# 4 quick (but effective) tips for enterprise business efficiency

## What is business efficiency?

Most business owners have an idea of what efficiency means—it’s a measure of how well a business balances its capital, labor, products, and materials to generate revenue. In other words, it relates to how much a company produces over a set period of time and the amount of effort, money, and employee hours used in the process. So an efficient business is one that gets more done while expending fewer resources.

From an enterprise perspective, there’s an additional layer to consider here. An enterprise-size business is composed of many different teams and departments working at the same time (across time zones), each with different degrees of effectiveness. This makes it difficult to get a true calculation of overall business performance. This challenge becomes even more pronounced when you consider that each team’s efficiency also impacts that of other teams, and that enterprises have way more moving parts than small businesses.

## 3 pitfalls where enterprises lose business efficiency

Inefficiencies in an enterprise have a tendency to slip through the cracks. Its size and complexity can introduce layers of bureaucracy and miscommunication that can negatively affect business performance. Some examples include:

### Bottlenecks

This is one of the most common (yet still frustrating) kinds of business inefficiency. Many bottlenecks start out benign: a supervisor wanting to sign off on a subordinate’s work before passing it on, for instance, or a single receptionist filtering calls to determine which department should field it.

### Silos

Small business owners can suffer from this, too, but enterprises are especially vulnerable to silos (both [working in silos](https://www.dialpad.com/blog/working-in-silos/) and also data silos) due to their habit of creating departments, sub-departments, product teams, brand teams, tiger teams, commissions, working groups… You get the idea.

### Bloated tech stacks

Tech stack inefficiencies often stem from one of two things: a weak or unenforced IT policy, and poorly planned process digitization. An enterprise that does not manage which devices and apps its employees use will end up with a tech stack that is expensive and inefficient.

## 3 main types of business efficiencies

It’s not enough to just call a business “efficient.” There are different levels and types of efficiency that can tell you more about how healthy an enterprise truly is, and what improvements it can target:

### Operational efficiency

**Operational efficiency** is related to reducing the amount of time, effort, and materials expended in order to produce high-quality products and services.

### Labor efficiency

Labor efficiency (or employee productivity) refers to how much your individual employees and teams accomplish in a given period of time.

### Financial efficiency

In my experience, financial efficiency isn’t just about spending less money, but also ensuring that the money you do spend is providing a good return on investment.

## 4 ways to improve business efficiency

Now that we understand what business efficiency looks like, I want to share some tips on how to achieve it in your organization.

### 1. Embrace automation

Automation is one of the best ways to improve business process efficiency, overall team performance, and increase profit margins—if done right.

For example, implementing a [support chatbot](https://www.dialpad.com/blog/customer-service-chatbot/) alongside your live chat, email support, and customer service calls will lighten the load on your support team.

### 2. Foster a more communicative environment

Fostering a work environment with open communication will promote efficiency and employee satisfaction.

### 3. Provide employees with uninterrupted work times

You can immediately reduce interruptions by creating policies around responsible use of instant messaging and reviewing and reducing the amount of meetings (live and virtual) being scheduled.

### 4. Streamline your tech stack

The first thing you should conduct is an audit of all software being used in the company. Each department should review the list of software in use and determine which fit business needs and which don’t.

## Enhance your business efficiency with Dialpad

[Unified communications platforms](https://www.dialpad.com/enterprise/) like Dialpad can help you achieve considerable improvements in business efficiency by incorporating all the important call functions.