Over the last 20 years, tech in business has really exploded. Regardless of the industry tech in business is everywhere. From inventory management software to digital marketing to commercial security system options, tech is prevalent.
Every industry is using tech in business to increase productivity, enhance customer satisfaction, improve safety and more. This trend is certainly not coming to an end any time soon. Tech in business has changed every aspect of doing business.
History of Tech in Business
Tech in business is certainly not a new idea, however, since the 1980’s there has been an incredible upsurge in technology for business. The first tech in business was the invention of the steam engine. While today it may not seem like a major jump in technology, the steam engine was about as important as the internet is today.
Using an electric typewriter was a big deal. A teletype machine to sent messages to far off places like from New York to Ohio was also a great leap in tech in business. Each new invention impacted how business was done.
The word processor was introduced as state of the art technology in the 1980s along with a facsimile machine that would send information from one location to another in minutes. Dial-up internet was also state of the art at one time.
Today tech in business is something that people in the mid-1900s could never picture. Businesses depended on dedicated lines for everything they used. There was a line for telephone communication, a fax line, a computer line. Today, all information travels over a single line.
Imagine what tech in business will be like 20 years from now. It is sure to be far more advanced then what anyone right now expects it to be. You will have to stay tuned to find out what is on the horizon.
Oddly enough throughout history with every advancement, there have been naysayers that professed it would never work or that opposed the changes out of the fear that it would affect their business in a negative way. Today, there are still naysayers that fight every step of the way against new tech in business. Sadly, many of those businesses do not survive.
What has Tech In Business Improved?
From the early days of the turn of the 19th-century inventors, business owners, and others have searched for ways to make business more productive and easier to manage. There have been some tremendous changes that have affected every area of business.
Tech in business has made some vast improvements to how the world does business. Windows virtual servers in business, cloud storage, and cloud computing mean that server rooms are a thing of the past. Not having individual server rooms for every business is not only convenient for the business, but it is good for the environment.
Less equipment means less energy is spent, less energy used is good for the environment not to mention good for the business budget. Sounds like simple savings but when you consider the scale you can see how great technology improvements have been for the environment.
It is estimated that in 2020 40 zettabytes will be moved through the cloud. Twenty years ago many people were just coming out of the dial-up age, where zettabytes and terabytes sounded an awful lot like science fiction, but now cloud storage is becoming the norm.
So the environment gets a nice nod from improvements in technology, what else is tech in business improving? There is a litany of things that tech in business is improving including:
- Makes marketing more effective
- Improves customer care
- Increases accuracy of services
- Increases worksite safety
- Reduces waste
- Improves response times
- Increased accountability
Tech in business has helped businesses to reach a wider audience. For example when consumers are ready to buy real estate they turn to the internet and discover real estate agents custom design website and the real estate agent scores a new client.
Improving customer care has gotten a huge boost from tech in business. A business that uses a flight tracker for package tracking can supply consumers with on-spot information about when their packages will arrive.
Automation has helped businesses to be more responsive to customer’s needs. Quicker response times thanks to tech in business keep customers highly satisfied with services. Accuracy is increased with tech in business.
Accuracy Improvements
Business software is being used by all the critical service industries from health insurance claims processing to banks to digital marketing to medical clinics, and other enterprises the provide key services. In some industries, accuracy must be a priority or there is a real risk to client safety.
Software suites that are designed to enhance accuracy in claims processing, financial tracking, and enterprises that provide direct patient care have reduced the risk for the client and made processing easier for the enterprise.
Human errors have been minimalized thanks to advancements in tech for business. Software automation has helped to make more accurate decisions about claims processing, patient care, banking services, and more.
Improved Worker Safety
Tech in business has helped to keep the workplace safer and to provide records of workplace injuries with video monitoring that are used to improve safety. Businesses can use modern technologies to keep workers safer, reduce costs of liability due to workplace injuries, and improve conditions to avoid workplace injuries.
Much of the tech in business is used to take some of the workloads off of labor, and to make the job easier. Factory workers are assisted by plenty of tech in business to get the job done better with less risk of injury. Construction laborers, office workers, specialty industries, all benefit from the improved safety that tech in business has to offer.
