The clichés are true – the new year is a great time to refresh and refocus, and at OnlyExcel Towers, we did just that. Throughout 2023, we solved many challenges for businesses looking for an easier way. This year’s plan is much more of that, but harder, better, faster, stronger. Or in our language, smarter.
So let’s take a brief look at what kept us busy throughout January and some of the tools we’ve been adopting to help us achieve our goals for the next eleven months.
Re-integration for an Amazon reseller
Selling through Amazon is becoming increasingly appealing for SME retailers, so it’s no surprise that one of our regular clients asked us to help with an update to their Amazon integration. More specifically, their existing third-party integration had suddenly changed its functionality and was no longer suitable. Not ideal during one of the busiest sales periods – Black Friday and Christmas.
We reprioritised our work schedule to focus on this high-priority issue, building and implementing a customer integration to take the stress away and support our client’s sales during this busy period. Our client’s Amazon operation was back up and running in no time, enabling them to resume sales and start the year confident that they were using the right tools for the job. A good way to start the year!
Saving time and effort with Microsoft AI transcription tools
We’re big fans of the “work smarter” mantra. Of course, we work hard, but it’s in our nature to find better (smarter) ways of doing things through clever tools and automation. But the truth is, we spend so much of our time building these for other people that we’re not left with much time to build our own. Thankfully, we’ve found love in Microsoft’s new suite of AI tools.
Specifically, we’ve been using the Microsoft Word and Teams transcription service to produce notes from audio and video meetings, which has been a real game-changer for us. It enables us to quickly review a call, reference the key discussion points later on, and share the notes with all parties.
In Teams, you can simply record and transcribe as you go. In Word, you can upload an audio file for transcription. Monthly limits currently apply (300 minutes of transcription); however, there are rumblings of a pay-as-you-go model being added at a later date.
Comparing it to similar tools on the market, it’s markedly better at identifying different speakers, and the accuracy of transcription is great too, requiring little manual intervention.
It can be a little overzealous with timestamps, often applying them excessively. Thankfully, Nic whipped up a cool little macro that merges these together where necessary, reducing the overall length of the transcription document.
Using tools like these has been a good precursor for our goals for the year. We have the clients, and we have the expertise, but there is always room for improvement when it comes to how we work.
We encourage you to apply this mindset to your own business. Where can you save time? Money? Effort? Unlocking efficiency is a surefire way to make a business more productive and profitable. All you need is the right application, automation or integration.
If you need a technology partner that can help you identify these bottlenecks and, more importantly, build the tools to solve your problems, then drop us a line.
We’d love to help you achieve a harder, better, faster and stronger 2024.
