There are many areas in a business that can be enhanced with technology. Consider your accounting processes, job recording and reporting structure and the volume of paper that crosses your desk each day. Would upgrading or investing in new software or quicker computers / phones enable you to manage your time and review your operations more effectively?
Communications technology advances are imperative to surviving in the modern business world. Leveraging advances in cellular phone technology have revolutionized the way businesspeople communicate with clients, employees, suppliers and strategic partners. The Internet has revolutionized the marketing function in addition to opening up a wide range of communication options. Modern smartphones are changing the game yet again with the introduction of new and innovative applications. A small business owner can now access a web-based customer relationship management service on a smartphone from anywhere in the world, for example, allowing him to obtain vital data about contacts before making calls.
Reporting real time technology is now essential in business with competitive advantage often won through timely and accurate communication both within the business and to external stakeholders / prospects. Internally, executives and business leaders are looking to their finance department to play a larger role in supporting business and operational decision making. This increased demand makes real time reporting vital for proactive planning, budgeting, forecasting and business analytics measured against strategic objectives. However providing the data is not enough – finance departments are now expected to deliver insight into how to interpret these results to drive decision making and improved performance within the business. Thus the overall measurement and reporting processes in a business needs to be structured tightly to enable this data to be gathered, available and relevant as business owners try to do more with the same, or fewer, resources.
