Remember the days of years gone by, when IT was little more than a big bulky computer, with perhaps a simple website if you were particularly savvy, a dial-up connection that cut out every time someone phoned and storing things on floppy discs? Well, technology has come on leaps and bounds since then, and almost every workplace relies on it to carry out its core business operations.
These days, it is essential that you have more than a basic understanding of technology and how it can drive your business forward if you want to be successful. If you don’t, you are risking lagging behind your competitors and losing out on sales – and no one wants that!
In this article, we look at some of the critical things that you need to think about when it comes to using technology in your business.
Hardware
Hardware is, without a doubt, the most critical piece of technology for your business, so you need to make sure that you have the very best one that your budget allows for. You also need to make sure it is the right one for your business needs, for example, rackmount servers to provide functionality for other programs or devices.
Social Media
If you are not active on social media, you are missing out on an extremely valuable – and free – marketing tool. Almost every business in the western world has a social media presence. It is one of the primary forms of communication these days, not just between family and friends but between a customer and a business. It is a great way to communicate with your customers on a personal and meaningful level. It can also help your business increases customer satisfaction thru a more defined and targeted customer engagement strategy plan.
Cloud Storage
We no longer store files and documents on discs and memory sticks, but generally, opt for cloud storage systems. There are different ones available to suit all budgets, from Google Drive to Dropbox, to more industry-specific ones. These allow you to both store and access information from almost anywhere in the world with an internet connection and are a secure way of keeping your data.
Search Engine Optimization
If you have any sort of website or blog, you need to be thinking about SEO, or search engine optimization. This helps to get your website or blog page ranked high enough in search engines to be visible to potential customers. It sounds tricky, but it is pretty straightforward. Essentially, it is thinking carefully about the keywords that people looking for your website would use, and putting them into the content. There are various pieces of software and plug-ins available to help you to do this, but of course, there are always SEO experts out there ready to help you get your website visible and ranking highly
Accounting and Payment
No one keeps accounts and books on paper now – it is pretty much all done digitally. There are various apps and software which allow you to send digital invoices, and customers can pay online using a variety of methods, including PayPal. You can keep records of all your expenses so that when it comes to the end of a financial period, all the information is there to pass on to your accountant.
