Table of Contents
Introduction
Market fluctuations, an increase in consumer demands, and cut-throat competition with marketing giants have been never-ending challenges for small and mid-sized businesses. The outbreak of the pandemic did wreck the backbone of Small & Mid-Sized Business and with the economy trying to recover, SMBs are likely to witness upcoming oddities.
With inflation witnessing a rise in February 2022 by 2.47 percent, it has turned out to be a major challenge for SMBs in recent quarters. Small businesses need to tighten up their seat belts to change the game by offering exceptional customer services, enhanced customer relations, and ensuring operational efficiencies.
Having backed up by appropriate technology is the only key to sustenance and plasticity for small businesses. However, 70-80% of small businesses still lack the available technology.
This piece of writing will highlight a few challenges that small businesses are likely to witness while adjusting technology in 2022 and avenues to keep pace with the same. But before this, let’s have a glance over a few benefits of how small businesses can benefit from a technology solution.
Benefits of Technology for Small Business Owners
Small businesses need to prioritize customers, employees, workflow efficiency, and gains.
With escalated proficiencies of the cloud, artificial intelligence, and automation, businesses face tremendous benefits concerning operational efficacy, reduced human labor, business transparency, swift decision-making, etc.
- Operational Effectiveness: The availability of tools to productively collaborate, communicate, track performances, and maintain the same page, technology has a major share in maintaining operational efficiency.
- Enhanced Productivity with Automation: Reduce the burden of expendable tasks through automation. This enables businesses to save time and emphasize more on essential energy and resources
- Improved Storage Solutions with Data Security: Using the emerging potentialities of cloud firms can solve relevant issues of comprehensive data security and storage.
- Improved Customer Experiences: Present audience base possess services at the ice tip in no time.
- Be Future-Ready: Market changes specific to work culture implies equipping yourself with advanced technology, thereby helping companies be pertinent and future-ready.
- Economical & Optimization: Cut down costs on various resources, eliminate downtime, enhance efficiency and generate maximum ROI.
- Digital Transformation: Apt technology tools initially can deliver business ease to transform digitally and employ advanced technology any minute.
Yet most small businesses oppose adopting new technologies irrespective of the benefits.
Mentioned below are certain challenges small business encounter across their technology journey.
1. Handpicking the Right Software
Choosing the right technology solution among the hordes of vendors marketing approximately the same features itself is a big challenge. Small businesses are a victim owing to the deficiency of apt information they receive from the software vendors. Additionally, the present competitive market might lead to adopting different tools as it’s difficult to discover everything you need in one single platform.
Overcoming the Challenge: SMBs need to analyze their technology requirements and pick the right technology opportunities. Adjusting to technologies to stand out in the crowd can cause huge losses, specifically if your organization is all-new to the digital transformation journey. Hence, cherry-pick a platform that can speedily adapt to your ecosystem and is scalable with the changing business demands and tech stack as well as can suffice all your technology needs via a common platform.
2. New technology Intrications
Adopting the right technology tools is time-consuming. Hence, SMBs with minimal resources, less time, and a lot to achieve dither to employ novel technologies. While the infusion of the right technology can blend your routine tasks making them more impactful and less time-consuming. However, a technology that increases the complexity of your workflow cannot be the right one.
Overcoming the Challenge: It’s wise to invest in technology that is user-friendly, easily navigable, can be set up quickly and get started, and closely complies with your workflow. The initial days can be daunting as adapting to new technology is not an overnight task.
3. Easily Accessible
Small businesses are often reluctant to adopt new technology due to the inadequacy of accessibility. On-premise tools and software often limit the benefits and usability. Particularly for SMBs that want their business to be up and running from anywhere might lose interest in a platform that restrains feature accessibilities.
Overcoming the Challenge: Appropriate software solution in India for small businesses must provide secured data access, productive tools, dashboards, performance metrics, etc. A platform that delivers easy tracking, swift decision-making, and centralized IT management services from anywhere refers to an ideal technology solution for small businesses. Also, mobile support and accessibility will be the cherry on the piece of cake.
