The entire world is moving from an analog model to a digital model. A digital model enables the world to move with greater speed, accuracy and ubiquity. If a small business wants to keep up and maintain efficiency, small business owners will need to embrace and invest in technologies that allow their employees to be faster, more accurate and ubiquitous.
Like it or not, your small business needs technology to help it to keep up with the times. Small businesses need technology to communicate ubiquitously, store data, organize the office, scaffold employees and create security protocols.
Below are some technologies that small business owners need to consider investing in:
1. COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES
One of the key areas that technology is essential in the workplace, is communication. Small businesses must be equipped to allow employees to communicate remotely, and ubiquitously, if necessary. Whether that means providing employees with smartphones; or investing in online software such as Teams, Zoom, Hive or Slack; or using chatbots to communicate with customers – small businesses must be prepared to make at least a nominal investment in digital communication technologies.
2. DATA PROTECTION AND STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES
Small business owners need technology to help them protect and store company and employee data. This is an especially sensitive undertaking in the age of phishing, malware, computer viruses and cyber-attacks. Without these technologies, small businesses leave themselves wide open to security breaches which can be very costly to resolve. Additionally, these days, most workplaces use some form of cloud technology to store data. There are risks with cloud technologies, especially when employees are not properly trained to separate their private cloud usage from their professional cloud usage, and subsequently co-mingle the two. Risk of data loss and security/privacy breaches can occur. When this happens, it exposes the small business to liability. Small business owners would thus be wise to train their workers to keep their personal and professional cloud storage (images, documents, videos) completely separate.
3. PROJECT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGIES
Small businesses, like other business concerns, quite often need to manage projects such as creating webinars or other more complex undertakings with some degree of efficiency. A team has to be organized and a plan for creating said project must be implemented. Investing in project management technologies and software like Wrike, is a good strategy because it helps to streamline the project and helps employees deliver the best results in the quickest time.
4. VIRTUAL ASSISTANTS
Small business owners and their employees could benefit from using virtual assistants. According to beekeeper.com, “virtual assistants, or VAs, can enhance a digital work environment by: Answering questions in real-time, handling operational logistics, like scheduling meetings, and using machine-learning algorithms to compile data and enhance their own capabilities.” Gone are the days when bosses can expect their employees to just get it all done in record time without the aide of assistive technologies to assist with operational challenges, data compilation and storage, as well as administrative scaffolding among other things. Virtual assistants are a great way to provide this technological leg up to employees.
5. APPS AND GAMES TECHNOLOGIES
Most small businesses operate as a small team. This means that building and fostering connectivity is important for the group’s outcome. Small business owners who want to build stronger teams should consider investing in apps and games technologies that help to create stronger connectivity bonds in the team. Check out teambuilding.com for great team building apps on the market today.
