We’re only a month into 2013 and if you’ve yet to make a resolution foryour small business, consider assessing your technology. Evaluating howtechnology investments are serving your business requires a fair amount ofthought and energy, but the pay-off is worth it since the process sheds lighton exactly which changes must be made to increase business success.
When assessing your technology to determine how well it supports yourbusiness objectives, try structuring the process by analyzing the following threetechnology priorities:
Productivity and collaboration– Technology should help employees get things done, share information and workwell as a team. Ask employees if they notice any patterns of inefficiency inworkflow and their daily work tasks. Doing a thorough audit, will help youidentify duplicate processes or tasks. Consider whether the programs they useintegrate well with respect to internal and external communications. Also, observehow employees communicate with one another, which tools they use mostfrequently and if they spend unnecessary time determining if their colleaguesare available. You may come to find that enhanced productivity solutions thatwork across various devices like tablets, PCs and smartphones will help youremployees work better and smarter.
Mobility – When it comes tomobility, businesses that enable employees to remain productive anytime,anywhere have a better chance at success than their landlocked counterparts. Ofcourse if you run a bakery or a hair salon, certain elements of your businessactivity must take place on-site, but many other functions such as accountingand marketing can take place anywhere. Therefore, consider how easily youremployees can conduct work outside the office. Do you have the right technologywith the proper plans and policies in place to facilitate smarter, more secure,remote working for employees?
Security –Securitythreats constantly change, making securing your business on ongoing process. Somemeasures for protection never change, such as anti-virus software and malwareremoval, so be sure to determine if your business has these tools in place.
Thesuggestions I’ve posed are a starting-off point for you as you enter theprocess of assessing your business’ technology. To help you through theprocess, we’ve developed a great new resource – the Microsoft AssessYour Tech guide. I think you’ll find this resource particularly helpful in theprocess of assessing your technology and identifying ways to improve the roletechnology plays in moving your business forward.
For more tips and information on how technology can support you and your business, follow me on Twitterhttp://twitter.com/Cindy_Bates) or follow Microsoft SMB on Twitter (@MicrosoftSMB) and Facebook (Microsoft SMB).
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