The average small business spends around 15% of its budget on tech. Almost a half of it goes towards buying hardware, and the rest is split among the many different tech solutions offered to businesses. Big companies have an even bigger range of choices when it comes to tech, and it’s not uncommon for them to invest in custom tech solutions.
But whether it’s a small business or a large one, the point is the same. It’s becoming almost impossible to run a business without using some form of technology. For their part, tech developers have been very good at identifying the areas where technology can make the most meaningful impact.
Talent Acquisition
Attracting high-quality talent is usually one of the top priorities of startups. Big companies that want to stay competitive also need to make sure they’re hiring people with current skills. Businesses who post open positions to their websites or third-party job boards are often swamped with the number of applications they get. Sifting through all of them to find the right candidate is a task that eats up both time and money.
Applicant tracking software can drastically decrease the time needed to check a high volume of applications. It can also be used to automate job posting and even some parts of communication with applicants. Chatbots are being increasingly used to inform the applicants about the recruitment process and keep them engaged. And when the process is done, tech can also be used to help with onboarding and training the new talent.
Facility Management
Facility management can be simple for a business operation that doesn’t have many employees, clients, and a variety of services. But the more complex a business gets, the more difficult it is to manage all of its facilities. And without proper facility management to support it, a business will start losing efficiency. Given enough time, it will not be able to perform at all.
Computer-aided facility management software, or CAFM software, are systems specifically designed to assist with facility management. As this post on CAFM software explains, the main role of CAFM software is to help with gathering, storing, and distributing information. Timely access to information, as well as archiving capabilities, can often be of critical importance for business. Using software to handle it is a much better solution than relying on paper.
Project Management
The importance of project management for business performance is recognized by 97% of organizations. However, a third of projects don’t have a baseline, a quarter of software projects is anticipated to fail, and fewer than a third of all projects are completed on budget and on time. Why? One of the reasons might be because slightly less than a half of all project managers are certified.
But it might also be because roughly two out of five project managers don’t use project management software. Project management software is almost certain to improve project performance. Best of all, it can also come with some automation options, giving project managers and teams more time to devote to the work that really matters.
Marketing Assistance
Ever since the digital revolution started, businesses have been using the Internet to attract new customers. As years went by, digital marketing budgets started increasing much more rapidly than traditional marketing budgets. By now, even the small brick-and-mortar shops are using some type of digital marketing to get more customers through the door.
The best thing about digital marketing is that a lot of it can be automated. Digital marketing software can be used to automate marketing activities, track and measure their results, and gather information about customers. It helps marketing professionals attract leads and move them further down the funnel until they’re ready for the sales team.
Customer Relationship Management
Sales-oriented businesses are well aware of how important it is to track and maintain the relationships they form with the customer. Establishing a relationship is the number one thing any salesperson learns. It’s been like that well before we had the Internet or even mass marketing.
In this day and age, however, establishing a relationship with customers has changed. The number of points of contact between a business and its customers has increased drastically, mostly due to digital technologies. Keeping track of all the information gathered during the contact would be next to impossible without customer relationship management software. With CRM software, businesses can ensure their sales teams have the information they need at the exact time they need it.
Businesses that want to thrive will grab every opportunity to improve themselves. Today, that often means trying out new software solutions. Almost every critical role in business can be assisted or completely managed by software. And the roles that can’t reap the benefits of the digital revolution quite yet, will surely be able to do it in the near future.