Tag Archive for: small business operations

How to Begin Securing and Optimizing Small Business Technology

Every business depends on tech these days. The number of third-party SaaS solutions out there has made cutting-edge technology easily accessible even for the small business startup.

As entrepreneurs build their tech stacks, though, they need to be aware of a couple of potential issues. The first is security. Cybercrime continues to be a legitimate concern for anyone online. Businesses should take necessary measures to improve and maintain cybersecurity.

Second, owners must make sure that they’re optimizing their small business technology. With so many options available, it’s easy to become buried under an avalanche of 21st-century solutions. This is true even if they aren’t all benefitting you the way they should.

Here are a few suggestions for ways small businesses can both optimize and secure their digital activity to ensure that they’re getting the most out of their tech.

Start with your Wi-Fi.

Your Wi-Fi is the digital gate to your company. In a tech-heavy world, this makes it the main entrance to your tech stack, your files, your data, and your business as a whole. If you want to optimize how your small business works, you need to start by setting the stage with a quality Wi-Fi solution.

The Wi-Fi experts at Plume point out that this obviously includes the need for a strong and dependable wireless signal, but it shouldn’t stop there. As is the case with the company’s small business-focused WorkPass Wi-Fi solution, a good Wi-Fi network should also be safe, easy to use, and intimately woven into the fabric of your business.

By using a quality small business Wi-Fi solution, you can simultaneously tap into the simplicity and ease of residential routers as well as the firepower of an enterprise-level internet connection.

Small business Wi-Fi has the potential to double as a business intelligence (BI) platform that collects and turns data into actionable insights. This can help you manage your workforce and communicate with guest users. It can also keep your entire team engaged with adaptive connectivity that is fast, reliable, and ultra-secure.

If you want your small business to be productive and secure at the same time, make sure to start by using a reputable and capable small business Wi-Fi solution.

Establish solid cybersecurity.

Cybersecurity can be intimidating. The need to keep your technology safe and secure from outside threats is an ever-present concern. Many solutions can also be prohibitively expensive — but not all of them.

There are many small-yet-effective ways that you can secure sensitive data while optimizing your small business technology. Intel suggests half a dozen ways to do this, such as:

  • establishing a solid private Wi-Fi setup (see the previous step) that doesn’t require logging in on any public Wi-Fi connections;
  • keeping hardware upgraded at all times — and, of course, making sure your team installs all software patches and updates in a timely manner;
  • using strong passwords and implementing MFA (multi-factor authentication) whenever possible;
  • utilizing apps like Windows 10 Pro security and Norton Antivirus to block unwanted malware; and
  • teaching your staff to use proper digital hygiene (maintaining strong passwords, installing updates, etc.) at all times when using office tech.

If you feel like overseeing all of these steps is too much, consider using a Device as a Service (DaaS) solution to increase security. This is a new kind of service that bundles the distribution, management, and IT support for a business’s tech. These are then overseen by a third-party provider, taking the perpetual responsibility off of your plate.

Manage your marketing.

Marketing is one of the easiest areas to bleed cash and ooze inefficiency. This is partly due to the subtle and intangible results that marketing can generate.

If you have a sales team, you can measure their success in dollars and cents. You can apply the same simple math to other areas. These include manufacturing, paying an accountant, or shipping and handling costs.

When it comes to marketing, though, it’s easy to pour endless money into things like content creation and brand awareness without really knowing how effective they are.

If you want to optimize your marketing activity, the first thing you need to do is set up analytics tools to track your results. There are many ways to do this, including free tools, like Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics. In addition, many tools, like Shopify or Mail Chimp, come with built-in data collection dashboards.

Of course, tracking data in a dozen or more applications is challenging. That’s why you may want to consider an additional third-party tool to unify your analytical marketing data. AI-powered solutions like Hawke.ai can bring all of your marketing results into a single dashboard where you can find insights to help you make informed, optimized decisions.

Optimizing and Securing a Small Business (Without Panicking)

There are many factors that go into keeping a business both efficient and safe. For small businesses, this task can feel time-consuming and expensive.

However, if you approach things with a strategy in place, you can manage both concerns without too much trouble. Start by putting things like a solid Wi-Fi solution in place and establishing key cybersecurity protocols. From there, focus on conducting ongoing digital hygiene training. Use the tools available to gather data and turn it into actionable and efficient business strategies, too.

Optimizing small business technology is an assumed aspect of any startup venture at this point. The critical factor is making sure that your tech stack is helping, not hindering, your small business.

