Business owners, IT managers, and IT directors need to understand the latest tech trends in the small business sector. Understanding these trends and their impact on your business is imperative for ongoing growth and success.
When you focus on day-to-day business affairs, such as overall employment satisfaction, profits, and growth, it is not uncommon to overlook some of the latest trends that are going on in the bigger industry.
However, technology is growing, and trends will be an important part of keeping up with this growth.
While updated infrastructure, like 5G technology, will keep gaining traction, some established markets, like employee monitoring software, will also hugely impact small businesses in every sector.
Here, you can learn more about software trends and their impact.
Table of Contents
1. Artificial Intelligence
Today, artificial intelligence and machine learning have taken center stage regarding technology trends. One example is how AI has begun to reshape the insurance industry. It is working to effectively improve insurer pain points and provide a much better user experience.
With more solutions utilizing smart technologies, small businesses will keep using them and implementing them into their new and existing processes in the coming years. This may mean all types of implementation scenarios, from personalized customer experiences to voice assistants. Today, AI business trends already encompass things like increased AI presence in CRM systems, market research, and even cybersecurity.
2. The Rollout of 5G Technology
There are many business implications of 5G technology. While it was first introduced in 2019, the pandemic delayed the rollout around the country and worldwide.
While this is true, there is no question that the use of 5G technology is something that provides much faster transmission speeds than what 4G networks provide. In fact, 5G guarantees virtually no latency or delays regarding data transfer.
Being able to eliminate latency is going to be a huge step forward when it comes to the development of the IoT (Internet of Things). This is because 5G networks are much more equipped and capable of supporting all the interconnected smart devices in use today than Wi-Fi or 4G. With the IoT increasing in use and prevalence, more and more career opportunities will be presented to those in this field.
3. The Use of Employee Monitoring Software
After the pandemic, many people stayed at their remote positions. There is no question that remote workers are the wave of the future.
With employee monitoring software, it is possible to ensure that workers are doing their job and handling the tasks they have been given. With centralized HR information systems, it is possible for your HR team to easily manage all workers – both those in-house and remote workers.
This software is beneficial not just for the company itself but also for employees. It ensures they can get the achievements and praise deserved for their time and efforts.
4. Remote Onboarding Capabilities
As mentioned above, many companies are using both on-site and remote workers today. This hybrid working model – and the savings from reduced office space and less employee commuting time – significantly benefit a business. However, to implement more remote workers, it is necessary to have an effective remote onboarding process in place.
Remember, onboarding is an important part of hiring any new employee. It ensures they understand their duties and become familiar with company culture. If you are unable to establish a connection in person due to the remote worker, it is necessary to turn to software for the onboarding process.
Implementing technology that ensures all this experience is professional will help their team members feel welcome and comfortable in their new roles.
The right technology will ensure that all steps of the onboarding experience work for the benefit of the new employee. Companies will be willing to invest more in technology that helps new workers better understand who has what role in the company and gets them familiar with relevant connections they will need beyond their immediate and daily team.
5. Financial Software to Take Charge of Your Credit and Profits
Financial health is an important part of running a business. All types of software solutions are available today, such as improving your credit score by removing medical collections from your credit report with innovative software. For some business owners, this is imperative since they are using their personal credit to finance their ongoing operations.
6. Technology-Assisted Shopping
After the pandemic, there was a significant turn to online shopping. Because of this, businesses of all types and sizes have created mobile and social media shopping elements to ensure a completely contactless shopping experience.
According to a report from Staples, this type of high-tech approach to maintaining safety is something that has now spread to more than just curbside pickup solutions. Now businesses are embracing things like mobile payments, mobile terminals, and similar technologies.
Mobile payments were a “nice-to-have” feature that added the convenience of avoiding long and annoying checkout lines and the huge crowds commonly seen in stores. However, these elements are no longer in the “nice to have” status. They are a requirement to remain competitive for most retailers. For example, if your competition offers this feature and you don’t, there is a good chance that a potential customer will go to the competition for the added convenience that they have.
7. Software Unification
When it comes to software interfaces, unifying them will help speed up processes and make them easier to understand. An example is Windows 11 and Microsoft Teams.
While this is true, there are more and more businesses adopting the use of third-party integrations. For example, many businesses are using Slack to help connect teams, Outlook to send out important emails and documents, and Basecamp for planning projects. They may also use Salesforce to help manage their customer base and Google Drive to store company information. There is no question that the presence of data silos is a huge threat that can be mitigated and minimized using software unification.
However, being able to connect software so that it works with other software is challenging. Eventually, you will find there is a breakthrough in integrating platforms that will help ensure that all software can connect with any other.
These connections will link several platforms and ensure a seamless communication stream. With unification, it will be possible to change customer information simultaneously across all the platforms being used by changing it in a single platform. This unification is going to help save businesses a significant amount of time and effort.
Implementing the Right Business Technology for Ongoing Growth and Success
As you can see, more than a few business technologies are working to transform businesses today. Regardless of the size of your business or what industry you operate in, you will find that the technology options here will ensure you get the results you want and need.
You can find services that will help you find and implement the right technology solutions if desired. This will pay off in the long run while ensuring your business exceeds the work being done by the competition.
Keep the information here in mind to ensure that your business has the latest technology it needs.
Author bio:
The Daily Cup of Tech‘s IT consultant, Miley Dowing, assists online businesses in realizing their full potential. She frequently writes on the most recent developments in the digital and tech industries because she is passionate about programming and IT consulting.