In the technology age it is important for businesses to keep up with the latest business tech – especially if you are an SMB. Whilst larger corporate organisations have some level of stability, an SMBs can be more at risk of falling behind the competition if they do not keep up with the times. There are lots of technology trends that can be utilised by small businesses – a lot of them are cost effective and easy to adopt.
Below are 3 steps SMBs can take in adopting technology to make their business more efficient, and even more successful.
Business process automation
This technology can enable your company to execute complex business processes automatically – making them much quicker and efficient, and freeing up employee time and resources. The core benefit of this technology is that it streamlines your business, can enable you to deliver services quicker, and it can make the business as a whole more cost effective, by enabling you to redistribute labour resources to other tasks. With Business process automation, you can get more things done at once, and increase overall productivity and efficiency in your business.
There are a range of services that can help you get started with business process automation. A popular one is Microsoft’s Power Platform – using Power Automate and PowerApps together to create automated solutions in your company has never been easier.
Virtual Desktop Technology
Many organisations are using Cloud technology to centralise their company resources and data and make it more secure and accessible to all in the company. The next step with this approach is to utilize virtual desktop technology. With these types of services, you can control your company data and resources even more tightly, whilst making sure that your users are equipped with everything they need to work. There has been a huge increase in companies wanting to use this technology, IT Support Companies have had to include this more and more as a service for their clients over the past year or two. There are several virtual desktop services available – such as Citrix, Azure Virtual Desktop, and Windows 365. The way it works is that the end user downloads a client that enables them to access a virtual desktop – they connect to the Cloud and stream their work desktop to their PC or laptop.
The benefits of this technology are innumerable. It means that employees can work remotely from anywhere with internet connection, and it remains highly secure no matter what network they are using. Moreover, it means SMBs can begin to hire more talent, because they will not be limited by location – companies in London can hire talent from the other side of the world, and equip them with all the applications and resources they need through Virtual Desktop technology.
Business Intelligence
The amount of data that is produced by businesses these days is huge; and the value of that data is very high. But sometimes it can be hard to interpret that data. This is why business intelligence is very valuable. It helps you process and analyse large amounts of data, and gain insights into your business so that you can make more intelligent decisions in the different areas of operation. Overall, this helps you steer your business in the right direction for growth and success.
Services like Microsoft’s Power BI make it easy for any SMB to utilize business intelligence. The platform is easy to understand and once you have learned the interface and how to use it, you will be able to ingest any data you want into it, and begin analysing it and looking for useful insights.