Nowadays, corporates are always looking for ways to increase their efficiency and become ‘smart’. However, this objective is often challenging to achieve, as efficiently managing a business is not a piece of cake. You should know that a lot goes into managing a business. Moreover, the larger the scale of operations is, the more challenging it is to manage them.
However, as times are changing, businesses are shifting to technology to gain this efficiency. Technology, with decades worth of evolution, is capable of seamlessly handling the most complex operations and even helps in making businesses more efficient and sustainable.
Upon observing this tremendous potential, businesses are rapidly shifting to tech-centric practices or, in other words, are undergoing digitalization. However, what exactly is digitalization? Let's find the answer to this question in the upcoming section.
Digitalization: A Business Trend
Digitalization, in simple words, refers to the concept of shifting from traditional methods to digital-based ones. Digitalization is one of the most prominent business trends and is widely followed by businesses all across the globe.
The scope and implementation of technology are increasing every day, and businesses are looking for ways to integrate this technology into their practices. This is because businesses are well-aware of the potential that the latest technologies possess. By integrating this technology, businesses are becoming more intelligent and self-efficient and are optimizing their processes.
Moreover, technology has opened new channels for businesses to sell their goods and services to their target consumers, further boosting revenue. Overall, the potential of technology is undeniably significant in business growth.
However, it is commonly known that integrating technology with business operations can be a cost-intensive affair. As a result, it is natural to think, why are businesses investing in technology, and how are they benefitting from it? The following section will cover this topic in detail and will provide information on how technology is making corporates smarter.
12 Ways In Which Technology Can Benefit Your Business
Seamless Communication
Communication is an integral part of a business's everyday operations. A seamless communication ensures optimum work efficiency and employee output. However, with traditional business practices, it is often challenging for corporate to facilitate seamless communication. To specify, some of the most common challenges in traditional communication are distance barriers and loss of accountability.
On the other hand, with the latest technological advancements, businesses can not only ease communication but also add to its transparency, recordability, and accountability. The latest tech-based communication practices involve fast and efficient communication between two employees, a group of employees, and even between businesses and their clients. Now, businesses can communicate with clients over a long distance without compromising the process's efficiency and integrity.
Promote Remote Work
Over the course of the recent pandemic, numerous corporates have realized the importance of technology in aiding hassle-free and uninterrupted work processes. Moreover, businesses that did not adopt digitalization were forced to shut their operations, owing to travel and gathering restrictions during the COVID-19 outbreak.
To overcome this challenge, businesses started opting for remote work, a concept that was less known before but has become a common term amongst present-day corporates. Utilizing the latest technology, businesses are now able to hire employees remotely and get work done from them. Moreover, technology enables businesses to allocate tasks, track employee activity, and ensure optimum accountability. What's more? Integrating remote work can allow corporates to cut down on infrastructure and maintenance costs, increasing business profitability.
Easy Decision Making
Employees spend a lot of time planning, discussing, and contemplating strategies. The time it takes to plan and decide upon day-to-day tasks can be economically and practically unviable in many cases for corporates.
Technology aids these needs and facilitates seamless decision-making in everyday business operations. With the latest tech advancements like machine learning and big data, businesses can now utilize technology to benefit from seamless and reliable decision-making. It is worth noting that this decision-making is data-driven and therefore is highly precise in most cases.
For example, a business that is unable to determine whether to go with strategy A or strategy B can use AI-based technology to get data-driven insights on a similar plan's market performance, competitors, and consumer behavior. This will enable the management to get a better insight into the success potential of each plan, therefore, easing the decision-making process.
Cost-efficiency
The economic viability of operations is one of the most critical factors for any business. Businesses are realizing the importance of cost-efficiency and profit maximization and are looking for ways to achieve this objective. In this whole conundrum, technology has turned out to be the most efficient and practical way to achieve cost-efficiency.
By integrating technology-based practices, businesses can control the cost of their operations and even significantly reduce it. To explain, technology enables businesses to optimize their operations, resource requirements, processes, and workflow. In the bigger picture, all of this significantly contributes toward a lower operating cost and increases business profitability.
