Technology

Technology is developed to meet a problem or opportunity. Businesses use technology to extend their abilities and to serve their customers. Business owners or entrepreneurs have the vision to recognize consumer wants and to devise ways to meet them. However, they will need to use technology to accomplish some of these goals, and in most cases, they will have to hire experienced technical people who can use technology to implement these ideas. Nowadays it’s challenging for a business to gain competitive advantage without using technology.

Business owners and managers must know the importance of technology in business, and they have to plan on how to use it well so that they increase on (ROI) Return on Investment. Technology is used in various ways; businesses can use technology in manufacturing, improving customer care, transportation, human resource management, business
communication, use technology to improve their services or products as a way of gaining competitive advantage .etc. However, for a business to get the best out of technology, they have to plan and manage this technology very well.

MANAGEMENT OF TECHNOLOGY IN A BUSINESS
Management is an act of planning, directing, and evaluating any activity. Management involves ”authority” (the right to direct actions) and responsibility (accountability for actions). The production and use of technology in business have to be well managed to increase output and Return on Investment. Managers have the responsibility to make
decisions that ensure that the company is thriving. The authority of a business manager may include hiring a technical person to manage business technology, purchasing of technological materials, developing products, setting pay rates, etc

IMPORTANT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN BUSINESS

Information technology drives innovation and innovation is the path to business success. Innovation in business has the same impact that steam had on the industrial revolution. In fact, it’s hard to imagine any business that has not benefited from the digital revolution. Even something as hands on as agriculture uses computers. Farmers use computers for production records, financial planning, research on technical issues, and procurement. Nowadays the formula for business success is simple: drive innovation with information technology. So, the first thing startups in any industry try to figure out is how to make smart IT recruiting choices. Without a backbone of information technology, a business is not going to go far.

Ways Technology Can Improve Your Business

Increase your productivity
Technology allows businesses to speed up production processes. You can analyse how your staff are spending their time and introduce processes to make your systems more efficient.

Task management tools
allow you to stay on top of daily responsibilities so you don’t miss anything.

Email management processes
allow you to stay on top of your inbox and ensures you are answering every message, perhaps even allowing you the time to chinesetechtz.blogspot.com during your lunchbreak.

Improve flexibility
Communicating with your co-workers has been transformed over the last 20 years, with numerous technological advancements making the ability to work in other places possible.

You can now connect with your colleagues at any given time from any location, improving your company’s flexibility to deal with queries quickly and efficiently. This improves teamwork across the whole business.

Better customer service
A business can’t survive without customers, so using technology to improve their dealings with your company can pay big dividends.
Interactive websites
online chat support services and 24/7 customer service via social media can set you apart from the competition and help increase your profits.

Enhance your marketing
Companies who market themselves properly reap the rewards in the long run. Technology has created software that allows businesses to formulate a marketing plan – one that can be updated and shared with your team.

Technology allows you to build eye-catching websites, while social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are great ways to promote your business.

Email marketing can also be effective, allowing you to reach out directly to your customers with news, updates and special offers.

Technology keeps businesses safe
Manual record keeping caused many businesses problems due to the way records were maintained and stored.

Modern technology allows companies to keep records safe and implement systems that can only be accessed internally by the correct people.

Encrypted passwords offer increased levels of security, making it difficult for computer hackers to access data and preventing private information from being leaked.

Technology has changed every aspect of the workplace and businesses will continue to enjoy the benefits as new inventions are introduced.

INNOVATION IN BUSINESS

Information technology fosters innovation in business. Innovation results in smarter apps, improved data storage, faster processing, and wider information distribution. Innovation makes businesses run more efficiently. And innovation increases value, enhances quality, and boosts productivity.

Innovation through information technology has created the following radical changes in business:

· Online shopping is more efficient than shopping in a store.
· Digital marketing is more efficient than high cost newspaper, television, and radio advertising.
· Social networking is more efficient than going to clubs.
· VoiP communication is more efficient than legacy telephony.
· Cloud computing is more efficient than a private computer network.

