How using web services can improve workforce efficiency

Most workdays are spent chasing down contacts, reading email, replying to email, sending large files to clients, attending status meetings with bosses and teams, conference calls, and if there is time for it, grabbing a quick bite to eat.

In fact, many of us are so focused on getting through our daily tasks that we don't realize there is a way to work smarter, not harder. The answer is called web services, and it is transforming the way we do business.

The Pareto principle tells us that eighty percent of our productivity comes from only twenty percent of our workday. If you can reduce or take away the less important tasks from the non-productive eighty percent of our day, then you are increasing your productivity potential.

Today's web services allow us to offload trivial duties that draw us away from our primary work tasks. Face-to-face Meetings can be replaced by virtual meetings, web chat can replace phone calls, customer resource management (CRM) software can synchronize your customer contact across an entire company, and you can even send large files without using physical mail or couriers.

For example, if you are a legal transcriptionist, your primary task is listening to an audio file of court proceedings and transcribing that audio into text. You shouldn't also have to be a technical expert in file transfer protocol (FTP). FTP can require technical expertise to not only send large files, but to receive them as well. Due to the sensitive nature of testimony, large audio file transfers must also be secure and encrypted, thus increasing the level of technical expertise required. IT training is expensive and ongoing and, in this case, does not add value to the company's primary business of audio transcription. These factors make a perfect fit for a web service that focuses on the secure transfer of large files.

It also makes sense to outsource your less used tasks to these web services. This is because the lack of frequent use makes these tasks take longer to perform and more expensive since it's cost is not spread out over increased usage. Economies of scale are critical in business to maximize profits, and if it is not your core competency you should consider reducing staff or in-house services to perform that task.

Taking from our example, if a legal transcriptionist tries to send large files once a week then they will easily offset the time and resources spent learning, setting up, and running a FTP service by using a web-based file transfer company to replace it.

There are endless opportunities to improve workforce efficiency. By utilizing web services you can lower your costs and improve performance, giving you back the time in your day to focus on performing your core business.