10 Tech Changes That Will Affect Your Business

From crime to productivity, here are 10 tech changes your company needs to understand to succeed.  

Your technology – everything from computers to private networks – has an incredible influence on your business. Any tech change can directly impact your bottom line.

Not only does technology impact the smallest details of your day-to-day business operations, it also changes consumer preferences and reshaped the way businesses produce and market their goods. But not all of these changes have yielded positive effects for companies. Let’s take a look at some of these changes and how they might affect your company below!

1. Competition

New tech is expensive. But technology constantly evolves, creating new and improved devices as well as faster systems. Businesses must take note of these changes and attempt to keep up with technology, adapting it to their present and future needs while also watching what their competitors are using. While the end result is a more efficient business, it can be very costly for a small business to try to keep up with the latest and greatest hardware or software out there. Understanding the newest technological developments in your company’s industry is essential to remaining competitive.

Be warned, some developing technologies are simply fads as opposed to new industry mainstays. An IT professional can help your company more accurately gauge which tech updates are worth cutting into your bottom line to harness.

2. Confusion

While keeping up with the latest technology can be advantageous, implementing new hardware or software can mean that you must not only retrain your employees, but sometimes you must also retrain your customers.

This can result in lost productivity and revenue if your upgrade does not go smoothly. Consider setting up retraining workshops for your employees and customers alike during technological transitions.

3. Crime

Emerging technology also comes with an increased possibility of crime. A tech-savvy employee can embezzle funds and make it difficult for the company to trace; hackers could access personal or financial data of customers; or creators of viruses and malware can capture valuable information that could render a company helpless and vulnerable to lawsuits.

It’s imperative that businesses spend time and money developing safeguards against these events. It may be best for your company to contact a trained IT security expert to see what measures your company can take to protect itself against these and other common threats.

4. Productivity

Technology has increased the productive potential of business in a number of ways, including data processing. New technology has driven down the cost of data processing, and increased the ease with which large volumes of data can be manipulated by and transferred between various workers within an organization. Additionally, this increased processing power, along with the broad range of hardware and software that are available, have resulted in changing employer and client expectations of work quality and throughput both at the employee and organizational levels.

5. Collaboration

Current technology has opened the realm of possibilities for businesses to allow their employees to work outside the office through teleworking arrangements or off-site work assignments.  Cloud computing options have made it so that work can be done anywhere at any time and clients can access their information at their leisure as well. This has made it possible for more to be accomplished between more people on much faster turn around than was ever possible before, in the end refining products and services to a higher degree than was possible before. However, this also brings up the issue of When collaboration is to be expected. Creating clauses that address if employees are expected to respond to emails outside of work for example, in similar potential issues are an important area to address in employee contracts.

6. Access

Businesses used to be limited to their local area and to the clients who could physically get to them. Utilizing the internet and e-retail sites, businesses can now extend their reach all over the globe. This translates into larger pool of potential customers that fit your targeted demographics. Investigating how your company can be benefited by this developing trend may allow your company to improve profits.

7. Dependence

Once a business has implemented a technology solution and integrates it into its daily operations, that business cannot remove the technology without running into serious difficulties. 

This dependence can have dire consequences for the business should the technology fail and businesses could find it very difficult to continue its daily activities without its vital technology. Creating backup plans — standard procedures to follow in case of technological difficulties — as well as ensuring the health of your technology is regularly checked are both important steps to make sure your company’s technology solutions remain beneficial.

8. Compliance

Regulations come into play when technology crosses into the realm of important social issues.  For example, the Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPAA) imposes strict security requirements on any healthcare organizations with digitized patient files.

Similarly, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires digital reporting and security measures within publicly traded companies. Such regulations can impose sudden, and often very costly, expenses on the technological aspects of a business.

Consult experienced IT professionals to ensure your company is constantly abiding by all online and industry regulations.

9. Lost Productivity and Liabilities

Instant access equals instant risk. The same internet that connects you to clients across the globe can also stream videos. Email systems that increase the speed at which you communicate with your clients also gives employees the ability to get into an online flame war with a former co-worker or client.

This introduces a new level of responsibility on the part of employers to limit and control these activities and such controls can often cost additional money and resources but should be investigated thoroughly to ensure your company remains productive.

For more information on how to increase productivity in your small business read Small Business Productivity Killers 

10. Interaction and Participation

In addition to the providing organizations with another platform for marketing and promotion, and to disseminate information, social media offers consumers and the public at large, a voice. Many companies already capitalize on the opportunities to secure feedback on their products and services, and even use the collaborative environment that technology now fosters for crowdsourcing initiatives, such as crowdcreation, crowdvoting and even crowdwisdom.

This readily available pool of feedback can be used to rapidly improve your company’s products and services through direct customer feedback. This is a powerful tool to consistently stay at the head of the consumer interest wave. Ensuring this emerging capability for feedback goes to improve your company’s product and services may mean consulting experts as to how your company can implement such technologies.

Technology is always changing. Understanding emerging opportunities and risks can go to drastically improve your company’s success and prosperity for years to come. If you’re looking to get the most out of your company technology or are just looking to beef up your small business’ security, consider hiring Tech Master. With over a decade of experience in providing IT Tech services for small businesses just like yours, Tech Masters has an expert team who are eager to help your business with all of its IT needs!