5 Things We Do to Make Your Computers Run Smooth for Your Users

Are slow devices slowly hurting productivity and your bottom line? Waiting a few minutes here and several minutes there for a computer to respond can add up to a lot of time and money being lost. Ensuring that your computers run smoother to cut down costs in your business. In a survey of UK workers, 46% stated that outdated technology hurts their productivity. This directly equates to bottom-line costs.

The survey found that on average, 46 minutes per day is lost per employee due to slow technology. This equates to a per-person loss of 24 days of productivity and approximately £2,752 in related costs each year.

What’s causing the issue? All these tasks that take longer on slow systems:

Opening software (+20 minutes per day)
Opening and saving documents (+16.5 minutes per day)
Sending emails (+16.5 minutes per day)

But how do you know which employees have devices that are hurting their productivity and how to address those problems? How can you improve the digital workplace to boost your business overall?

One of the helpful services we provide at Network & Security is using a tool called Applixure. It allows us to have full visibility into computers and software issues that slow down your team and cause unnecessary downtime.

Improving the Digital Employee Experience (DEX)

Using Applixure, we help organisations stop constantly fighting IT fires, and put them out for good. We gain visibility into your user devices and can detect patterns of system inefficiency that slow your employees down and hurt your bottom line.

Here are a few highlights of this service:

You get system issues identified by our expert team
You can see a consolidated report of the health of all computers and installed software
You can log in to a portal to see top priorities and system status in real-time
Root causes of system inefficiency are found and fixed (saving you the cost of a replacement)
Employees get a better experience, improving satisfaction and productivity

Rather than having to deal with unhappy employees that feel held back by poorly performing devices, you get a device environment that’s fully managed, monitored, and optimised.

What Are Five Key Things We Do for Your Team’s Efficiency?

1. Streamline Software Versions

When you upgrade software on a computer, it doesn’t always remove the old version automatically. This can leave users with several old versions of the same software taking up space.

The additional versions make it harder to manage the PC environment. Tools and administrators need to sort through the different versions to find the newest one.

Users can also accidentally open an older version, not understanding why the interface looks slightly different or why a certain feature is no longer there. This version confusion slows them down.

Security is another problem. When you have older versions of software on a system, it means you have versions that no longer get updated. These can contain security flaws.

One of the things we look for when scanning devices using the Applixure tool is these instances of additional and unnecessary software versions. We remove outdated versions to improve system performance.

2. Fix Problematic OS Installations

When users are responsible for installing operating system updates, things can sometimes go wrong. They may think the upgrade is done, but never rebooted their system, so it didn’t actually install. Some users go weeks or months without initiating a reboot. Instead, they put their PC in sleep mode, which is not the same thing.

When OS updates are not installed properly or are downloaded but not installed, it can cause system performance to suffer. This, in turn, can cause a system to get sluggish. It also invites security vulnerabilities.

This is another thing that we scan and monitor to ensure that all employee computers are properly updated to the latest OS version.

3. Identify & Solve Performance Degradation Issues

There are a number of internal factors that can cause performance degradation. This typically equates to computers running slower and users getting frustrated. We’ve seen that frustrated employees can accidentally cause further damage to a computer, such as hitting the keyboard a little too hard.

We dig into these performance issues to identify and solve the causes. This can significantly improve overall employee experience and performance.

4. Address Unusually High Memory Usage

When memory usage on a computer is continuously high, the system slows down. It freezes often and can make everything from opening a program to searching for information online take forever.

We identify the reason for high memory usage and let you know what can be done to solve the issue. This could involve a memory upgrade or simply training employees to close unnecessary files and applications.

5. Identify and Resolve Battery Issues

Battery wear isn’t something that is on most users’ radars. They only notice when the battery starts giving them less time between charges, which can be a big inconvenience.

Battery issues can quickly be identified and resolved. We’ll check to see if a calibration is needed or if the battery itself needs replacing.