As founder and CEO of ServNet LLC, Michael Wylie spends much
of his time fixing computer and technology problems. While the break-fix model is the most common
in his line of work, Michael Wylie prefers innovative projects that use
technology as a catalyst to help small businesses become more efficient.
After all, technology was designed to help increase
productivity and perform tedious tasks.
Michael Wylie highly recommends that you and your employees take a look
at daily computer tasks and find ways to automate them. If you don’t have the skills to automate them,
find someone who does. It will quickly
pay for itself.
Here are some simple examples of computer automation to get
your creative juices flowing.
1.
Speed Up Your Computer
Michael Wylie frequently sets up CClenaer and Window’s
Defrag tool to run nightly when client’s go home for the night. This allows programs to run without user’s
input, continually speeding up computers.
If the user were to perform these tasks each day, it would waste 30-60
minutes or up to 20 hours per month.
2.
Daily News
What is the first thing you do when get to the office in the
morning? If you read Emails or visit a
certain website, let your computer have that ready for you. It’s easy.
Have Windows load up your favorite website or Email client at 8:30AM
before you get into the office.
3.
Time tracking
As an employee in a medium sized information technology
department early in his career, Michael Wylie often forgot to clock-in and out
each day for work. In the rare event
that he did clock-in, he’d forget to do so for lunch. The solution was simple. Use Windows automation tools to launch a web
browser and the website for time tracking each morning at 8:00AM, Noon, 1:00PM,
and 5:00PM.
4.
Send an Email
Whether you’re in sales, management, or an hourly employee, you
may need to send out morning Emails.
Michael Wylie suggests using a scheduled task to either fully automate
the process or at the very least, have the Email template launch at a certain
time each day and allow you to fill in the blanks.
There are endless opportunities for automation. The examples above were simple tasks for the
personal computer; however the possibilities for companywide automation or
large scale automations are endless.
