Thanks to advanced technologies, SMBs can now compete with their much larger counterparts. They can use technology to reduce business costs, secure sensitive information, improve communication processes, and broaden their customer bases. They can also use it to improve business productivity, giving them a competitive edge through greater efficiency and versatility.

To be productive, employees need easy and immediate access to business information, data, and their fellow workers. Mobile and cloud-based technologies are helping to strategically align an organization’s business vision, focus, and infrastructures. Identifying the technologies that unlock these benefits for your business supports your productivity efforts, while staying within your budget.

How Advanced Technology Helps with Business Productivity

Over 80% of SMBs say the use of technology has contributed to their current success. Nearly 45% say using digital tools in their business improves employee satisfaction in the workplace. Time-tracking software, email management, project management, and task management tools are just some of the technologies they’re adopting to boost business productivity.

From investing in cloud-based business telephone systems to connecting dispersed workforces and improving collaboration, here are just some of the ways companies are using tech solutions to thrive and prosper in increasingly competitive markets.

• Data and information security. Information security is essential at a time when data breaches, cyber threats, and outdated firewall exploitation are rampant.
• Cloud computing. Cloud services allow employees to access company data and applications from just about anywhere at any time and on any device. SaaS or software as a service solutions are a popular choice for SMBs as they’re a cost-effective and scalable way to improve employee productivity while you stay focused on growing your business.
• Customer relationship management. When you improve customer loyalty, engagement, and retention, you also enhance productivity by simplifying client management through data centralization. Employees have 24/7 access and a 360-degree view of customers in real-time and can quickly and accurately support customer requests while driving value, engagement, and sales.
• Application integration. SMBs often site integration difficulties as one of the top three obstacles they face in implementing a digital transformation. As strong integration is key to unlocking the value of digital technologies, many businesses are finding ways to simplify the process so they can make better data-driven decisions.
• Mobile business applications. SMBs are using mobile file-sharing, accounting, document-editing, industry-specific, and security apps to better run their operations effortlessly and productively.
• Employee collaboration. Collaboration tools enable in-house and remote workers to share documents easily and stay connected, a key element of maintaining productivity.  

How to Implement, Maintain and Upgrade Technology Within Your Business

There are somewhere around 30 million companies with fewer than 500 employees in the U.S., and they represent approximately 99.7% of all business. The use of digital tools can help every SMB improve business productivity and respond to changes in the business and customer landscapes in an agile manner.

SMB budgets are tight, especially where IT is concerned. One of the most effective and cost-efficient ways for businesses with limited resources to leverage the latest technologies is to outsource business functions like technical support. Outsourcing allows your business to upgrade its technology without having to invest in new hardware and software solutions and upgrades. By outsourcing functions like cloud computing, software updates, cybersecurity, business applications, and projects outside your internal staff’s scope of expertise, you can let someone else automate and handle tedious and repetitive tasks while also boosting productivity and saving money.

When you work with an experienced IT managed services provider, you get all the advantages of having knowledgeable experts support your digital transformation efforts while you stay focused on more important responsibilities, like sales, customer service, and more, without hiring more in-house employees.