Nurturing a small business is no easy feat. Though technological advancements prove handy when it comes to addressing a few painful areas pertaining to growing a small business, the problem is when a startup or small enterprise lacks the necessary resources and enterprise technology/tool to grow and stay ahead of the curve.
Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts to it nor there are any alternatives. This is why every small business ought to invest both its resources and time in the right enterprise tech to avoid regretting later. Long story short, plan now or perish later.
Since the business landscape is witnessing the biggest digitization wave, it is time to arm your small business with the right tool to handle the digital transformation.
Automation
Here come the brutal nightmares for any small business: Yes, routine or repetitive chores are the worst enemies of a growing enterprise. Though automation may sound daunting to some, it certainly is helpful for the employees of a small business to become more agile and efficient.
As you come across several automated enterprise management systems in the market, the key is to look out for something that offers excellent workflow automation. For example, a good automated ERP software would help automate and simplify critical business functions such as sales, compliance, purchase, accounting, inventory, etc.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
A good thing is that numerous enterprise management systems these days come with inbuilt business intelligence capabilities to help your business find the right data, notify about important tasks/calls making sure that everything is in line. On the other hand, artificial intelligence eradicates the guesswork completely thereby, allowing you to emphasize on other strategic chores.
For example, AI can be of great help when it comes to identifying underlying opportunities in your sales pipeline thus, giving your sales team an upper hand. Further, it would help you distinguish happy customers from the unhappy ones whilst the marketing team can be notified about leads that are waiting to be nurtured. Long story short, AI is here to help, and a small business simply ought to put its money and time in the most intelligent platform to survive.
It is obvious for a growing enterprise to make enterprise tech-related decisions as per its needs instead of contemplating to what will be required in future. Reason being the fact that it is a bit taxing to predict as what it will need in the next months or years. However, small business owners need to possess a vision when it comes to enterprise technology making sure that the tool is scalable for years to come.
Moreover, it should seamlessly integrate with other enterprise applications so that it doesn't outgrow faster than expected. For example, a growing enterprise tends to outgrow on spreadsheets thus, stirring the need for a scalable cloud-based enterprise management system.
Integration
Today, there is an app for everything you can imagine, but remember that a cluster of disconnected applications generates siloed data, which is no less than a nightmare. Therefore, it is imperative to ensure that you zero in on the enterprise management system that supports seamless integration and compatibility with other apps or platforms that you may be using.
In other words, the right enterprise tool is the one that offers the seamless plug-and-play facility. Reason being that data sharing is the key, as it helps employees in a company work in a much efficient manner.
It's time small businesses acknowledge the importance of this revolutionary digital transformation that is taking the business landscape by a storm. So if you are on the lookout for the right enterprise tech or wish to upgrade your existing one, it's time to act now to avoid perishing later!
Anwar Shaikh writes about enterprise technology, startups, AI, business intelligence and all things technology. A self-made writer and Digital Marketing Manager, Anwar writes for Sage Software Pvt. Ltd., a leading provider of cost-effective and user-friendly enterprise management systems such as CRM and ERP software to small and mid-sized businesses in India.