Businesses that have embraced the innovation paradigm tend to have the following characteristics:

· They have more accurate business planning
· They have more effective marketing
· They have higher global sales
· They have more systematic management
· They use real time monitoring
· They offer instant customer support

5 REASONS FOR ACCELERATED BUSINESS GROWTH

The technological revolution has improved businesses this century in the following five primary ways: ( NOTE:PUT A CURSOR ON SLIDING WORDS TO STOP SLIDING & REMOVE IT)

1. Information technology has given business the tools to solve complex problems.

Improved hardware (more memory, faster processors, sharper visual displays, etc) combined with smarter applications (Mindmapping software like X Mind, collaborative software like Kanban boards, organizers like Google calendar, etc) have made it easier to research data, analyze it, and plan scalability. Many tools available to solve complex problems.

2. Information technology allows businesses to make better decisions.

Good decisions in business are based on solid market research. This can be done through engaging teams through video conferences, reviewing public sentiment on social media and industry forums, and using online surveys to get customer feedback. There are also tools like Microsoft CRM Dynamics and Google Analytics.
3. Information technology has improved marketing.

Internet marketing using online advertising methods (SEO, PPC, Facebook Ads) are far more accurate ways than traditional marketing of finding target audiences, discovering their needs, and building a marketing campaign to persuade them to buy. It’s difficult to see how many people read a newspaper ad. It’s easy to figure out how many people clicked on an online banner.

4. Information technology has improved customer support.

Customers can receive support from multiple channels telephone, emails, social media platforms, webinars, and so on. Additionally, customer relationship management systems help businesses understand customer behavior.

5. Information technology has improved resource management.

Cloud computing allows a company’s employees to use any device anywhere in the world to access their enterprise level software.

HOW TO USE TECHNOLOGY TO IMPROVE CUSTOMER SERVICES

More companies are using technology to handle customer service in an efficient and cost-effective way. Here's how you can use data management and analytics and insight-driven marketing to improve your customer care systems.

There's no denying the fact that customer service is important to a small or mid-sized business. The quality of that service will either enhance or degrade customer loyalty to your brand and your business. With the economy in recession, customers have more alternatives than ever. The business that proves to be responsive to customer questions, complaints, or other needs can gain a clear competitive advantage. That's why it's so important to understand how new technologies can help you anticipate customer needs, tailor business processes to best serve customers, and ultimately improve the efficiency of your business – the latter of which can keep costs down.

Customer Service Technology

There are a few major areas in which technology now is able to help provide key advantages to businesses in engendering customer loyalty by improving customer service:

Websites. Providing areas on your website where customers can answer their own questions or seek answers from others.

E-mail. Using e-mail as a way to improve customer service and more quickly respond to certain needs or help requests.

Communications. Unifying communications so that you know that the customer who left a voice mail also sent an e-mail with the same request a few days ago.

Software. Better managing customer relationships with more sophisticated data-gathering tools, such as customer relationship management software.

Giving Customers What They Want, When They Want It

The goal of your business in terms of its customer interactions is the generate loyalty. There's no better way to do that than to offer quality products and services and to be responsive to your customers. But as new technologies have come to market to make it easier for businesses to provide customer service, they may also be increasing the number of channels through which you interact with customers and the complexity of those interactions. Accenture, the technology consulting firm, suggests that businesses that want to use technology to raise the quality of their customer service focus on the following:

Data management and analytics. Using data collected from customer to analyze their preferences.
Insight-driven marketing. Gaining insights into your business from customer data so you can more effectively target marketing.
Marketing automation. Streamlining and automating business processes to improve efficiency and keep costs low.
Self-service optimization. Finding ways for customers to interact with your business when they want.
Workforce effectiveness. Encouraging your staff to embrace new ways improving customer treatment by providing tools and training to deliver better service.