Small Business technology is constantly evolving, with new products and features being released daily. This change can be exciting, but how do Small Businesses keep up with the changing landscape and stay competitive?
The great growling engine of change — technology.
Alvin Toffler
We all have a similar goal. To serve our customers at a higher level. New technologies can feel overwhelming and intimidating. So, how do you take advantage of technology to better serve your customers without wanting to pull your hair out?
Let’s take a look at these challenges and how you can overcome them.
1) Technology Costs Can Exclude Small Businesses
Technology can be a large expense and keeping up with the larger players in your space can be more and more difficult without the same amount of resources. However, the fact is, technology is just as important for small businesses as big ones.
With cash flow at a premium, every dollar spent on technology should be well thought out. As a result, small businesses without internal expertise in technology need a partner who can help. There is too much at stake to practice Livin’ on a Prayer IT.
2) Lack of IT Expertise In-House
Nearly half of all small businesses outsource most or all of their technology management and support. For these companies, IT human resources are limited by budget. As well as the capabilities of their choice service provider. This can be a scary scenario. Many non-technical business leaders have little to no technical training. In turn, this can lead to over-dependence on the recommendation. As a result, this can lead to wasted spend and technology that isn’t a proper fit.
For those who do bring IT in-house, the challenge of recruiting and retaining talent is daunting. IT unemployment rate for U.S. tech workers just hit the lowest number ever recorded, 1.3 percent.
To say IT talent is in demand would be a massive understatement. Not many are on the market. And, even if you land a gem, competing salaries from other companies in desperate need of your talented personnel can lead to constant worry.
3) Cyber Security & Privacy
Cyber security is critical because many industries, like government, military, corporate, financial, and medical organizations; collect, process, and store unprecedented amounts of data on computer and other devices. This brings on a serious challenge.
At a high level, if your company in any way transacts and/or stores information that should not be made available to the public, you are likely governed by some kind of regulatory rules.
Law firms are governed by eDiscovery regulations that take this even further. In order to provide full disclosure of all relevant case data, all digital copies must be available for recovery and distribution immediately upon request. In turn, this requires special software that not only back files up for long periods of time —but also offers an easy way to segment and recall the data with a few clicks of a button.
The recent employee error that exposed 16,000 Blue Cross patients online for 3 months is a chilling reminder to small businesses that even the largest players in healthcare and other industries are susceptible to security breaches.
So, if the largest companies can’t keep their security and compliance up to date, how can small businesses with tiny budgets be expected to do any better? Costs for security hardware and skilled IT labor to configure security infrastructure add up. Backups require additional storage and backup software at a minimum to create a data repository in case of an emergency.
Then, there is the cost, time, and follow-through associated with compliance audits.
For small businesses in regulated industries, working with experienced technology service parters and vendors with proper compliance audit reports is critical to long-term success. There is just too much at stake to not partner with high-level IT partners.
4) Scaling Information Technology as Your Small Business Grows
As you know, the Treasure Valley is growing at a phenomenal rate. Hopefully, this has brought about consistent or (like many businesses here) sky-rocketing growth for your business. Suddenly, your Google shared drive or free trial of Dropbox isn’t going to cut it anymore.
Congratulations. And, welcome to the next phase of your business. It’s a challenging one, especially as it relates to technology.
First step is to bring on a technology service consultant who has helped other small businesses do this before. One who understands the wide-range of technologies that will help your business successfully evolve past the growth stage.
The choices you make now will dramatically affect cost, performance, integration, ease of use, security, compatibility and many other business variables related to IT. Thinking big picture from a technology perspective will help prevent being architected into a corner at your next stage. Not to mention, the pain and costs that go along with undoing what you decided at this stage.
Utilizing cloud can bring about a distinct advantage to small businesses when it comes to scaling in a more cost-effective and operationally efficient way. Cloud offers a pay-as-you-go model that allows users to map IT infrastructure, like servers and storage, to needs as they come up. This allows the ability to scale up and down in real time as demand warrants. You pay for what you need only and are never out of resources when you need them most.
5) Small Business Technology Rapid Rate of Change
Small Business technology is changing at an exponential pace. This makes it nearly impossible to fully understand and vet real technology capabilities outside of a direct partnership with IT experts.
Moore’s Law states that computing power of a CPU doubles every two years. 90% of the data on the internet has been created since 2016. Truly mind-boggling.
Software as a Service has changed the game for small businesses, but has also made data security harder to manage. You are entrusting your sensitive data to the software provider’s infrastructure. What happens when you leave or switch software? What is their data destruction policy?
If your team is stretched thin trying to keep up with the current pace of your business, it’s unrealistic to think you will have the time to understand what technology is right for your company. The key is to find the right partner who can do this for you, while you remain focused on what you do best.
6) Cloud Computing & Virtualization
Some may confuse virtualization with cloud computing, but they’re not quite the same. Virtualization is the creation of a virtual resource such as a server, desktop, operating system, file, storage space, or network to help businesses manage and scale workloads. Cloud computing is the sharing of resources, software, applications, and data as a service. Together, the two can be used to provide even greater advantages.
There was a time when each business IT application was on its own dedicated server. As data centers evolved, IT leaders realized some of their servers had resources to spare. Cue the birth of virtualization.
From network to data virtualization, implementing a virtualized platform will help you simplify your IT and provide employees anytime, anywhere, any-device access to resources.
Virtualization is particularly valuable to small businesses because it lowers costs for hardware and reduces systems administration and maintenance costs due to fewer servers in operation.
7) Third-Party & Vendor Management
Even small business technology today can mean the management of several IT vendors. From phones to cabling to POS systems to printers. Instead of spending your time dealing with various vendors and hearing the same old “pass the buck” story, look for an IT Partner who takes ownership and orchestrates ALL of your IT vendors.
Many times, projects and issues overlap and it can be unclear where the responsibility lies. If your IT service provider doesn’t include the management of these in their service, its time to sit back and think twice about the value they are providing.
Every company is a technology company today. Who are you partnering with to ensure you transition effortlessly into the next phase of your business? For more information on how we’ve transformed small businesses through technology, email hello@limetreelabs.com or call 208-901-3350.
