. Low heat emission means less usage of air conditioning which means less power consumption and low AC maintenance cost. These machines also have very low noise levels."
As far as sales are concerned, Bhandari says with advertising budgets getting curtailed, the answer lies in adapting technology to do marketing tasks.
Companies can switch to Digital Signage, a revolutionary technology which provides any organization a Digital Media Network with LCDs and Blue Tooth Messaging.
Compared to print media, digital media definitely has a better impact, and, since it is deployed at prominent locations like malls, bus stations, metro stations, hospitals and other public places, one gets the flexibility of choosing the right location to target specific audiences.
"Strangely, many organisations, including supermarkets and big stores, do have LCD screens installed, but instead of using them for advertising products and promotions, they are either used for unnecessary messages or just as decoration pieces. This is the right time to make full use of in-store LCD screens."
Referring to the expenses involved in installing the new solutions, Bhandari says compared to the savings they generate, these solutions are worth the money as the investment can be recovered in less than two months.
"However, for those not willing to opt for one-time cost, there is the option of leasing. These solutions can installed on monthly lease, which means that one does not put the full amount down at the start but still gets the complete solution by paying monthly service fees.
This will give a further confidence to those who do not want to take the investment risk in these troubled times," says Bhandari.
Posted by
VMD - [Virtual Marketing Department]
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