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>> A small business needs to look
at their technological infrastructure
as a key component to growth.
And there's many aspects of technology, again varying
by industry, but the technology
in place should have proved itself
to provide meaningful data to the business owners
to make management decisions.
Once that technology is proven then the owners can address the
question of how do we place this technology in other locations,
or how do we expand it just to compensate
for the growth in volume.
But that technology needs to be modern enough and state-
of-the-art enough to add capacity as the business grows,
and certainly a technological professional should be retained
to address that situation at the front end.
As a business grows, technology should be a facilitator
for growth. So if a small business starts
with a skeletal system and finds that it's taking too much
in terms of manpower resources or time and money, it's time
to elevate the technology to accommodate the business.
Again, when a business starts
out, it can be a significant capital investment.
The owner needs enough information
to meaningfully analyze their business,
the system should be structured so that it can be adapted,
and when they find manual processes
and processes performed by personnel becoming burdensome,
it's time to shift that to technology.
And of course, there's always the financial aspect
of that decision.
Today technology is really interesting
because it does infuse all aspects of the operation.
And customer service is a primary aspect of any operation,
it's how your customer reacts.
An entrepreneur can use technology to retain customers,
find new customers, market to new customers,
keep track of a direct sales force and the contacts
with the customer, again, the industry would determine how the
customer service can be executed through technology,
but it's definitely a key component to staying in touch
with your customer, determining their needs
and satisfying their needs.
A small business owner has many opportunities
and resources available to them to structure their technology
within their company.
An outsource...an outsource resource
for a small business would be one that provides really state-
of-the-art technological information, hardware
and software systems to integrate with the business.
In some cases, though, a business like a research
and development business may find that it's more effective
to hire in-house technological people
who are there basically 24-7 analyzing how the business grows
and what technology is needed to facilitate that growth.
So, again, it's a matter of critical assessment,
financial in-house capacity, and unique business needs
would come into play in that decision.
A small business owner can look out there and see companies
that are doing things very well with technology.
The best practices that are used in technology are technology
that keeps track of inventory, payroll, benefits,
customer purchases, customer interaction,
sales calls. The best practices really help you run all aspects
of your business, that customer service piece being a primary
one, in terms of marketing and monitoring
that customer involvement with your business.
It can also run all aspects of inventory, production, finance,
and personnel, so technology has become a key piece these days.