Gartner Web Development, LLC

In the course of business, we often see our new customers failing to utilize the full functionality of software already installed, particularly with Microsoft Office. For instance, we have seen new customers take 6 to 8 hours of labor to mail targeted materials to 300 customers. The materials and postage costs are unavoidable but the labor costs associated with compiling mailing lists and the time involved in sorting data based on customer type or zip code, not to mention personalizing each letter and addressing the envelopes, can be significantly reduced by utilizing the software that your business probably already owns.

Microsoft Office programs have long had the ability to use data from a centralized or otherwise external sources. With the last three versions of Office, (Office 2000, Office XP, and Office 2003), this functionality has become more straightforward, making it even easier to save time and labor costs. Furthermore, Word and Excel can pull current data from a variety of sources, including non-Microsoft products in many cases.

Recently we encountered a customer who worked from multiple spreadsheets to organize a variety of information gathered and redistributed during the planning and coordinating of their business’ conventions and workshops. One event in particular takes 4 to 6 months to coordinate - it actually begins two years prior when the hotel is reserved with a push in the months leading up to the scheduled dates. Information gathered would be entered into various spreadsheets as attendees registered for the event. These spreadsheets would then be referenced to generate reports for catering, accommodations, equipment needs, etc. A rather time consuming process, but it worked this way for years.

Already having the tools needed to streamline this process, it was just a matter of finding common data points and implementing a database to better handle the necessary details allowing the process to be much more efficient. Now our customer has time to focus on other tasks that were getting backlogged because of the time previously required by the old process. An additional benefit to using software already in place is that time spent learning new programs and features is minimal.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel to increase productivity in your office. When properly utilized, many of the programs that you already use have powerful features that can make running your business more efficient and cost effective.