Successful businesses are utilising the latest technology to grow and outrun their competitors. Technology is no longer out of reach – it is accessible to everyone. In the past, only the biggest, most profitable businesses could invest in technology to grow their businesses even further, leaving many behind. Now, technology can be obtained by many different companies of different sizes all around the world. So now it isn’t about what technology your business utilises, but more about how your business leverages it to grow and stand out from your competitors. 

Technology can be used in many ways, but more importantly, it should be used to make your business more efficient, boost productivity, improve customer service, reduce risks and errors, and much more. Technology, if leveraged correctly, has the power to secure the future growth of your business. 

Investment in technology is not enough

You cannot just invest in technology. Your whole business has to adopt the technology and work with it, or it will only work against you. If your business has not used much technology in the past, then you will need to ensure you have the right foundations, operations and training in place so your business can use it effectively. This means developing the right cultures and operating models that will embrace new technology. Cultural barriers are usually the biggest hurdles that businesses come up against when they try to leverage technology in their business. Technology is a huge investment, so you want it to be worthwhile. Before you make any kind of investment in technology, consider how your company will be able to adapt. That will be the biggest and most important initial investment that you make. 

Innovative businesses will be able to effectively incorporate technology to grow their business and more quickly add more technology under their belt at a fast rate. This kind of business culture will also see a much bigger and better return on investment. 

Leverage the right kind of technology for your business

Once you have adopted the right culture for leveraging technology, you need to know what kind of technology is going to benefit your business. Many forms of technology are good across the board, for any business of any industry. To help you get started, here are some of the best ways you can incorporate and leverage technology into your business.

CRM to manage your customers

A customer relationship management (CRM) system is an important tool used by a variety of businesses. This software enables you to collect all of your customer information that is used in your business so that you can organise and manage it effectively. Usually, businesses will have different systems and spreadsheets that note down customer data. There may be one system that has all the information from the customers that phone into your business. Then there will be another system in your business that tracks the customer investments in your business, foot traffic, website traffic and more. This leaves a very disconnected journey for the customers. A CRM system will pull together all the ways your customer interacts with your business and streamline it. This includes communication. All of this information in one place will significantly improve the customer journey and enhance their experience with you. It will also help with data management. When you have all of this information in one place, you can make more specific improvements for your target audience. 

Automation systems for mundane tasks

Automated systems should be a foundation activity for all businesses. Automated technology has been around for a long time, but is not used nearly as much as it could have been within businesses. Automated activities enable you to take away tasks that are mundane or take up a lot of time from your employees. This enables you to free up valuable time, skills and resources when you leave them to be completed by technology. 

There are now hundreds of different ways that you can utilise automation in your business. Take some time to go through your business tasks, speak to your employees and find out everything they do. This will give you a good understanding of your business and which areas you can begin to automate. There are going to be tasks that still need oversight and others that need specific skills and humans to complete. Some of the most common automated tasks are:

• Customer service chat boxes on websites 
• Onboarding process in human resources
• Scheduling calendar appointments
• Marketing tasks
• Sales tasks
• Administrative tasks
• Bookkeeping 

Artificial intelligence for data analysis and insights 

Data and insights are vital for any business that wants to grow, and artificial intelligence can help you gain the data smartly and efficiently. Artificial intelligence can also help you gather much more information about your business. 

Data insights provide your business with a deep understanding of relationships, behaviours, patterns and trends with your consumers. It can help you make smarter business decisions, identify opportunities, reduce errors and much more. There are many benefits to collecting data from your business, as it will help all departments for different reasons. 

You will need to collect data from each department as well as your overall business. Each department should share its data, so you can see how different departments overlap. This data will be much more beneficial once it is shared and given more context across the business. It will help each department report on their work, as well as understand how it fits into the wider business. Artificial intelligence can help with the collection of this data as well as the analysis. 

Some of the most important parts of your business that you will need to report on include your marketing department, your fleet, your customers, inventory and performance. 

Any business will have a large portion of their budget assigned to their marketing. This is because a business will not be visible anywhere without marketing, so this is one of the most integral pillars of a business. Reporting on the data from your marketing campaigns will let you know what efforts are working well and which ones need improvement. Data will help you to drive more customers to your business and save money in the process. 

When you run a big operation, you will have your fleet. This can be very costly if not managed correctly. You should be gathering data on your fleet using a variety of tools, so you can effectively put together fleet reports. This will help you to ensure that productivity and efficiency are boosted and your business is profitable. 

The same goes for your customers, your inventory, your performance and all parts of your business. Data and insights will make or break your business. 

Communication and collaboration technology 

Many businesses will look at what technology is going to cut down manual labour times and reduce their costs. Many technologies can do this – but indirectly. For example, communication and collaboration technology can significantly improve your business operations, but you will not see the return on investment as quickly as automating tasks. Communication and collaboration are vital in any business that wants to grow. It will increase skills, quality of work, productivity, deliverables, morale, and so much more. There are hundreds of different technologies out there that you can leverage for your business. The best one will depend on your business needs. Consider what communication improvements and needs your employees have and how they can work together to grow your business. 

Technology is one of the biggest growth drivers any business can use. However, you cannot just invest in the technology and hope for the best. You need to ensure you have an innovative culture, an adaptable operation and the right kind of technology.