Technology today is one of the primary and most important drivers for business growth. Many companies are looking at how make a more significant or continued investment into technology business tools to help them leverage their businesses better.
These companies realize that taking steps to create initiatives that are more in line with current trends in the technology space is essential to creating a successful business and keeping it relevant in a highly competitive market and operating environment.
Having the right technological business tools gives you an edge against the competition. Especially for businesses that want to stand out both in the market and among their peers, their level of technological advancement is key.
Outsourcing giant Accenture, in its Accenture Technology Vision 2019 survey, talked to more than 6,600 business and IT executives. A whopping 94% of respondents said that in the last three years, their innovations in technology have wither grown or grown significantly. This is a testament to how integral investing and innovating technological business tools is to a company’s success.
How technological business tools help
Technology and the various business tools it powers drive a company’s innovation, evolution and growth. Many key factors that keep a business competitive, relevant and successful are significantly affected by technology. Here are a few of them:
1. Helps make things more cost effective.
According to research by McKinsey, “by digitizing information-intensive processes, costs can be cut by up to 90 percent and turnaround times improved by several orders of magnitude.” That means investing in digital business tools has the potential to help cut costs significantly.
Processes can be made shorter and more efficient without sacrificing quality (in many cases quality is even improved and made more standardized), while also cutting down on the expenses involved in making it happen. There’s also less waste, and various operations can also be done and completed much faster.
For example, artificial intelligence now helps insurance assessment by making it automated, resulting in lower costs both for the provider, savings that can also be passed down to consumers as well, making it a win-win scenario.
This kind of impact from digital business tools underscores the importance of technology in business. The lesser investment made generally means that the business will be less likely to survive, especially in the long run. Especially in a highly competitive market, the bigger the bottom line, the better.
2. Helps with the bottom line.
Speaking of the bottom line, digital business tools also impact this in a big way. Consistent and regular investment in technology means implementing new initiatives — initiatives that will drive growth and constant development. Operations will become more and more efficient, as processes become more streamlined and redundant and unnecessary processes can be identified and eliminated.
One simple example here is a paperless workplace. Digital business tools make it possible for a company to do everything without the need for paper, thus making related processes more efficient, and also eliminating expenses like purchases for paper, copiers, ink, and the like. This kind of set-up is also especially significant for high-security workplaces, where there is less opportunities for fraud since everything is digital (and thus easier to track and record).
3. Helps improve productivity.
Good productivity is one of the key factors for a company to become successful. Digital business tools also make a large impact in this regard. Having the right tools means smoother operations, which also has the added effect of making employees more motivated since they will likely encounter less issues. A motivated workforce means better productivity, as well as the ability to attract top talent.
Case in point: An article on cio.com reports that at computer company Dell, nearly half — 42% — of employees said that poor technology in the workplace could prompt them to take their talents elsewhere.
Analytical tools can further help identify the weak and strong points of your operations and business, allowing you to make improvements and changes where ever and whenever they are needed. This kind of pinpoint precision in fine-tuning operations was unheard of before, but today, data and analytics help improve productivity in various operations in different industries around the world.
Technological business tools also help employees better cooperate, collaborate, and communicate. Products and services will also have better testing phases, meaning employees working on a particular task have much more tools at their disposal to deliver their best work possible. All this again leads to a significant boost not only in productivity, but also in employee morale, product and service quality, as well as customer satisfaction.
>>Recommended reading: 5 Key Strategies for Optimizing Your Team Task Management
4. Helps increase visibility, recall, and footprint.
Two words: Social media. In today’s social media-driven world, even the smallest companies have found great success because of their embrace of the right technological and digital business tools. Through these tools, they are better able to become visible to potential customers for a fraction of the cost associated with traditional advertising and marketing.
They are also better able to engage and connect with customers, allowing them to respond to issues faster and get more data about what customers today want. Technology has basically done a lot to level the playing field, all sorts of companies utilizing the newest tools to put their name out in the world and showcasing what they have to offer.
Technology even helps previously local-only businesses go global, giving them a voice beyond their borders. Previously smaller businesses suddenly find themselves growing exponentially due to global exposure, and the subsequent global demand. The impact of this expansion in footprint on the bottom line is pretty much spelled out.
5. Helps make customers happier.
Besides the benefits of engagement through social media and the various avenues of communication afforded by technology today, technology impacts customer satisfaction in many other ways. For one, companies have the potential to collect more data about customers, allowing them to craft strategies and initiatives that resonate with the current customer base.
More efficient operations also translate into simpler, more intuitive services for customers (such as in banking apps and the like), making them more encouraging to use at an increased frequency. Especially with more and more people utilizing mobile technology in their daily lives, companies that adopt more mobile-friendly initiatives and improvements also usually see a big improvement in customer satisfaction.
The simple addition of mobile-enabled payment technology has prompted better sales figures, due to the ease it provides customers — and customers themselves are happy to utilize this feature.
Business tools are stepping stones towards a more successful future
Technology and the business tools it powers also hold companies to a much higher standard than before, but that’s a good thing. That means constant and consistent innovation, both within the organization as well as towards true customer satisfaction. In addition, technology does provide so much more opportunities for market expansion and profitability that would otherwise have been untapped.
Companies that are able to tap into these opportunities at the right time and in the right way — using technology, of course — will have a big edge over the competition and are poised to see bigger and greater success.
Another research released by McKinsey indicates that opportunities still abound — “According to our latest research, however, the forces of digital have yet to become fully mainstream. On average, industries are less than 40 percent digitized, despite the relatively deep penetration of these technologies in media, retail, and high tech.”
McKinsey adds, “Bold, tightly integrated digital strategies will be the biggest differentiator between companies that win and companies that don’t, and the biggest payouts will go to those that initiate digital disruptions.”
Investing in and utilizing the right digital business tools is a cycle that has continued benefits. For companies that take the plunge (the right way with the right tools, of course), the return on investment is all but guaranteed. Bigger profits, better relationships with customers, improvements in productivity and efficiency — technology is a gift that keeps on giving. If you are small, you can take advantage of thist 6 Best Apps for Small Business Solutions.
An article by the Guardian cites Satellite Applications Catapult Head of Business Innovation Sam Adlen, who says that it is important for companies and organizations to understand what metrics and data they can monitor. They must then evaluate and improve based on this data.
This is why business tools like the ones from Runrun.it are so important. Take its Time Tracking tool, for example. Through Time Tracking, users do not only have access to basic timekeeping tasks and tools, but also to data on how time is spent. How much time a particular project takes, for example, or how long a particular team, on average, takes to complete a task.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The Dashboard tool gives access to even more kinds of data. What’s more, all these datasets are easily generated for easy access and analysis. These kinds of data are essential for managers, leaders, and decision-makers to formulate steps to improve workflow and productivity. To see how Runrun.it’s business tools can work wonders for your organization, check out the free trial here.