5 technological must-haves for every business
Historically, certain supposed ‘luxuries’ of doing business have gradually turned more into essentials as the corporate landscape has changed. Good examples include having a business website and accepting credit cards or debit cards for payment.
Technological advances are one major reason behind such shifts in priorities — and this naturally raises the question of what forms of tech your business ought to prioritise sourcing for its office (or, potentially, string of offices). Well, here are just five tech solutions deemed essential in 2022…
Automated threat detection
Though your company network is exposed to cyberthreats, it is unfortunately impossible for you to manually monitor, identify and thwart them. This is why you need to arrange for automated threat detection software to patrol your network right around the clock.
Keep in mind that, even if your business is small, this doesn’t necessarily make it a smaller target for hackers. According to one statistic shared by TechBullion, 43% of all cyberattacks are launched against small businesses due to their relative vulnerability.
Cloud storage and sharing services
In one survey highlighted by AllBusiness.com, it was discovered that, of almost 10,000 information workers, the average used 2.3 devices for work purposes — and 52% of the survey participants used at least three devices.
Your company therefore shouldn’t neglect to invest in cloud-based services — like Dropbox, Google Docs and Apple’s iCloud — that would allow workers to seamlessly switch between a wide range of devices without losing progress on their current assignment.
Smartphones
In their functionality, smartphones have become so sophisticated that they can feel very much like miniature laptops.
Whether your company issues smartphones for use by its employees or instead lets them take advantage of a BYOD (bring-your-own-device) policy, these little machines can ease such corporate tasks as managing contacts, sharing data and carrying out research.
With research having found that 90% of American workers actually use their own smartphones for work purposes, establishing the widespread use of smartphones in your own office might not even necessitate a huge amount of spending on your part.
Unified communications
These days, there are many different ways that both employees and customers can get in touch with you, the business owner. These means of contact can include phoning, emailing and instant messaging.
So, it would be useful for you to implement a unified communications (UC) system tied to a wide range of communication channels. As a result, no matter which of these channels someone has used in an attempt to contact you, the message will reach you via the same control panel.
Modern accounting software
The ‘modern’ bit bears emphasis there — as, though many businesses are accustomed to using accounting software, much of it currently in place is likely to be outdated.
This means that, by adopting a modern, automated accounting system, a business can bring its accountancy processes levels of swiftness, efficiency and accuracy that even the best human accountants are unable to match.
In making this change, a company can potentially slash its accountancy costs by as much as 80%, Talk Business reports.
