Technology has impacted how businesses operate in one way or the other. It has mainly helped small businesses to grow or to thrive in their marketplace through proper planning for future expansion. Technology has also led the way in revolutionizing the way organizations operates. There are many examples to show how the technological changes have brought significant changes on how an organizations plan, operate and also helped in taking efficient decisions. Technological advances or changes and the improved access to data are some of the reasons for the change in the way we do business nowadays. Examples include:
Cloud-Based Data or Cloud data
We all are very much familiar with the word cloud data and the applications it provides. Cloud data are hosted by a third party and are accessed through a proper internet connection. It is a medium for storing and accessing data for future usage. It has many advantages over physical mediums. Some of which is it is easy to use, scalable etc. There are many companies such as Amazon, IBM, Google which offer a wide range of cloud data management and processing services.
Social Media for Business
As we all know social media is the world’s largest pool for market research and it is used by millions of people. The value of Social media to marketers comes from the people’s responses such as that of the like, share, or retweet. They can use this information which is gained from these to inspect what are they thinking and feeling of people, what is working for them and what is not in terms of various campaigns and through this they can find out the best ways to engage their audience or viewers. This data generated in this method can be used for various functions such as market research, to determine brand health, for measuring the satisfaction of clients in various groups and for campaign optimization.
Web Analytics for Business
Web analytics is the process of extracting the online behaviour of data and then analyzing it to increase the user experience on the particular website and thus increasing the conversion, engagement and sales. Google Analytics is one such tool that helps in diving deeply into the website and helps in measuring and reporting on user engagement and behaviour. The information thus obtained is used to tell or to build a story about how a particular user is engaging with the brand, time spent on the particular page, the search terms which helped them get to the page etc. On the other hand, the contents of the website can be made personalized to provide a unique or better experience based on the behaviour of each user.
Impact on the Operating Costs
To reduce business costs, small business owners can use technology. Basic enterprise software helps an organization or company to automate back-office functions, such as accounting, record keeping, and also payroll whereas mobile tech allows the home offices to interact in real-time.
Securing the sensitive information
Securing the information of various forms are necessary. Thus, business owners can also use technology to create secure and safe environments for maintaining those sensitive or consumer information. Many types of software programs are very user friendly and easy to use and thus allow the business owners who have only very less knowledge in information technology to use most of those features.