Top 10 Tech Horrors for Halloween

Halloween Horrors (when it comes to computers)

Everyone has horror stories to share when it comes to computing issues so, it being Halloween, we thought we’d have a quick recap of the top 10 terrifying trials of technology! A recent survey* suggests that one in eight UK adults has actually broken a gadget or tech device in a fit of rage because they’re not working properly, while 40 per cent of the population has been left unable to work following problems with IT equipment – and we want to stop you from joining those statistics!

Top 10 Tech Horrors for Halloween

1. Viruses / malware

Security is a hot topic and it’s no surprise that people have concerns about software security. We work with all our clients to ensure their security set-up is optimised for the safest and most secure system experience. You also get the peace of mind of having a team of tech experts on call to help with whatever you need.

1. Losing work

We’ve all been there, finalising a complex purchase order, entering a multi-line sale or compiling the financial reports, only to find that you forgot to click “save” and all that hard work gets lots. Thanks to UT400 being Cloud-based and automatically backed up, your work is saved live, so you can rely on it being there next time you log in.

1. Not being able to find stuff when you need it

Software can cause a great deal of frustration. All too often, things simply don’t work how you want them to, and it’s time consuming and irritating trying to second guess the seemingly random storage system.

It can be tricky finding what you’re looking for

With UT400, we have collaborated with our customers to build the system and the interface that works the way they want it to work. We’ve made it the most accessible, intuitive system available anywhere, so you can get to whatever information you need faster, and more simply. We even brought in a games designer to make sure it was incredibly user-friendly and easy to operate.

1. Painstaking duplication of effort

Anything that takes more time than it needs to is annoying. Having to decipher the scrawls of delivery notes to add it to the system, staple together the ninth set of certification documents or manually input the stock take data is a painstaking process that also leaves plenty of room for human error.

UT400 allows everyone in your workforce to access the system from wherever they are. That means delivery drivers can update delivered orders instantly, yard workers can update stock levels live, and managers can see at a glance how everything is working. Thanks to automated features, a huge amount of admin time can be saved with things like auto-generated POs and invoices, credit reminders and certification record attributions. Every process is streamlined, saving everyone in your business time – and a lot of frustration.

1. Needing a computing degree to log in remotely

It just shouldn’t be that difficult, should it? Having to configure complex network requirements to gain access to your work software system, and then only getting a slowed down, laggy version of it, is an increasing issue for many, especially as flexible and remote working becomes more commonplace.

UT400 is cloud-based and has been designed to run on any smart device. All you need is your log-in and password (and no, you don’t need to be a mastermind to meet the password criteria either!) and you can access the all singing, all dancing system from anywhere in the world. (Just don’t blame us when you get into trouble on your family holiday for not leaving work “in the office!”)

1. Stock taking disruption

Admittedly this one is pretty specific to merchant businesses, but traditionally it’s an absolute pain in the proverbial slogging through a stock take. It’s one thing our customers have spoken about at some length, and so we’ve spent a lot of time refining and streamlining the process, combined with ongoing stock management capability, to make it as pain-free as possible,

Traditionally there are often delays in the stocktaking process, from counting the stock and entering it on the system.  That can result in things being missed, when in the fast-moving world of merchant business, stock can be received or dispatched while waiting to update or could mean keeping the business closed longer while it happens.  With UT400 you can either do a paper count and account for the movements since the count was done, or count there and then in the yard, shop floor or warehouse, on a tablet, which updates live, meaning that whichever method you choose to use, there is less disruption to the business, less margin for error, and less wasted time.

1. Broadband issues / Crashing / lagging

Ugh. It’s just so sloooooooooow. Ever felt like you wanted to hurl your computer out of the window because it’s just so rage-inducingly slow? Yep, we’ve all been there.

When tech goes wrong, you can be waiting a while….

We understand the frustrations and so we have gone to great lengths to ease the pain as much as is humanly – and technologically – possible. By using a Cloud-based system like UT400, your computer has to hold and process much less data itself, freeing up more processing space and effort to just keep working. We work with broadband and network specialists to ensure you have the optimum set up for your scale of system and we have made sure that, should there be an issue with broadband for some reason, you can still access the system via 4G. It works on any smart device, so you get the ultimate accessibility, and because it auto-saves every time you add something to a field, you won’t lose any work even if it does crash. We’ve tested our systems to within an inch of their lives so we’re confident that downtime is at the absolute minimum, and we’ve optimised every function to make it run as seamlessly and fast as possible.

1. Changing to a new system

Yes, we know, it’s a right royal hassle changing to a new software system. We get it. That’s why we have worked so hard over the last 35+ years to offer the very best onboarding, training and data migration service. We can’t promise it will be 100% pain free – no-one can – but we can give you our assurance that we’ll have you up and running with as little disruption to your business as we possibly can. We make sure every user is completely confident before we leave you to it, and we are always at the end of the phone to help.

1. It’s just so damn complicated

We hear this a lot and, having seen a lot of trading software systems in our time, we completely get where you’re coming from. These systems are traditionally complex, hard to learn and not very user friendly. Which is exactly why we have turned all that on its head and created the most user-friendly, accessible trading system for merchants in existence. Well, to the best of our collective knowledge, anyway.

Not only have we made it the most straightforward, engaging interface possible, we also offer full training and onboarding, and are there for our customers at the end of the phone whenever you need us. We can happily arrange additional advanced training down the line, but we always make sure every user is happy and confident before we leave you to it.

And to top off the ten most terrifying traits of tricky tech, we have the unrivalled unhelpfulness of….

1. PRINTERS!

Yep, the trusty (or untrusty, as the case more likely is) printer seems to be the biggest bugbear when it comes to office tech. From chewing up paper to running out of toner at the last helpful moment, to simply refusing to recognise the network connection 10 minutes before a massive order is dispatched, printers top the list for the most frustrating, time-wasting piece of office tech equipment. Add to that the environmental issues of lots of printing, and it’s a clear cut winner.

While we can’t promise to fix printers forever (which is a bit like trying to cure the common cold – not going to happen in our lifetimes), we can provide you with flexible, modern digital software that removes a great deal of the need to print anything at all and automates a lot of the manual processes involved. Invoicing, POs, delivery notes, certification documents – you name it, we can digitise and automate it, saving you time, effort and – when it comes to printers – a lot less heartache.

Have a happier halloween without the stress of tech terror!

*The survey was commissioned by online mobile and tech supporter Wiztek and sought the opinions of 2000 UK adults.