New-Year Start Right

New-Year Top 10

This resource is to provide information about new-year preparations and planning. Use this information to help get geared up for a great new year.

Review your backup solution.

Make sure you backup is working, that it is alerting you to successful and failed backups and that you have backup copies offsite at another location or in the cloud. Malicious software and hardware failures can destroy the data you have worked years to build and cost a significant amount of money to recover - if recovery is even possible. Do not be caught without a good backup.

Review your current server and workstation hardware.

Do you have any equipment that is older and needs to be replaced? Are you running out of space on your hard-drives? Hardware failures can really slow you down when they happen at an inconvenient time. In some cases, problems on older hardware just cannot be fixed. Be proactive about maintaining your IT infrastructure.

Set specific goals for the new year.

Are your key business solutions and systems current and secure from outside attackers and inside risks?

Review Firewall protections - Have you reviewed your firewall recently? Does it have any old holes created years ago for dead solutions and networks?
Review Credit Card security - Processing credit card manually or on paper can be a significant risk for your business. Using a PCI compliant solution integrated with your business software solution can protect you financially from hackers and identity thieves.
Review User security - Have you looked at your users permissions within the last 6 months. Any former users still have access to your systems and data?
Review Anti-Virus protections - Is your anti-virus solution up-to-date and working as expected?

Start using a larger net.

You can only catch new sales where you are looking for them. Identify untapped channels you can use to claim additional business - including e-commerce, international sales and new types of customers. Some of these options will even work for you while you sleep.

Learn more about Exerve's E-Commerce Solutions here:

Invest in efficency.

Dashboards, Portals and Customized Processing Screens can help you grow your business without growing your payroll expense.

Schedule training for your users.

Keeping your employees well trained can have a significant impact on their job satisfaction and job performance. Your employees want to do a good job. It is your job to make sure they know how to do that. Exerve offers onsite and web training in addition to our annual user conference. We would be happy to setup a training class just for you!

You can review Upcoming Training and Webinar opportunities here: https://www.exerve.com/training.html

Check out what happened at our 2020 Digital User Conference here: 2020 Conference Review - SouthwareAnswers

Schedule your Ignite Review.

Through our Ignite Review, Exerve will work with your staff to evaluate your current business processes. We help identify gaps, extra steps and unmet needs and make recommendations to help your business operate at the highest levels possible.

The Ignite Review covers important areas of your business including the following and much more:

User Process Mapping, Requirement & Training Need Analysis - Can your processes be done faster or easier
Sales/Customer Service Process – Do your employees have the tools and training needed to be efficient and effective in giving your customers the best experience and to process orders quickly and efficiently?
Daily/Monthly Processing – Are all of your regular processes handled a efficiently as you would like? Are there tools and features that could help your business run better?
Financial Reporting – Are you getting the information you need when you need it in order to steer your business in the right direction?
Improvement Roadmap - mapping out the plan forward

Update your Website.

Your website can get forgotten - lost in the background of your day to day activities, but many times it is the first thing your prospects and customers see about your business. It can be the first and only impression you will get with potential prospects. What kind of impression is your website setting? Set a schedule to keep your site updated throughout the year.

Schedule Time to Work ON Your Business.

Daily demands control our schedules. We all get lost in our daily responsibilities. However, the most valuable thing you can do with your work time is to invest in improving your business. Creating new products or services, improving the delivery and quality of your products or services and setting up processes and procedures to help your business self-manage are critical to your business success and personal stress levels. Schedule specific time to work on improving yourself or your business. "Sharpening your ax" can make all the difference.

Take advantage of your free benefits.

As part of your maintenance program, you have access to a number of free modules and features. Make sure you get full value from your investment. In 2020 Southware launched the "free" Monitors product. This is a great tool to help you manage your business - from your phone - on the go.

See webinar on SouthWare Monitors here:

Proactive Support online is designed to augment the Excellence Series manuals and Exerve support personnel.
Use the information here at your own risk.
Exerve does not provide tax advice. Please contact your CPA for specific information about your requirements.
If you are not sure how to apply the information available, please call our support help desk at (770) 447-1566.