Imagine a world where employees couldn’t instantly connect to the people and processes that drive their day-to-day operations. In a post-pandemic environment — whether in the office or working remotely — without technology, none of it would be possible. 

Technological advances enable small businesses to work more efficiently in a number of different ways. Whether that means collaborating with remote colleagues using video-conferencing software or messaging customers to request a review on Google, technology not only allows businesses to more-effectively reach their goals, it benefits their people — the customers, employees, connections, and overall collaboration. Technology is the facilitator that helps people perform better and makes their lives easier. There’s no shortage of ways the right technology helps today’s small businesses reach their goals, yet many still lack the direction needed to drive efficient business growth.

Small Business Technology Basics 

Aberdeen surveyed 300 small businesses to get a better understanding of their interaction with technology as well as their maturity levels when it comes to adoption. The data reveals that the top two priorities for small businesses to evolve their tech stack are to improve the employee/user experience and to strengthen cybersecurity defenses.

“Employee experience” converts to processes like providing a flexible work environment, empowering greater connections with clients, and providing complete employee training. Aberdeen’s head of People and Organizational Effectiveness, Jim Stefanchin, mentions in a recent KB that “a large majority of these managers are relying on disparate systems that hinder quick, consistent access to crucial information such as employee records, performance data, time keeping, etc.” Having a seamless people and organizational experience is crucial, yet 1 in 5 (21%) of small business workers today still don’t believe that their organization’s current technologies fully support the needs of remote or hybrid employees when it comes to factors like the following:  

Providing a Flexible Work Environment: Going from an idea to a finished product or service requires small business owners and their employees to collaborate with each other and external vendors. 

Empowering Greater Connections with Customers: Having instant feedback from customers, survey respondents, and learning in real-time is invaluable to today’s organizations.

Up-Leveling Employee Training: Technology lays the foundation and makes it easier to do remote training via video, messaging, and project management tools.  

Get More ROI Out of Small Business Tech  

In addition to improvements in work environment, customer connections, and employee training, there are ways that small businesses today can capitalize on their technology and become unstoppable. Things like internal collaboration, audience development, and providing an online ecosystem empowers employees and clients to work more efficiently, ultimately driving organizational growth. 

Internal Collaboration with Teams: According to recent Aberdeen research, 43% of small businesses using an internal social/collaboration tool ranked it as the number one IT solution that has the greatest value for their business, second only to 5G, which was ranked number one by 51% of small businesses. Platforms such as Google docs and Slack make it easier for teams to collaborate in real-time. Collaborators no longer have to save multiple versions of the same document and reshare over and over. 

Audience Targeting and Segmentation: Using social media sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and others, small businesses can gain robust insights directly into their audience. Through hosted meetups, live events, and other digital content initiatives, this technology can provide on-the-spot analytics and aid with the creation of outreach lists. 

Improving Work Life Balance: Implementing the right technology also enables small businesses to maintain a work-life balance. Improved network connectivity allows employees to work remotely from home. Many organizations have full or partial remote offices. Time saved commuting gives employees time back.  

Doing Business Online: If you’re like Aberdeen’s parent company, Spiceworks Ziff Davis, then you’re fully adept at doing business online, remotely, from any location. This provides employees with the ability for flexible scheduling through AI calendars, project management, and even e-commerce solutions. 

All these benefits not only increase the bottom line, they make people’s lives easier, ultimately allowing them to do their jobs more efficiently. 

With Great Technology Comes Great Responsibility 

Going back to the second top-3 priority for small businesses, strengthening cybersecurity defenses, technology trends are driving fundamental changes in the way organizations operate — according to Aberdeen’s Head of Cybersecurity, Derek Brink [read full KB] — which in turn have created new and broader challenges for cybersecurity. Two key examples: a rapid rise in remote workers, and expanding use of cloud computing.

In the earliest days of the global pandemic, many organizations moved quickly to support an off-premises, work-from-home model. Today, more than 50% of all organizations across the globe plan to support a full or partial remote workforce indefinitely. 

At the same time, many companies are also accelerating their adoption of cloud infrastructure, endpoint and mobile security, application security, and Zero-Trust architectures. In a recent research piece on Zero-Trust, Aberdeen’s Jim Rapoza explains, “as the nature of work changes and employees embrace hybrid and even full-time work-from-home realities, organizations are seeing increases in flexibility, agility, and productivity.” Much of the workforce is no longer in a traditional on-premises setting, and the same can increasingly be said for the computing infrastructure, applications, and data that supports them.  

Focus on the Specific Tech for YOUR Small Business 

When it all boils down at the end of the day, everyone’s priorities are different by size, age, and industry, as Aberdeen data demonstrates — there’s no one-size-fits-all package. So, the best technology gameplan to make your small business unstoppable is to do what’s best for YOU while following the guidelines in Aberdeen’s research.

Learn More about Aberdeen’s Small Business Research and Where Your Company Stands in its Tech Maturity