Your business might need a Systems Engineer: Here’s why!

Having the right roles filled in your business is crucial. Even with AI on the rise, people are STILL the ones running businesses day in and day out!

And sure, you might have your sales manager, a managing director, or even a social media manager…but have you ever thought about consulting a Systems Engineer?

Confused? Don’t worry, we’ll take this step by step! 😉

Let’s get to it! 🧑‍💻

What is a Systems Engineer?

Our systems engineer and Managing Director Richard Phu (R) snaps a photo with our graphic designer turned automation engineer Jon Martiniano (L) (photo taken from our 2023 annual company outing to the Philippines)

A Systems Engineer can help shape how your business works, by ensuring that your systems are not only operational but also optimised, secure, and easily scalable.

👉 Related: How to scale your business without the guesswork

They make sure that all parts of your business work together seamlessly, ffrom your sales department, your marketing team, and even all the apps and tools everyone’s using 🧑‍💻

In other words, they can take the stress off your work by making things EASIER for you and your team! 😉

They’re able to do this by combining various disciplines such as:

• Information Systems (IT)
• software and network engineering
• as well as project management and human factors 👬

👉 Related: Upskilling and training a kick-ass remote team

Even a short consultation with a systems engineer may provide you with a working guide to improve your processes and replace tools with more efficient ones, so you can work smarter and conquer the business challenges you’re currently facing.

This is exactly what our systems engineer slash Managing Director Richard Phu achieved for us at Outsourcing Angel!

Richard Phu is our resident systems geek and Managing Director.

About 6 years ago, Rich stepped in to become part of the Outsourcing Angel team. He upgraded our business processes with:

✅ custom automations
✅ clearer workflows and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
✅ integration between tools and CRM platforms
✅ and more techy stuff 😁

We’re continually improving how we work, and because of that, we’ve had more capacity to scale up, learn more about each other, enjoy fun trips, and even build a happy remote work culture!

👉 Related: How to build a strong remote work culture

So—why should YOUR particular business need a systems engineer? 🤔

6 reasons why your business might need Systems Engineering

Systems engineering could bring huge benefits to the way you run your business, and contribute to your better work-life balance.

Here’s how! 👇

1. You can work more efficiently with optimised systems and processes.

Systems Engineers specialise in optimising your existing systems and workflows. Let’s say you’re a manufacturing company struggling with frequent machine downtime.

A systems engineer can step in to implement:

• predictive maintenance schedules
• and real-time monitoring

which reduces downtime and saves you significant costs and delays 👌💸

Or if you’re an e-commerce business, for example, you might be handling thousands of transactions daily! A systems engineer can help revamp your order processing, reducing processing time per order and significantly decreasing your error rate. This directly translates to cost savings too and improved customer satisfaction.

👉 Related: How we helped an e-commerce founder go from hands-full to hands-free within 6 weeks

These solutions are possible due to workflow automation. Workflow automation is a great solution for streamlining manual repetitive tasks and improving operational efficiency, especially for e-commerce platforms where every second counts.

So how can you ACTUALLY “automate workflows”? 🤔 And what would that look like in your business?

Workflow automation can be:

• automating the tracking of your inventory levels, instead of manually monitoring when stocks are low
• automatic importing of customer data from one platform to another with just a few clicks
• or auto-scheduling regular updates for product information.

The possibilities are extensive, and they can be tailored to your business’s specific needs! 💯

👉 Related: How we helped a retail business save more time and scale up

By automating workflows, your business can:

✅ reduce human error
✅ enhance the speed of order processing/work turnaround
✅ and improve customer interactions by providing faster response times.

With more things done quickly, your team can also focus on more strategic tasks that require more human input.

2. You can scale your business WITHOUT the stress.

As your business grows, so does the complexity of your processes and systems. A team of 5 or 6 can easily figure out how you’re using your spreadsheets…but how about when you hire 4 more people? Or 10 more? 😅

A Systems Engineer can help you set up a system that can scale alongside your business growth.

Now, let’s have another example. Let’s say you’re a retail business that’s expanding from 10 to 50 stores. A Systems Engineer helps ensure that your sales process can handle the increased transactions and customer data securely and efficiently, without performance lags or risks.

👉 Related: 7 tips to create a sales pipeline on a budget

Business growth IS exciting, but it also tests your business’ capacity to handle increased demands. This is true, whatever your niche is!

