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How to Increase Workplace Productivity Without Increasing Headcount

Staying competitive in the age of digital transformation means doing more with less. Your organization may not have the available budget for new hires to cover business growth, or you may be dealing with a talent shortage in the areas that you need help with. The good news is that you can increase workplace productivity without increasing your headcount. 

Identify and Address Your Processes

One of the major culprits that slow down productivity may be your workplace processes.

While processes are supposed to help organizations scale up, they are often complex with layers, workplace politics, and interface structures.

When employers can address that pain point by developing streamlined processes, not only can the business dramatically improve the customer experience, it can also increase job satisfaction for its employees. Additionally, you free up time for your employees by creating efficiencies, giving them more room to innovate. A little automation goes a long way. 

Utilize technology

The truth is, staying abreast of technology is no longer a ‘nice to have’ but is vital to compete with the early adopters in your niche.

Go through a complete audit process on your current technology and look for the areas that are most productive as well as the least productive. Get feedback from the users on exactly what would make their jobs easier to do and start looking for platforms that match these requirements. 

Once you have a good sense of your technology needs, have a strategy in place before making software or hardware purchases. Every off-the-shelf software solution does something specific to solve a specific task or process. And it can get complicated quickly when you have multiple software solutions that need to integrate together.

Consider working with an IT consultant to see if developing a custom software solution from the ground up makes better business sense.

Prepare and position for success

You’re making that technology investment to help your employees work smarter. And you’ll be giving them the tools. The third step in the process is making sure they have the know-how to use them.

Make sure you offer the proper training across the company to ensure your employees understand the new processes. Some companies have found that peer-to-peer training keeps employees more engaged and ambitious. Every company will train differently based on its workplace culture. Find that method resonates best with your employees.

To consult with FUSION OF IDEAS’ software development experts on your technology needs, call us at 949-453-0740 or visit https://fusionofideas.com/dev.php.

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AirPods Dominate the 2019 Holiday Season

There’s no doubt that Apple AirPods, along with the new AirPods Pro, which launched in October 2019, continue to dominate in the tech gifts category over the 2019 corporate gifting season.

Even with the product shortage that consumers experienced this past holiday season, we helped countless businesses customize Apple AirPods and AirPods Pros for gifting opportunities. 

Our proprietary UV proprietary printing process allows for high-quality, full-color graphics to be permanently bonded onto devices. Because it is a direct print, the artwork won’t peel, flake or fade. Additionally, many clients also leveraged using custom device sleeves and gift wrap to create a memorable unboxing experience.

Check out a few highlights from FUSION OF IDEAS’ 2019 corporate gifting program:

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From our CEO: Look for us in January

As you may already know, FUSION OF IDEAS is deeply passionate about helping businesses mobilize and scale. We believe in creating high-impact brand experiences through the power of customization.

This holiday season, we helped businesses in all industries create impactful corporate gifting programs. And as we look ahead to the new year and a new decade, we are focused on accelerating our momentum in customization.

FUSION OF IDEAS will be on the road at two marquee industry events in January:
  • As attendees at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas on January 6-10
  • As exhibitors, booth #647, at PPAI Expo (Promotional Products Association International) at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas on January 12-16

We look forward to sharing new and exciting ways to re-define customization for our customers. If you will be attending either show in January, we’d love to meet and discuss your plans for 2020.

Merry Christmas on behalf of the entire FUSION OF IDEAS team,

Russ Taylor
CEO, FUSION OF IDEAS

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Continuing the Kidd’s Kids Tradition

For more than 25 years, Kidd’s Kids has taken children with life-threatening and life-altering conditions and their families on an all-expense-paid trip to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

For the ninth consecutive year, FUSION OF IDEAS has gratefully donated our app development and customization services to this amazing cause. Together with Best Buy and Microsoft, we provided and personally handed out customized Microsoft Surface laptops to each Kidd’s Kids family. Each laptop was personalized with trip information preloaded in the devices.

Customized Microsoft Surface laptops were presented to each Kidd's Kids family.
Customized Microsoft Surface laptops were presented to each Kidd’s Kids family.

The gift of technology is an impactful one for the families. The children use these devices for schoolwork as well as entertainment when they are in the hospital, and for some, who are nonverbal, technology devices are valuable communication tools.

Kidd Kraddick founded Kidd’s Kids in 1991 with a dream to make a difference in the lives of children and their families who were dealing with life-altering conditions. The Irving, Texas-based organization has sent over 4,000 children and their families on a trip of a lifetime to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

The FUSION OF IDEAS team and families onsite to help present the laptops.
The FUSION OF IDEAS team and families onsite to help present the laptops.

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Overcoming the Construction Industry’s Pain Points

Part of sustaining a business, no matter the industry, is staying current and rolling with change. In the construction business, many companies are held up with time tracking, offline capabilities, field data capturing challenges, which are the most common pain points in the industry. 

Because these challenges disrupt the daily workflow, a savvy software implementation to overcome these obstacles can be the difference between winning a project bid or not. 

While there are easy, off-the-shelf solutions to each of these areas, it’s not as cost-effective as you may think. SaaS spend and adoption continued to grow quickly across all company sizes. In 2018, the average company spent $343,000 a year on SaaS, a 78% increase from the previous year. 

A custom software, one that can tackle your entire workflow in one single app is customized for your business to help these common pain points:  

  1. Time Tracking – Time tracking in the field is a common pain point in construction. Even with time-tracking software, many solutions have a complicated user interface or depend on connectivity to the Internet.  
  2. Offline Capabilities – If you’re using web-based field software that doesn’t have offline capabilities, your workforce may be delayed in completing critical tasks like inspection reports and safety incident reports.
  3. Data Collection – Gathering and sorting essential business data can be a time-consuming task, especially when data is being collected in several programs or platforms. Chances are, the bigger your organization, the more apps or software your company may be using. And having data in various places offers more risk in errors when collecting data, which can hinder critical business decisions.
  4. Real-Time Communications – Communication is the backbone of all efficient operations. Improving communications can massively streamline operations and improve accuracy by allowing real-time communication between all members invested in a project on the field and at the office.