Growing businesses need to invest in the right places to continue, or accelerate their growth. “You’ve got to spend money to make money” is the old adage, but an improvement on that might be to add the word “smartly”. Identifying the areas which will do the most to stimulate and encourage growth, and assigning ample budget to improving or developing them is a key step on the ladder towards being a successful, established business.
As we’ve mentioned in a previous article, the priorities here are usually recruitment, uncovering new markets, developing new products and services and things like advertising and marketing. What’s not always considered is the impact that technology can have in helping you to grow your business, be leaner and more efficient, close more business and delight your customers.
Here’s how investing in and developing a technology strategy for your business can help it grow.
Attracting and keeping the best talent
In a study by Dell in 2016, 67% of employees said that technology influenced their decision to accept or decline a new position. And if you’re looking to appeal to Generation Z, you’re looking at 82% feeling strongly about workplace tech when it comes to accepting a new position. Having a well defined technology strategy which puts the latest devices in the hands of your employees to drive their productivity is appealing to new hires as well as keeping hold of existing employees, particularly those who are younger. When it comes to technology in the home and for personal use, your employees and prospective employees have almost unlimited choices – they can pick up a decent tablet or a Chromebook for £200, and all manner of devices to create their own smart home. Their expectations for the workplace to keep up are getting higher and higher. On a related note, providing access to the latest technology could also help you offer flexible and remote working, enabling your employees to drive greater productivity levels and achieve a better work/life balance.
Becoming more efficient
Obviously, improving efficiencies in your business processes isn’t going to be achieved simply by bringing in new technology – but it certainly could help. Having more up to date end user devices and the infrastructure to support them will help you to bring in more innovative software and tools that could help you automate and streamline processes. Outdated tech hampers your ability to move this kind of thing forward – whether it’s compatibility issues, security risks posed by an out of date operating system, or simply that of speed. Streamlining your processes can help you cut costs, improve productivity and customer service and ultimately influence the bottom line in support of continued business growth.
Improving communication
No matter your opinions on technology – whether in your personal or professional life – you can’t deny that it has created ways to communicate we may never have thought possible previously. You can be in a face-to-face meeting with someone without even being in the same room. The same country even. You can collaborate on a document in real-time, you can provide support, share your screen, and send information quickly using instant messaging. Having the infrastructure to support this communication and the end user technology to enable it allows you to grow your business beyond your physical and geographical limitations. You can hire the best talent from all over the world, because they can work and collaborate remotely. You can grow your customer base nationally and internationally, as you can meet and support them remotely.
Grow your business today
You might be thinking that this all sounds great, but upgrading your technology isn’t feasible because you simply don’t have the budget. We understand that this is a real challenge – that’s why we’ve created FlexIT for SMBs. It’s a flexible subscription programme which allows you to upgrade to brand new HP, Lenovo or Dell devices today and get up to 20% off the price when you trade in your existing technology. There’s no need to pay upfront, and you can pay for your equipment in manageable monthly installments over 3 years, after which you can return your devices and upgrade again. All of your existing devices and any data held them is disposed of securely and in accordance with GDPR regulations and the ISO 27001 standard.
Want to grow your business today? Find out more about FlexIT for SMBs here.
