Our forebears were hunter-gatherers who were at the mercy of the elements and ferocious animals. Thus, they were compelled to evolve tools to make their lives easier. Fortunately, we have things infinitely easier. For one, there are no saber-toothed Tigers to worry about. Those at our heels are not animals; they’re aggressive, smart competitors. They’re wielding technology as a competitive advantage. Are you?
Are you leveraging the best technological solutions to advance your business? This is one of the smartest strategies to employ. In this article, we’ll explore some of the areas you could apply technology to in your business and how these tools make the functions more manageable. The solutions can be applied in virtually all facets of your business, but let’s just look at a few.
1. Human Resource Management
Managing human resources is arguably the most critical function in a large scale business. This is because the human element is the main driver of all other processes. A large scale business with hundreds or even thousands of employees has to manage the search for talent, its acquisition, development, training, and welfare and benefits.
The software will help ensure that no facet of HRM is forgotten and it’d make the associated repetitive and boring tasks a breeze. All employee information can be accessed and processed with ease. Payroll, for example, can be overwhelming! But, it’s a piece of cake with the right HR management software.
BambooHR, Zoho People and SAP (News - Alert) Success factors are some of the best HRM solutions in the market.
2. Customer Relationship Management
Managing current and prospective customers is at the heart of highly profitable marketing. CRM software intertwines all the data relating to customers and prospects interactions to produce robust information which management can use to drive profitability. At the touch of a button, personalized messages can be broadcasted to thousands, lead generation can be launched, lead nurturing can be activated... all vital customer data and interactions with your brand are automatically tracked and stored, to be analyzed later. When properly used a CRM system would help improve business relationships. And, that’s a worthy goal.
Salesforce and Hubspot are great examples of CRM software.
3. Project Management
Managing projects can be overwhelming. And, truth be told, it’s not even possible to manage small scale projects without using technological solutions. You can imagine how herculean it’d be to try and manage projects by large scale businesses without one.
Project management software helps you stay on top of all facets of your projects. You can use them for internal projects and those that involve external parties. They help ensure that you complete projects on time, and effectively. Tasks, staffs in charge, resources, timelines, the workflow...all are at your fingertips and you can easily make changes which will be automatically communicated to all those working on the project or those you authorize. This can even be the case for equipment rental management software.
Wrike, Basecamp, Trello, Monday, and Asana are all examples of awesome project management tools.
4. Cyber-Security
Cyber attacks happen with alarming regularity. So, it’s smart to be proactive. It’s smart to employ technology to protect your digital assets, seeing as these types of assets now constitute a large share of the company’s resources. Ideally, software, hardware, and data are protected. And, your mix of tools should also ensure physical protection, so that unauthorized personnel cannot access your assets. Some attacks can cripple a business or at least lead to huge losses; you need such a holistic tool that’d give you peace of mind. State-of-the-art Cyber-security tools ensure that a mix of technologies works in sync to protect your assets from unwanted and harmful intrusions.
Touchpoint Manager, MailControl, McAfee (News - Alert), Virtual Auditor, and Duo, are just a few examples of weapons that should be in your security arsenal.
Conclusion
Making adequate use of technological solutions is one of the smartest ways to deliver greater value, increase brand equity, and skyrocket your bottom line. These solutions make you more efficient and are cost-effective, and they can be scaled. There are off-the-shelf solutions for almost all facets of your business. All you need do is conduct research and you’d find something that’s fitting. And, on the rare occasion that there isn’t, you can have one developed for you. These technological solutions will make you nimble and super-effective.
Which technological solutions are having the greatest impact on your business?
About the author: Alex Sal is a journalist, startup entrepreneur, and frequent contributing writer for Markitors.com.
