Small, large, corporate, or non-profit: regardless of size or type, all businesses must take advantage of innovation to succeed.
In our modern world, technology paves the way for innovation - and everything that comes with it. In fact, according to Forbes, you must “innovate and disrupt your own business or somebody else will”.
It’s necessary for your company’s survival - and technology is exactly the tool you need to achieve this “disruption”. This doesn’t mean you need to go and change the entire structure of your business over and over; rather, that you can adapt and integrate new ways of doing things as time goes on.
However, before you can take full advantage of what tech can offer your business, you must first know 1) how your business uses technology already and 2) how technology itself can improve your bottom line.
Should you outsource IT support?
In short, Yes!
With technology such an imperative factor to your business’ growth and operations, it’s a smart move to hire an outsourced IT support provider. An IT company can help you with cybersecurity needs, network connectivity, on-call tech support, cloud computing, disaster recovery, and much more. Furthermore, they’ll act as expert IT consultants for your business rather than just remote support people for technical issues.
If you’re looking for an IT company, be sure to check possible contender websites and reviews to find the most reliable firm in your area.
Your IT support team will be tech consultants for your business; they’ll help keep your business goals - and how they pertain to technology – at the forefront of your mind and future business plans. If they’re worth anything, your provider will do their best to ensure your business flourishes via proper tech use and solutions for your industry.
6 Ways Technology Helps Small Businesses Grow
Here are six easy ways you can use technology to your business’s advantage.
1. Communication
There may be nothing more important to your business than communication.
Whether by phone, email, or instant messaging, you must be able to get in touch with staff members and customers. In turn, they’ve got to be able to ask questions and receive timely, correct answers from you to build trust.
However, as phone conversations become increasingly more dated, you’ll most likely need to rely on different forms of internet communication to interact with clients and customers. There’s a countless variety of apps, special newsletters, social media avenues, and more. It’s important to know how to use these forms of communication, especially since your competitors will most likely be using them, too.
Most importantly, you must have a strong and secure network to rely on (maintained by your IT support) so all comms go smoothly.
2. Remote Work
Technology is perhaps the most important factor when it comes to remote work.
It’s forever changed the nature of what’s possible in terms of employees working while traveling or from home. If employees attend a special conference or meeting in a different state, province, or country, they can continue to easily perform the same functions that they could while in the office.
If they must stay home for any reason - such as due to the restrictions of the recent pandemic - they can easily get in touch with their manager and clients to let them know. The internet has simply made working more accessible from anywhere. Remote work has become so prominent, in fact, that companies must now craft and enact remote work policies.
3. Automation
Because technology is advancing at such a rapid rate, its analytical capabilities are exponentially increasing.
For example, workplace automation is becoming a new key for success.
It can easily handle conditional logic and can be pre-coded to interpret a user’s input, deciding who should get what information and when. This kind of analysis streamlines workflows in an entirely new way. Employees can set up notifications, reminders, and more for clients and coworkers ahead of time with ‘if/then’ parameters to process future events.
4. Prediction
Similarly, we’re seeing the advancement of commonly used analytics to interpret and predict consumer behavior.
This can determine which groups of people may best be targeted for certain products or services, and tailor advertisements or messages based on consumer profiling.
Overall, it uses the power of data to collect information about past clients or customers, analyze it in complex ways, and make predictions about the future. This allows your business to make more informed decisions and investments with a higher chance for success.
5. Safety
As we use technology to store more data, we must also use technology to protect that data.
Setting up a secure network and firewall is vitally important so hackers cannot retrieve your sensitive data. Possible forms of protection include tokenization and data encryption. Aside from keeping the data safe from malicious hackers, it prevents the data from accidentally getting lost.
Thankfully, there are apps that can help handle multiple passwords, so you don’t need to keep track of all of them, yet they remain strong and unhackable.
Finally, as most people know, technology allows for monitoring a business’ physical space with CTV cameras and an accompanying app. However, the modernization of this technology means business owners can now observe footage live in real-time from anywhere.
6. Greater Outreach Opportunity
In the age of the internet, your business can reach anyone in the world.
For businesses offering products or remote services, this infinitely expands their market possibilities. Partners from across the globe can easily communicate and work together, as well.
Using Technology to Boost Your Small Business is Easy:
You’ll need to pay attention to Information Technology (IT) when shaping your business, no matter what your industry, product, or service.
Ensuring you go above and beyond to find new ways tech can be used in your business will give you a serious competitive edge. If done correctly, your workflow will be streamlined via automation and will facilitate fast, convenient communication between employees.
With the help of a knowledgeable IT support team, tech can improve your sales (with the potential to reach a much greater market), and the ability to predict who is most likely to buy your product.
The possibilities are truly limitless!
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