Increased Data Security & Manageability
Companies store numerous types of data that is related to consumers, strategies, internal plans, records, and more. As confidential as this data is supposed to be, businesses often struggle to maintain the integrity of sensitive information. This is because manually recording, storing, and managing data is often impractical and time and labor consuming, especially for businesses operating on a large scale.
However, businesses can overcome this challenge and practice effortless data management by integrating technology. With tech innovations like Cloud Computing, it has become easy for businesses to store, process, and manage large quantities of data with ease. What's more? Integrating technologies like Blockchain and Data Encryption further adds security to this digitally stored data, making it immune to security breaches.
Effortless Human Resource Management
It is commonly known that human resources are one of the biggest assets of every organization. Therefore, a business cannot truly become efficient without optimally managing its human resources. However, this is easier said than done, as managing human resources is one of the biggest organizational challenges of a business.
In this scenario, integrating technology can turn out to be a million-dollar idea for corporates. Today, the market size for HR technology stands at USD 24.02 Billion and is expected to reach USD 35.8 billion by 2028. One of the primary uses of HRM technology is to efficiently manage human resources, such as their paychecks, attendance, performance, etc.
However, the latest technology also enables the management to practice efficient human resource allocation and utilization. Using this technology, businesses can optimize their human resource requirements and practice their real-time management for operational efficiency and better output.
Automated Processes
Process automation is the latest business trend. This is a practice that by itself is based on technology and is a revolution in the corporate world. By automating business processes, corporates can optimize their efficiency by large and increase their profitability.
Process automation is a complex phenomenon based on numerous technologies, which come together to generate better and more efficient results for everyday business operations. At present, a business can automate almost anything and everything, from customer support to marketing, inventory management, finance management, and even its core operations like production and manufacturing.
Overall, process automation has tremendous potential for businesses and has the capability to overturn the way businesses operate for good. Witnessing this tremendous potential of process automation, businesses are rapidly shifting from manually conducted processes to automated ones and benefitting from them.
Seamless Customer Insights
Businesses hold customer insights in high regard and are always looking for ways to get data on the consumer market. Having access to customer data facilitates seamless decision-making and strategic planning. Moreover, having an understanding of customer preferences, likes, and dislikes enables businesses to curate and implement customer-centric strategies.
By implementing technology-based solutions, businesses can gain access to detailed customer insights and benefit from them. Businesses that operate digitally (i.e., through eCommerce) can have a higher hand in the market owing to this aspect of technology. These businesses can get detailed customer analytics and understand their customers' shopping habits for better strategic planning.
Easy Recruitment
Having talented and well-skilled human resources is always an added benefit for businesses. However, finding and acquiring talented employees can often be challenging for businesses. As a result, corporates are looking for a solution that enables them to effortlessly acquire new talent in the company.
For this reason, businesses are utilizing tech-based solutions to ease human resource acquisition. Now, it has become easier than ever for recruiters and job seekers to connect with each other. Recruiters can easily get complete and reliable information on the potential candidate's profile and background and can even conduct online interviews.
On the other hand, job seekers can get insights into the company's work culture and values and decide on whether or not to accept the job offer. All of this is possible by keeping up with the latest tech trends for job seeking and recruitment.
Efficient Customer Relationship Management
Customer relationship management is one of the most crucial business activities of every organization. As a result, companies try their best to integrate the best and most optimum CRM strategies in their everyday operations. However, this objective is often challenging to achieve, as managing an optimum relationship with the customer base involves numerous challenges for a business.
As a result, businesses are integrating technology with their operations to manage client relationships efficiently. Today, there are numerous technologies available for corporates that cater to CRM and project management requirements. Moreover, with the latest and most advanced technologies like AI and machine learning, businesses can facilitate seamless, self-sufficient, and highly accessible customer support and add to customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Environment Sustainability
Environmental sustainability is one of the most important factors in the current world, where the condition of our planet and its environment is degrading with each passing day. One of the key contributing factors to environmental degradation is industrialization. As a result, Corporates have a big role to play in promoting this ecological sustainability.
