Needs and Wants for consumers are changing on a drastic speed; all businesses are trying to meet their customer needs and wants. Many of these businesses have resorted to using technology to scale out and serve more customers on time. Though we have the answer that technology can help you to scale out your business, you must also know how to use that technology to serve both the business and your customers.
Building a successful business can be challenging and when it comes to deploying various business technologies to ensure business growth; you will face another challenge of managing that technology.
Many times i see business people making a mistake of spending large sums of money on expensive business technologies simply because they have seen their competitors using the same technology.
Before you invest in similar business technology used by your rival, make sure that you technically understand how that technology works and also note down the reasons why you need that particular technology. Study how your competitor is using the same technology to scale out, then also look out for loop holes in your competitors operation and find ways of using similar technology to out compete them, do not look at the size of your business, if you implement technology in the right manner and manage it well, you will be in position to gain competitive advantage over large scale businesses.
There so many creative ways of scaling your business with technology and succeed. You can use technology to improve on your customer service department, use technology to improve business communication, use it to improve on business operation and production, you can use it to know customer WANTS and NEEDS , use it to promote your business to targeted markets, use it for innovation and to boost creativity at the workplace and so much more.
A business gains competitive advantage by providing a service or a product in a way that customers value more than the competition’s. So the way you use technology in your business will determine your position in the market.
NOTE: Technology will give you both ”Temporary advantage ” and ‘‘Long term advantage ‘‘ if it is correctly applied. A temporary advantage means that whatever you do, sooner or later your business rivals will duplicate it or even do it better than you.
Below I have listed 5 ways of scaling your business with technology and succeed in today’s competitive economy.
- 1. Ask the right questions:
Do you want to use technology to create new services or products? When it comes to choosing the type of business technology to use, many businesses ask wrong questions and they focus on non productive goals. Your goal should be using technology in a creative manner to solve various business problems, and that means innovation. Do not use technology to solve only one business problem, this will not help your business grow.
So, what is innovation?
Innovation is the process of devising ways to do things in new and creative ways. Using technology to tackle a business problem in the way that other businesses has been doing it , is certainly not going to give your business competitive advantage.
You have to be creative and device new ways of solving various business problems and some of the things that are important in coming up with creative technology-based solutions include:
- Bridging the gap between you and your technical people, this will help you learn more about how technology works and how it can be used to solve various business problems. Many times, poor communication between business owners and technical people causes many technology based projects to fail.
- Viewing the business problem from another angle. Do not see things the way your competitors are seeing them. Get out of the box by using technology.
- Demanding creative design from your technical team. A creative design of an IT system is one that solves business problems in a highly effective way better than it the way it is solved by your business rivals. You can simply create project teams in your business to accomplish specific creative designs. A project team is a team designed to accomplish one-time goals and this team can be disbanded once the project is complete.
- See beyond the 4 walls of your company.
- 2. Think of Automation:
You can use technology to automate various business processes. Automating specific business tasks will improve on the efficiency of your business. For example, you can automate the way transaction information is processed with in your business. Your business can use a system called (OLTP) online transaction processing system which involves gathering input information, processing that information and updating existing transaction information to reflect the gathered information and processed information. Your accounts department will find this technology very useful because it will reduce on the load of work they have to do and it will also help them make quick financial based decisions. An operational database has to be set by your IT department to capture and process all this information.
You can also automate your human resource management section, this can be done in many ways, you can use the internet to interview or hire new employees, or use online employee management software to track performance of each employee at work.
- 3. Improve Your Customer Service department
Then main reason you’re doing business, is to serve customers. So, for your business to scale out and gain a strong position in the market, you need to serve your customers on time. Serving the needs of customers extends beyond just providing products and services, it also includes perfect service to the customer, and that will occur at the customer’s moment of value. Your customer service department can use technology to know ;
- When the customer wants a service or product ”TIME”
- Where the customer wants it ”LOCATION”
- How the customer wants it ”FORM”
- In a manner guaranteed to satisfy the customer ”PERFECT DELIVERY”
Successful companies like AMAZON.COM / ZAPPOS.COM have mastered how those four principals of serving a customer and that is what has kept them on the top of the e-commerce market.
- 4. Calculate your Return on Investment
Implementing various business technologies can be costly and many business owners make a mistake of allowing technology to determine the fate of their business. You as a business owner, you have to choose the right technology to use in your business , but you must also exploit that technology to the maximum to make sure that it delivers super abnormal results. You own that technology, you even know how to use it, so why waste your money by sitting back and letting that technology determine the success of your business.
Before you invest in any business technology, calculate how much you will spend on that particular technology, and then also project the end result or output of the business technology towards your business. Some business technologies will require monthly maintenance, so put all those costs into consideration.I know, your goal is to scale your business, but scaling a business using technology can be challenging if you fail to plan for that technology in the beginning.
In conclusion, every business has its own need for technology, so you have to understand the reason why you need to use technology in your business and also ask the right questions before implementing any type of business technology. If you do things the right way, your business will grow on a skyrocket speed.