Let’s look at these other examples:

• If you’re a media company and you want to expand your digital content to more countries, a Systems Engineer could update your content delivery SOPs to ensure fast, reliable turnaround without lags or disruptions
• If you’re a healthcare provider looking to streamline patient care, a Systems Engineer could tweak your patient management system so that it auto-integrates appointment scheduling, medical records, and billing to improve service efficiency and patient satisfaction
• If you’re in the online retail sector aiming to enhance your customers’ shopping experience, a Systems Engineer could optimise your e-commerce platform to handle higher traffic volumes and integrate advanced analytics for better customer insights and personalised shopping experiences
• If you’re an online learning platform, a Systems Engineer could develop and enhance your virtual learning environments and content management systems to support a larger number of courses and a global student base

These types of improvements not only support your growth objectives, but also ensure that your operations remain robust and scalable 💯

3. You can improve your security.

With cyber threats becoming more sophisticated these days, the security of your data and systems is more important than ever! 🔏😬

Systems Engineers can help you implement security measures to protect your data and network.

Here are some examples of what they can set up for your business:

• 2-factor authentication
• password manager tools
• advanced encryption
• firewalls
• and intrusion detection systems, if needed

A defence mechanism that’s tailor fit for your business can help prevent data breaches and safeguard your operations. So you can keep growing your business while keeping the trust and confidential information of your clients and your team! ❣️

👉 Related: How to keep your data safe with virtual assistants

If you’re wondering what kind of confidential information you can keep safe with these measures, here are some concrete examples:

Client financial information: Securely storing transaction records, credit card details, and investment data ensures that financial transactions remain confidential and protected from unauthorised access.

Employee personal data: Protecting details such as social security numbers, personal addresses, and medical records helps comply with privacy regulations and shields your team from identity theft.

4. You can ditch manual work with tool integrations (yay!)

Tool integrations can reduce manual work such as:

• copying and pasting
• tab-switching
• and manual data entry 🧑‍💻

To understand how this works, let’s take a look at these examples:

Example 1: Integrating CRM and Email Marketing Tools

The integration of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system like HubSpot with email marketing tools such as ActiveCampaign automates the process of data entry. This integration allows for the automatic syncing of contact details and other essential data across platforms. In short: no need for you to manually input data! 🥳

So when a new contact is added to the CRM, for example, their information can be automatically updated in the email marketing tool, ready to be included in campaigns without additional input.

Example 2: Using chat automations

If you’re doing any social media marketing, chances are you’re getting a lot of messages on different platforms like:

• Instagram DMs
• Facebook Messenger
• or maybe even WhatsApp.

Example of automated messages and replies from ManyChat.

Automation tools like ManyChat can automate sending messages and comment replies to your leads. Let’s say you’re giving away a freebie to your followers. Your Instagram post could have the ManyChat automation, so everytime an interested follower comments on that post, they automatically receive a reply and a private message giving them a link to your freebie! 🤯

The automation is triggered by any comment on your chosen posts, so you literally don’t have to wait for anyone to comment or type out any message to people one by one.

👉 Related: How to achieve true time freedom as a business owner

Automations like these also reduce errors and save valuable time 💯 So your team can focus more on strategic tasks that add value to the business rather than getting bogged down in manual administrative work

5. You can create more strategic, long-term plans.

Beyond day-to-day operations, Systems Engineers can play a critical role in your long-term planning.

They can assess your business system’s current capabilities, forecast your future needs, and plan technology roadmaps that align with the business’s strategic goals. This ensures your technology grows in conjunction with your business trajectory 📈

👉 Related: Why should you plan your business exit strategy?

Updating your processes plays a critical role in long-term planning because with less manual work and increased scaling capabilities, you will naturally have more room to formulate your future plans and strategies.

Take Artificial Intelligence (AI), for example 🤖 If you’re planning to introduce AI into your operations, a Systems Engineer would be key in defining how AI fits into your existing tech and what needs to be upgraded to support it!

And this leads us to our last item…

6. You can leverage the AI and technology wave.

Embracing the latest AI and technology innovations can dramatically enhance your business’s efficiency, accuracy, and competitive edge.

And the great thing is, Systems Engineers can also help integrate AI tools into your business so you can:

• deliver more personalised customer experiences
• analyse massive amounts of data
• make more data-driven decisions
• and even predict customer behaviour 🤯

This is possible if you incorporate AI-driven solutions in your business such as

🤖 machine learning algorithms
🤖 chatbots
🤖 advanced analytics, and more

The right mix of technology positions your business at the forefront of your niche. With a talented Systems Engineer on board, you can capitalise on the technological advancements that are reshaping the modern business landscape!

You deserve the freedom of business automation

The right Systems Engineer will not just keep your digital work environment running smoothly.

They’ll also help you enjoy the freedom of business automation so you and your team can operate more efficiently, scale effectively, and innovate continuously. In other words, they can help drive your business’ innovation and growth—which is what we’re all aiming for, at the end of the day 🤞

Whether you’re planning to scale your operations, expand your reach, or just make work easier for your team, Systems Engineers ensure your technology supports and enhances your business objectives 🧑‍💻 This makes them an EXTREMELY invaluable asset to any business looking to thrive in the digital era.