Utilizing the latest tech innovation enables corporates to integrate environment-friendly and sustainability-centric practices in their everyday operations. These technologies are useful for identifying and optimizing practices that can be potentially harmful to the environment and, therefore, contribute to the company's overall sustainability.
For example, it is commonly known that certain manufacturing processes can generate a plethora of waste, which is economically as well as environmentally unviable. However, by integrating digital technology, businesses can not only keep track of the generated waste but also work on reducing it, therefore increasing production efficiency and controlling carbon footprint.
Smart Workspace
The latest technology is not just smart but also highly powerful and revolutionary and is changing the way people work in offices. One of the best evidence of this statement is Metaverse, a virtual reality platform. Today, Metaverse is used in numerous industries and sectors for its vast benefits.
One of the most popular uses of Metaverse is evident in the corporate sector, where the platform is used for simplifying everyday tasks and making workplaces smarter. For example, it is commonly known that in order to hold a meeting, all the attendees need to be physically present in one place.
However, with Metaverse, businesses can hold real-life-like meetings virtually without compromising on efficiency. Regardless of where you are, you can easily join the meeting and achieve your objectives.
To add to that, Metaverse also enables businesses to create virtual workspaces. These workspaces give an office-like environment for the employees to work in. Employees can remotely work from anywhere in the world, which is a factor widely looked for during the recent pandemic.
These were the 12 ways in which technology is making corporates smarter and more intelligent. However, what exactly are these technologies? Well, numerous technologies exist in the market, while more are under development. The upcoming section will discuss these technologies in detail.
Technologies that Make Corporates 'Smart'
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence is a tech revolution and is one of the most popular forms of modern technologies across the globe. The market size of AI technology was estimated at USD 65.48 Billion in 2020. This technology is based on machine learning and is highly self-sufficient. AI has numerous implementations in the corporate world, from process automation to predictive analysis and data-driven decision-making. As a result, more and more businesses are considering AI and are integrating it into their everyday practices for better future growth.
Blockchain
The need for security is increasing in the corporate sector. In order to increase data security and integrity, businesses are resorting to high-end technologies like Blockchain. The technology is relatively new but has witnessed rapid adoption in different industries. From cryptocurrency to data security and digital storage, Blockchain is capable of all of it. This is one of the reasons why more and more businesses are adopting this technology and are integrating it into their everyday operation.
Mobile Applications
Mobile applications are undoubtedly the most popular forms of digital technologies of all time. They are known for their high convenience and ease of use and for their vast scope of implementation. Numerous corporates use mobile applications for a variety of purposes, from employee communication to work tracking, process management, and more.
It is also a commonly known fact that businesses avoid investing in mobile app development as the cost and time investment can be high. However, you can reduce the cost and time it will take to build an app by minimizing the feature requirement and complexity of the app. This will enable your business to get a high-end app within a limited budget and less time to market.
Software
Software are an old yet highly useful form of technology. This technology creates a human interface between other digital technologies and the business. Moreover, most of the advantages of integrating technology we mentioned in the previous section can be achieved through software development. From project management to finance and HR management, software provides an overall solution for businesses looking to achieve operational efficiency.
These software are available in the market through custom development and ready-to-use (white label) solutions. Businesses can choose the option convenient to their needs and benefit from this highly reliable and top-class technology.
Summing It Up
Technology has significantly evolved over the past years and has become better and more efficient. Owing to the latest tech advancements and innovations, the implementations of technology have widened more than ever before. One of the most prominent implementations of technology is evident in the corporate sector.
Owing to the tremendous scope of technology, corporates are becoming smarter and more efficient every day. From higher revenue to time optimization and automated processes, the scope of technology in corporates is unlimited. By realizing these benefits and undertaking a thoroughly planned implementation process, your business is certain to boost its revenue and gain maximum benefits in the long run.
