The past few decades have seen a gradual trend towards the digitalization of many services and businesses. Recent years and events have skyrocketed this development, leading to what’s been dubbed the “digital transformation”.
Industries that offer online services have experienced a boost in profits and even brick and mortar stores have gradually moved online. Ecommerce is now more important than ever and is swiftly becoming a necessary part of a successful business plan. Industries have seen other changes, including more and more employees working from home.
These changes have led to some new challenges, as well as new opportunities. So, how can you meet these challenges and take advantage of these opportunities?
Every aspect of owning your own business comes with costs and risks. First, you need to know how much the IT systems that you need will cost you, and to budget for it. Learning to calculate the costs you’re likely to incur will prevent any unpleasant surprises, and may help you to find issues that you currently have.
Poor IT can cost a great deal of money, thanks to lost productivity when things go wrong. According to one survey, the average U.S. office worker loses around 91.67 hours per year due to IT problems. These problems cause short interruptions, but it all adds up.
While computing can speed up work, a system crash can cause a standstill that lasts for days hours or even days. During this time, you will still be responsible for the typical costs of running a business, as well as the potential cost of fixing the issue.
Obviously, IT incurs other costs as well. Hardware, or the physical equipment, as well as software and services, like applications and the cloud, all cost money. As does the personnel required to maintain the IT system and to prevent the productivity costs mentioned earlier.
Another thing that you should always consider is security. An insecure network can lead to viruses, data breaches, and even theft or ransomware issues. The best way to deal with these risks is to make sure that you have a robust IT security system in place. After all, prevention is always better than a cure.
However, there is yet another potential pitfall with IT. Neglecting or misusing the potential that a good IT system can provide can stunt your business’s growth. Obviously, an IT-focused business will benefit, but this is also true for other sectors. So, what can IT do for you?
First, technology can lead to increased productivity and communication between your staff, vendors, and customers. This saves time and improves relationships. Time is money, so time saved is money earned.
As well as the advent of methods that allow employees to communicate with one another quickly, technology can also automate many processes. The automation does need to be set up and monitored to some degree, but this can save hours of time.
Also, technology allows employees to work from home and with more flexibility. Sometimes this is necessary, but there are reasons to allow employees to work from home even when they aren’t forced to. For starters, some employees prefer to work this way and may even be more productive. Keeping your staff happy fosters loyalty and a better work environment.
Technology can also be used to increase your potential customer base and to improve customer care service, helping you to better retain repeat customers. As said earlier, eCommerce is booming, and offering your goods or services online is integral to a successful enterprise. Also, you can use the data acquired by cookies or surveys to streamline the checkout process.
While employing an in-house IT team works for some businesses, more and more companies are moving to outsourced services. This option is especially viable to smaller businesses, as a dedicated IT team takes up a lot of resources that you may not have on hand.
Dedicated service companies such as 360ict offer many different services at a high standard. These include user support so that any IT problems can be addressed quickly, and cybersecurity services that prevent data breaches or other security issues.
Some even offer telephone services and green power brokerage services, which help you to run your technology efficiently and cleanly. Each of these services removes one more concern from the task of running your business.
