Top 5 Tech Trends Small Businesses Should Watch for in 2008
The world of technology is a dizzying sea of ever-evolving applications, platforms and devices- each promising to change the way we integrate technology into our personal and professional lives.
While big corporations may have the resources to test the waters of emerging technologies and thus place themselves at the cutting edge, small businesses with their limited resources are often left to wade through the currents with little sense of direction.
Many claim that small businesses cannot afford to pass up on these industry-shaping trends, while others suggest that they be ignored- at least for now.
But the truth is, that while small businesses should certainly take note of the following trends in business technology, the answer to how much to invest in them will really depend on the particular nature of each small business and the resources available to it.
1. Mobile technology is spreading its wings. The emergence of sophisticated mobile devices, such as the iPhone and Blackberry Curve, and an eminent explosion of mobile software applications promises small businesses greater flexibility, effciency, and coordination that will help maximize resources and create growth opportunities. Small businesses will increasingly rely on their smartphones for unified communications, network synchronization, and location-based services.
2. Software as a service (SaaS) creates opportunities. On-demand software (also called software-as-a-service or SaaS) refers to software applications that are leased over the Web or to mobile devices from an outside vendor, such as NetSuite. These hosted software applications provide the infrastructure needed to effectively and efficiently operate various aspects of a business- from sales and marketing reports, to payroll processing, and a slew of location-based services, such as Vettro’s application for mobile devices that helps utility crews and excavators navigate around buried cables and pipelines.
3. Social Networking and virtual societies. There has been a lot of speculation regarding the earning potential of social networking sites such as, Facebook and MySpace as well as virtual societies, such as Secondlife. What is certain, however, is that these sites offer a new way for small and mid-size businesses to connect with their customers and employees. Retail companies, for example, can create a virtual store, to monitor how many people it attracts and how these people interact with the space.
4. Going Green Tech-style. Much of the hottest techonology today not only helps the environment by reducing the use of utilities and the need to travel, but it also increases employee productivity, efficiencey, and job satisfaction. The use of audio, video and Web conferencing services often reduces the need for business travel, in addition to cutting down carbon emissions. Location-based services for mobile devices also improves the efficiency of operations on the road by effectively directing travelers to their destinations and thereby reducing fuel consumption. Businesses are moving away from paper invoices, statements, letters, and memos in favor of paperless options, such as e-faxes and e-mail.
5. Data Storage. Many small businesses these days need a significant amount of storage to hold their digital assets and information. In response, companies such as Amazon.com (S3 Simple Storage Service) and AOL (XDrive.com) are offering businesses online storage solutions for their web applications. Google is also expected to enter the fray with a “Google Drive.” There are many smaller companies offering storage services, such as Box.net and ElephantDrive.com. Many of these storage services offer up to 25 GBs for free with additional storage and features costing from $2 to $10 per month Some of these companies also offer advanced features such as versioning, personal encryption keys and multiple user log-ins.
May 20th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Great summary. With regard to your comments on going green and business travel, in my blog today I included a link to an interesting study published a few years ago in the EU that researched the impact that advances in ICT might have on teleworking and business travel.
Back then the researchers at ITS Leeds predicted a 20% reduction in business trips would occur by the year 2010 if electronic communications technologies improved as expected and travel expense and inconvenience increased by 20%.
http://ciscoetl.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/coming-face-to-face-with-the-realities-of-business-travel/
Thanks again!