How the latest technology influences the structure of SMEs

Companies nowadays have a wide array of resources, tools and online platforms to explore for a potential venture. Depending on what market and industry to target, you will have to know beforehand the type of business you want to create and invest.

Technology offers unlimited possibilities and avenues to really make a buzz with your products or services. The use of technology does influence the size of the business (small-, medium-sized and enterprise) since each type of entity has different needs and demands to operate efficiently and profitably.

The technology utilized by a large enterprise is quite a contrast to what sort of tech a small business entity will deploy. For starters, a large enterprise or corporation will operate with a robust infrastructure that perhaps combines central servers and others in the cloud.

A smaller business will not have the necessary revenue and cash available on hand to operate with something quite complex. If they have a physical store, they must worry about paying employees, rent of the space, equipment, etc.

The use of certain technologies allows for any of the previously mentioned entities to expand if they find opportunity costs. The next sections will discuss opportunities for businesses to grow and how technology impacts a business depending on its size.

Technology use in the small business space

Unlike a small medium-sized business, enterprise or a corporation, a small business must maximize efforts on every turn. Otherwise, it will shut the doors and cease to operate. Thankfully, they do not have to invest in every single piece of technology.

According to the Houston Chronicle, “Technology has the potential to affect small business in positive and adverse ways, depending on the goals a business has in place, the products they chose to use, and how well entrepreneurs and their employees adapt to new systems.”

For example, the post goes on to explain that new businesses or startups do not have to go the brick and mortar store. They can instead set up an online store and grow their business over time without investing a ton of capital to equip such a store. All you need is some basic training in IT and HTML. In addition, buy a domain to get operations going.

What is beneficial with technology is now you can share and collaborate from a distance. With email and instant messenger tools, you do not have to be in the same physical location. You can coordinate and work remotely from different parts of the country or the world.

The following infographic explains some of the small business technology trends:

(Infographic from TSM Marketing via Inside Small Business)

As we can observe, small businesses have access to smart inventory management systems, analytics tools for intelligence, automated workforce, apps, and more.

There are technology tools that are free or affordable for a business. Figuring out what makes sense for an organization will depend on what products and services they wish to promote.

Trends in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

The story or narrative is quite different with these types of businesses given their size and available means.

A Forbes report offers some insight into the growing trends within this portion of the market. SMEs will be spending more on software subscription services and new software. Larger enterprises will allocate more to maintenance and consultations.

A noteworthy mention is SMEs are driving the highest levels of cloud computing adoption. This means lots of companies are becoming more data-driven and expanding business intelligence (BI). With most customers connecting via the web with mobile devices, enterprises should track, collect and analyze the data from customers to understand buying behaviors.

Takeaways and conclusions

The amount of available technology and emerging tools has allowed businesses to expand rapidly. The internet platform powered by mobile devices and vast high-speed connections has made ushered infinite possibilities.

Technology indirectly does shape how a business will operate, and promote its services. If you are unsure what route to pursue always seek out industry experts. They can offer insight and all the logistics that include how to go about launching a business with the necessary technology.

Whatever the resources that you have options exist. Be mindful of providing world-class customer service and harnessing the latest technology to catapult the business to the next successful phase.

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DISCLAIMER: This article expresses my own ideas and opinions. Any information I have shared are from sources that I believe to be reliable and accurate. I did not receive any financial compensation in writing this post, nor do I own any shares in any company I’ve mentioned. I encourage any reader to do their own diligent research first before making any investment decisions.