If you are looking for an expert to help you find the best solutions for your business talk to GCInfotech about a free technology assessment

Published with consideration from SmallBiz Technology SOURCE

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Five Ways to Maximize the Benefits of Technology

It’s an age-old legend…well, at least as old as technology in business. After hearing about benefits gained by other companies, you invest.

After hearing about its benefits from many other companies, a small firm decides to invest extensively in new technology. Including AI. Despite this, days, weeks, and even months pass without the corporation receiving a complete return on its investment. The issue, among entrepreneurs, has only intensified due to the pandemic and the hasty adoption of technology that resulted.

So, what’s the real story behind that? There might be many explanations for this. For starters, the technology implementation may not be as excellent as you had hoped.

Maybe your employees weren’t adequately trained. Perhaps the technology wasn’t a suitable match for your specific requirements.

It’s possible that the technology isn’t all that useful in the first place. And in the context of the pandemic, hasty digital transformation efforts often result in poor technological outcomes.

Unfortunately, anybody dealing with today’s challenges will find that solving them without technology is challenging. (In truth, every business should now be a technology business, but that’s a discussion for another day.)

Fortunately, you can make efforts to ensure that the technology you choose provides you with all you need. Remember that these aren’t fail-safe formulas for success, but rather a set of suggestions that will help you get closer to the results you want from technology.

1. Choose your technology carefully.

This is one of the most often repeated tips, but it bears repeating.

Why? Because you don’t have to employ every single piece of technology available. Sure, some IT basics may drastically transform your business. Meanwhile, you must be reasonable in how and where you use them, even in such circumstances.

When deciding which technology to use, there are a few considerations to consider.

You must consider specific demands, industry circumstances, competitor movements, and future business prospects before making a choice.

However, there is a mentality that may assist you in making better tech decisions. Choose technology that will help you become a more agile and fast-paced firm. Combining DevOps and CI/CD principles with decoupled data, infrastructure, and digital solutions may go a long way.

2. Include cloud computing in your infrastructure as a must-have.

The advent of the everything as a service (XaaS) paradigm allows you to tap into the power of various technologies.

Moreover, without having to make significant expenditures. As a result, you may (and should) use cloud computing to implement technologies.

Utilizing things like artificial intelligence, analytics, and big data can help your company grow.

Yes, cloud computing is ideal for storing data and even running customer relationship management software on top of it.

However, there’s more. Cloud computing allows you the freedom to scale up or down your tech demands at any moment. Meanwhile, you gain access to technologies that would be significantly more expensive if you developed them yourself.

3. Use data to make decisions and track progress.

You must already be aware that you base your selections on the information available to you.

Adopting big data strategies, as well as analytics and artificial intelligence, may help you maximize your company’s potential. This involves technology adoption and performance considerations.

Looking at the correct data may help you figure out which technologies are good for you. Consequently deciding when the optimum moment is to implement them.

Furthermore, when assessing the output and performance of new technology, data should be at the core of your monitoring activities. Data collected from the technology you adopt will offer you insights that will assist you.

Furthermore, you can determine what to alter, adapt, and scale up or down.

4. Invest in technology that will benefit the whole firm.

Because technology can empower your whole business, you should ensure that the digital solutions you implement benefit employees from all departments.

Doesn’t that sound natural? However, you’d be amazed how many firms acquire a specific technology, such as AI-based analytics solutions, and use it solely in one department, such as sales.

The concept is simple. Make as much use of technology benefits as possible.

Even if your new technology doesn’t seem helpful in a given area, try to conceive of other ways it may help you. At least, utilize the output to inform and connect with the rest of your firm. That way, everyone benefits — even if the production is a source of information.

5. Pay special attention to your workforce’s training.

Finally, you’ll need your team members to be well-versed in your new technology.

If you expect to install a new technology without providing extensive and continuing training to the individuals using it, you will be disappointed.

You’ll need extensive training to ensure that your staff understands making the most of the new digital solutions. Perhaps most significantly, the training should be continual rather than a one-time event.

That’s because you could discover new applications, or you might upgrade the solution with new features and capabilities that you wouldn’t have known about if you hadn’t informed other colleagues about them regularly.

If you don’t want to repeat the errors that others have made, do yourself a favor and think carefully about these tips.

If you are looking for an expert to help you find the best solutions for your business talk to GCInfotech about a free technology assessment

Published with consideration from smallbusinesstechnology.com SOURCE

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