Regardless of what you do in life, it’s undeniable that technology affects us all. From basic conveniences such as cooking a meal to taking a bath, from something more complex such as traveling from country to country- we owe all of these to innovations and technology.
But perhaps the one that benefits the most with technological advancements in the field of business. Technology and business have long been intertwined, and both fields further each other.
Technology affects business on a molecular level: it creates new opportunities and improves old services (or renders them obsolete). No matter the industry, everyone benefits from its growth and advancement. However, an exciting advantage that technology brings is making a business accessible. Yes, starting, managing, using, enjoying the benefits of business is all the more convenient because of technology.
In this article, we will take a look at the larger implications of technology on business, how it affects us all and how it can affect you and your company.
More Efficient and More Productive Work Operations
Imagine a warehouse filled with endless shelves of products. Keeping track of the inventory would probably sound like a major chore that requires multiple employees to maintain and hours and hours of labor. Luckily, with advancements in inventory management, even large warehouses can function with a limited number of employees. We can see this at work in the case of companies such as Amazon. With robots automating most of the work, requiring only human interference for checking and maintenance, inventory management has never been easier. Goods are sorted and managed at a faster rate, resulting in customers and clients receiving their orders faster and accurately.
Customer Contact and Correspondence
Years ago, customer service and feedback were manual- it required customers to send letters of what their service experience was (and to receive one mostly meant that it wasn’t good), or the customers had to physically go to the shop to receive service. Then the telephone came and offered real-time assistance and help. Customers can call and file a complaint or ask questions, and companies were better off knowing how to improve their products. Fast forward to today, companies regularly communicate with their customers through social media. Clients and customers can freely share their opinions (giving rise to review culture), influencing other customers on their purchasing decisions. For companies, this allows them to understand what their target demographic wants (and, to some extend, needs) and adjust accordingly.
Accessibility and Empowerment
Nowadays, anyone can start a business with almost zero capital. As long as you have a skill or a service to offer and a platform to offer it to, there will always be customers. Individuals buying and selling niche hobby items such as action figures, musical instruments, or even athletic gear can now turn a side job into a lucrative business.
Start-ups rich in skill but lack hardware can rent shared offices to house their employees and create a working environment. Even marketing and advertisement can be DIY’ed, thanks to the power of user-based social media platforms. Technology has made business more accessible, be it from the service provider’s end or the consumer’s end.
Cloud Computing and Retail Manufacturing
One of the major difficulties of starting a business is the lack of hardware to manufacture the product or even accomplish efficient workflow. But with the technological advancements available to the world, the idea of ‘imagine and create’ is now more possible than ever. Manufacturers are now willing to take small orders as small businesses with smaller production needs run a-plenty. Even computational requirements that necessitate expensive computer components can now be done via cloud computing. The result is that even small businesses can compete with large companies in terms of product quality.
Financial Technology Makes Money Move Faster
The advent of highly efficient, consumer-grade financial technology meant one thing: people can spend faster. We can now purchase whatever and whenever we want, removing natural barriers such as time and place. This has made commerce all the more lively, with transactions happening at any given moment.
Making fund transfers has never been more convenient, managing finances online has never been safer, and the online economy has become a force to be reckoned with. Online shopping or e-commerce now counts for most of the world’s individual purchases, as most find it more convenient than going to a physical store. While this has resulted in a decline of physical shops, it gave birth to a whole new ecosystem of online sellers and retailers.
