NEWS FLASH: tech is completely changing the way the world does business.
Ok, so that’s probably not the most shocking headline you’ve ever read – good. Obviously, technology has become an indispensable strategic asset that we use every day to improve productivity, profitability, and customer experience. The list of ways technology is disrupting business is seemingly endless (mobile applications, big data analytics, collaborative cloud computing, etc.), but one thing cannot be overlooked – companies that can really master the digital age are the ones that consistently lead the pack in their respective markets.
1. New Competitors / Disruption
With all this new, emerging technology often comes new business models, which are challenging the traditional way of doing business. This brings a complete disruption to the competitive landscape – new waters to navigate with new players in the game. Now, instead of just keeping an eye on the same competitors you’ve grown used to, you may find yourself competing against an innovative powerhouse that threatens the status quo.
We’ve seen this come to fruition in some big ways over the last decade with companies like Amazon, Airbnb, and Tesla changing the way we, society as a whole, think about each of those respective industries.
2. Staying Competitive
Aside from the new competitors in the market, your business cannot lose sight of its existing competitors and the measures they are taking to keep up in the digital age. Strategic implementation of new technology stacks is critical in maintaining the edge over existing competition. The examples are seemingly endless, but think about things like POS systems at restaurants, retail store mobile apps, personalized recommendations from Amazon, etc. All of these things enhance and streamline the customer experience across each interaction.
3. Increased Complexity of Systems
As the number of technological systems increases, it becomes harder and harder to get everything to play nicely together. Getting the technology integration thing nailed down can feel impossible when you’re consistently adopting new systems and hardware. Sometimes, it takes a village to get the pieces to fit together, and that village should be made of your in-house IT experts as well as every external resource you have access to.
4. Consistent Customer Experience
At the core of every brand is the experience it brings to its clientele. Ensuring that each guest or customer’s experience is always the same reinforces brand loyalty. Technology is helping to standardize, enhance, and streamline experiences in many service industries.
So, what does this all mean?
When it comes to technology, you get out what you put in. What we mean by that is that companies must invest in robust technology stacks to support the innovation occurring across all industries. The fact that most of these innovations harness the power of the internet is no small observation to make.
As we mention in our Connectivity 101 E-Book, it can be challenging to keep up with the rate at which these technologies begin to take over the corporate world. What we’re primarily seeing today is a massive influx of IoT and connected devices (which come with no shortage of online data dumps) and cloud-based software. If you’re looking to invest in these technologies, the first thing you need to do is to ensure that your business’s connectivity solution is up to the challenge.