Reduces Waste
One of the key benefits to the planet that tech in business has afforded is the reduction of waste. With the help of technology, businesses can better manage their inventory, control the amount of waste the business generates, and even ultimately reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Tech in business is not always about improving the bottom line, although it does. One of the by-products that business has experienced from using state of the art tech in business is reducing the amount of waste that the enterprise generates and helping the planet out.
From the simple tech to the highly sophisticated tech it all delivers the added benefit of reducing the amount of energy it takes to run a business, reducing labor costs, reducing the waste that is generated, and simply making things far more efficient across the board.
Here is a good example of how tech helps the environment. Let’s say that company A is a factory that makes sneakers. If you rewind to 20 years ago, a lot of what was happening in the factory required human input. Humans need certain things to do their job, like air conditioning, lighting, and meals. Today company A is mostly automated. Automation does not require lighting nor is there waste generated from meals, air conditioning can be set to the minimum.
The example above is a simple example of where the benefits for the environment come in without going into too much detail. You can how trash generated from 500 employees for even one meal a day can be tremendous. You can also see how turning the air conditioning up quite a few degrees to meet the minimum requirements of the machinery would be a huge energy saving for the business and less drain on the environment.
Company A can run their machines night and day, and still, realize a reduction in their carbon footprint while increasing productivity. It is a win-win for both the environment and the business.
Improving Response Times with Excellent Communication
Connecting with clients and customers has never been easier than it is right now. Most businesses offer multiple channels of communication for their clients and customers to contact them. Before the advent of advanced tech in business consumers had two choices, they could call or they could send a letter.
There were a lot of missed opportunities to respond to customer needs before tech in business made it easy to contact a business. Today clients or customers can call, send an email, reach out through social media channels, and easily contact a business with a problem or concern.
Tech in business has helped to establish a new level of accountability for businesses and helped businesses to quickly respond to their client base. Quick responses elevate consumer satisfaction with a business. Modern tech in business means that consumers should never have to sit on hold waiting for an agent or worse yet get a busy signal.
Everyone is Accountable Now Thanks to Tech in Business
The check is in the mail is no longer a valid excuse. Technology has evolved to the point where everything from payments, credits, and answers is just about instantaneous. Delays waiting for payment, not knowing where inventory is, and not having reporting at your fingertips are long gone.
Tech in business is keeping people accountable to deliver on their word. It is very hard not to reach someone today, or to track order if the tech in business is present. Savvy consumers are well- aware of what technology business should have in place.
Studies indicate that consumers expect that a business will have open communication channels including social media channels. They also expect that if they post a question to social media that the business will respond within 3 hours.
Consumers expect that items ordered will be delivered within a 5-day window of placing the order. Why do they think this? The answer is simple, there are businesses out there that are investing in tech in business that helps their products get to the consumer faster.
The secret is out as far as consumers are concerned. If one business can manage deliveries to arrive in a few days than all businesses should be able to do the same. Unfortunately, for the businesses that are not investing in tech for business, they are losing business.
Consumers are more impatient than ever when it comes to waiting on delivery or services, that they will seek out the business that can meet their demands. Surveys have indicated that businesses that are not investing in tech are falling short in their accountability to the consumer.
The Cost Savings
Here is where tech in business is making the biggest difference not just for the businesses but for the consumer as well. After the initial deployment of tech, the business will realize cost savings. Whether that saving comes in the reduction of labor costs, reduction of risk, or improved productivity the savings are significant.
For the consumer the savings come from the reduction in pricing passed on from the business that is realizing savings from their new tech. New tech in business has opened up a world of opportunity for savings for everyone.
Tech in business has also beefed up the competition. Ordering something from halfway around the world at one time was nearly impossible without a middle man (import, export company). Today, thanks to advances in technology consumers can order pretty much anything they like directly from companies across the globe.
While business owners may not like the idea of added competition, it is actually good for business. It gives businesses moving forward, helps to create innovative new products, and it also means that those local business owners can also meet customer demands from around the globe.
Tech in business will continue to evolve and change how people do business. It will influence what consumers expect from the business. The business that does not adopt the latest tech in business will likely get left behind.
