Technology has powered our business for years, but many companies still don’t seem to realise how much inadequate tech can affect their business. It’s important to stay frugal and save money wisely – but just because you’re careful doesn’t mean you should slavishly refuse to spend money when it’s necessary.
If your company isn’t up to speed on the latest developments in technology, you risk falling behind the pack.
Historically, IT has been critical to the growth of businesses of any size, and the importance of investing in it should be regularly highlighted to business owners, so they can benefit from the continuous returns the right IT investment can give them. So, let’s get to dispelling some myths and help you see how the right IT investments will see your business level up.
Altering attitudes about IT for the benefit of all
As mentioned, IT investment for businesses often gets a bad rap, and this is mostly because of the continuously maintained falsehood that technology investment will take up a large chunk of a company budget – meaning that we think of IT as a ‘cost’ rather than an investment.
The average business incurs daily, weekly, monthly, and even annually standard operational expenses. These often include, but are not limited to, renting (or buying) office space, hiring employees, accounting fees, marketing fees etc, and these expenses are seen as unavoidable, which is natural. Afterall, you may not be able to run a wildly successful business if you have no staff, for example. And to be fair, the same could be said for technology.
These days, technology is the driving force behind businesses as it unlocks unrealised potential – not just for the individual business but for the future development of technology solutions that benefit everyone. With the continued integration of technology solutions and everyday business practices, it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain a competitive edge in any industry without the help of technology, so by choosing to see IT as a cost, you may be unwittingly situating yourself outside of the competitive market.
Your business can drastically improve with technology
Your presence within the competitive market, whether you be a small start-up or an established enterprise, is essentially what drives technological change and solutions as well. Change comes through realisation and collaboration, so it stands to reason that without the realisation that you may have an issue which technology can easily solve combined with the collaboration of specialists to help you get there, you may miss a fantastic opportunity to propel your business towards a more successful operating model – not to mention the returns that would come along with that.
A great example of how businesses have been positively influenced by technology advancement can be found in the cloud computing phenomenon. Upon the deployment of a cloud computing solution, such as SaaS, almost 40% of businesses record a noticeable increase in agility, responsiveness, availability, and resiliency with above 30% registering an acceleration in product development.
IT investments can improve customer interaction
Society is changing before our very eyes, and with world events like the Covid-19 pandemic, our target audience – customers – changes even faster. Take Millennials, for instance.
Telecommunications companies around the world have registered a significant drop in the use of mobile phones to make actual phone calls with the phone app now being only the fifth most used app on the device. Considering the phone was developed to make phone calls, this shift highlights a significant change in customer behaviour and expectations which directly influences the way businesses connect with them.
In response to this change, many companies have switched to chatbots, text messaging, and emails as a way to communicate with their customer base, and it is definitely working. But without the right technology in place, this is not a viable option for businesses and could potentially lead to a decrease in customers and, therefore, profits.
You can’t stop progress
It is clear that technology should no longer be viewed as a ‘cost’ for businesses as the importance of seeing it as an investment clearly speaks for itself. The world around us will change whether we like it or not, so we can either embrace the technology with arms wide open and accept that it has the power to lead us towards more successful and profitable processes and solutions, or not.
So, if you’re ready to make the most worthwhile business investment you could ever make, call the experts at Lindentech to discuss the best technology to compliment your business.
