Technological inadequacy hinders growth for over half of UK SMEs

Over 65% of the UK SMEs could bolster their productivity by better using their available technology or implementing new and improved solutions designed to streamline their workflow, a recent report has been able to find.

The survey of 1057 businesses, commissioned by 123-reg and undertaken by YouGov, revealed that the better use of technology by SMEs could boost the UK economy by almost £9 billion.

The poll found that two thirds (63%) of respondents said they would like to increase their company's productivity, but only a third (33%) of these had a plan in place to do so.

Beyond a lack of awareness to technology, businesses listed several additional barriers to increasing productivity, including spending too much time on admin (28%), managing communications with customers (17%), traveling to meetings (11%), managing complex IT issues (85%) and tax/National Insurance (9%).

"UK micro and small business owners are huge multi-taskers — managing all of the company's tasks from completing the work, generating new sales and managing accounts and pay roll," said Nick Leech, digital director at 123-reg. "UK SMBs have already demonstrated they're digitally savvy by embracing websites and social media in their millions.

"Now, they need to think about how they can save time by embracing technology further so they can focus on the tasks that add the most value to their bottom line."

Tensor Time and Attendance Systems— the perfect solution to help your company become more productive

Making sure that employees are at peak productivity levels at all times is very important for line managers, who should consider using a solid and reliable time and attendance system designed to offer a clear overview of all holiday bookings and approve (or disallow) them accordingly.

That's exactly the case with Tensor's WinTA.NET system, which supports extensive Absence Planning and Entitlement Management. The built-in graphical calendar charts provide a colourful way of viewing an individual's or a department's absence records, and each employee can be allocated different entitlements for absence such as annual leave or allowed sickness.

As absence is booked and taken, the remainder available for each entitlement is updated. Entitlement formulae are used to calculate more complex entitlements calculated on a rising scale based upon length of service.

WinTA.NET provides this information through warning email notifications or via hardcopy reports. The system quickly identifies missing employees that are expected to be at work and then informs you via automatic email reporting reports distributed by email.

If you'd like to find out more about the Tensor WinTA.NET system just contact us or Book a Demo, we'll be more than happy to answer all of your questions and queries.