We Asked You

Marie Thompson, 42 , Leicester

SHBS Ltd

We’re talking to more businesses looking to move to VoIP-hosted telephony before the PSTN switch-off in 2025. Routing calls through the internet is more economical, improves business functionality and offers customers a better user experience. Updating your communication services also allows for better collaboration between employees. Choosing the right solution from the beginning is important, so I would advise engaging with a professional business telecoms provider.

Using VoIP (bOnline) has been the best decision I made when setting up my business, as well as having an e-commerce website that allows clients to book free discovery calls at a mutually convenient time and allows them to pay for initial assessment meetings online. It’s hassle-free, saves time and energy, is very efficient and economical. Other technologies I use that have changed the way I work are PDF Filler, Dropbox, Calendly, Stripe, and Ascend by Wix.

Sushma Kotecha, 53 , Leicester

Holistic Family Mediation C hr istina Wigmore, mid-50s, Rowley Fi el d s

Soft Touch Arts

We use technology to communicate with young people on social media and to share the wonderful music, art and films they make. We use industry-standard creative software daily in our creative and life skills sessions. This gives young people creative industry and digital skills for the future, and a platform to express themselves through art, music and media digitally. Digital inclusion is a high priority for our charity as so many young people we support don’t have access to WiFi, laptops or smartphones – something so many of us take for granted.

How is your workplace digitising to stay ahead?

Leicester businesspeople told us how they’re using advanced and everyday technology, why it’s shaping their company and how it impacts employees and customers

WORDS BY KERRY SMITH

Macauley Christopher, 26 , Leicester

Premier Logistics

Here at Premier Logistics we offer our customers the ability to book, check and receive delivery information all through our online portal. Whilst we are always keen to speak with customers, we understand that everyone is busy and this is a very userfriendly system that saves time and allows our customers to put this to the back of their mind as they know we will deliver on the rest.

Working in the fast-moving recruitment industry, Google Sheets has been a massive help for us to check-in workers’ attendance on the way to work. The app has been extremely useful for out-of-town contracts and supports bridging the gap between us and the client. Being better armed, we can share this information with clients to help with their KPIs. We use QR codes for workers to help with their applications online; they make registration more efficient and helps candidates with their job search.

Daniel Connor, 38, Great Glen Sajjad Khan, 57, Leicester

n A pparel & Textile Manufacturers Federa t io

One of the recent efficiencies we implemented was to reduce production waste in garment manufacturing.

This was done by upgrading our outdated digitised pattern grading and plotting system from Lectra to the more modern Investronica system. Our fabric usage has been maximised as a result, which in turn helps combat some of the rising energy costs, as well as reducing waste disposal costs.