4. Sustaining with Updates & Integrations
Some certain monthly upgrades and integrations need maintenance or it might hamper the efficiency of the tool. Subscription expiry, tracking the updates, and integrations of the tools can lead to a new task, challenging the workflow and business efficiency.
Overcoming the Challenge: A comprehensive solution that enables the integration of various functionalities into a common platform will the best solution to avoid downtime. This will promote better brand visibility and help you manage your upgrades and integrations.
5. Information Security
IT security is the most at present. Ransomeware attacks were nearly 150 percent in 2020 and developed even more in 2021. Ensuring the safety of a company’s financial data, IP data, customer information, confidential data, etc, can be challenging, particularly when adapting to new technology or while using multiple apps. The fear of security breaches limits small businesses from deploying novel technologies. Besides, secured data storage is also a major cause of concern.
Overcoming the Challenge: Deploying technology solutions recognized to deliver efficient data security can help you manage the challenge. Cloud technology is considered to be the most effective information security and data storage. Hence, invest in technology platforms that assure data and IT security via virtual private servers, advanced firewalls, and access controls.
6. Adapting to Changing Work Culture
Changing work culture and trends are an add-on to the technological challenge for small businesses. A sudden shift to remote work culture has shown a significant rise in the adoption of new technology. Hence, SMBs must select the right platform.
Overcoming the challenge: Regardless of the work culture- remote, hybrid, or full-time office work, work effectiveness, productivity, and performance that’s counted. A technology promoting efficient collaboration, immediate communication, secured access to data and tools, business transparency, and centralized IT management is what matters the most.
7. Strains in Integration of Existing Systems
Companies empowering outdated systems may often find it difficult to adapt new technologies as it might require an entire ecosystem upgrade, losing unnecessary time, money, and resources throughout the process. While switching to new technology and tools may affect the smooth functioning of shareholders and vendors.
Overcoming the Challenge: If your firm is new to digitization, then picking a platform that measures with time is highly applauded. A technology enabling effortless third-party and custom integrations will be fruitful in the long run.
8. Offering a Unified UI
Employees operating from different geographic locations today have made engagement more challenging at the same time staying motivated and on the same page is also difficult. Accessibility complaints, improper credentials, or server errors can be a downfall.
Overcoming the Challenge: Cloud technology can avail easy and secured access to tools, applications, data, files, etc, from anywhere. One can even permit temporary access to vendors and clients for smooth functioning and unlimited operations. Such cloud proficiencies enable custom dashboards, employee engagement, upgradations, motivation, and advanced communication from anywhere.
9. Cost Consciousness and Concerns
SMBs usually end up spending on technology that reap minimal to no benefits. Hence, it’s wise to ensure that the technology you’re investing in is cent percent efficient for your brand.
Overcoming the Challenge: Capitalize on an ERP platform that enables centralized IT management. When you possess all your data storage, IT assets, and even employee and client management performed from a single platform through a single point of login can help you acquire greater visibility and help manage your operational costs.
10. Access to the Right Advisory
Most small businesses lack an expert IT council and advisory panel within their workplace due to overheads. Hence, for small businesses acquiring the right IT advisory partner and consulting partner is an overlooked option for the fear of augmented budgets.
Overcoming the Challenge: A technology partner will always be an asset for small or big businesses. If the cost is the concern, then you should rely on tech support or a tech partner who can help you with the implementation and conversion.
Conclusion
In emerging markets, competition will be tough! For small businesses to sustain and prosper, your business should invest in the right technology today! If strategize properly, it will be the best leap a business will ever take. And that’s why we have support and platforms like Smartinfologiks enabling transitioning to technology for SMBs expeditious, unadorned, and smarter.
Smartinfologiks is a complete digital workplace allowing businesses of any size and domain to deploy the emerging proficiencies of the ERP cloud that is competitive and future-ready. Besides, seamless communications, efficient collaboration, transparency, data security, centralized management, etc, Smartinfologiks build a safe and secure environment for remote, hybrid, office work culture. We’re known for delivering the best tech consulting service in India.
