Whether a start-up or an existing small business, they have realized that modern technologies empower them to be on the same platform as that of medium/large enterprises or the multi-national companies. Though some SMB’s are reluctant to introduce technology in their enterprises, many start-ups have shown interest in leveraging the latest technology to cut on the IT operational costs and also to streamline their management tasks.
There is a growing trend among new entrepreneurs to use the latest cool useful gadgets and technologies to propel their enterprise to new heights. This has led to rapid evolution of the virtualization technology. Let’s have a look at the top five small business technology trends.
1. Tablets such as iPad are one of the devices that are commonly used by the new generation entrepreneurs and those from the older generation, who love to bring about change. Today, the touch screen operated computers offer a wonderful browsing experience. They also have many specialized applications that are necessary to carry out their day-to-day business transactions. Tablets are used by those who use social media extensively for business or personal purposes. The reasons that many entrepreneurs gave are: tablets are portable and more compact than laptops.
•They come with numerous features, which make it friendly for small business owners who are always on the move.
•Another reason is that the battery life of tablets is longer than that of laptops. However, this depends on the type of applications used.
• Last but not the least, you can store thousands of e-books and PDF files in tablets.
2. Mobile Phone Internet is the one that is currently in vogue among many young entrepreneurs. Mobile phone Internet has given rise to mobile commerce. There is a promising future in this commerce, and many apps are currently being developed specifically for mobile social media and business networking. Today, many of the employees work away from office i.e.they are remote workers. You can connect to your mobile workers through the company network devices such as mobile phones or personal digital assistants. Mobility increases productivity by improvising communication and collaboration.
3. Blue-tooth technology is used by those start-up owners who are running their businesses on a shoestring budget. Blue-tooth technology is used for short range wireless connections. The advantage of using Blue-tooth is that you can connect two or more devices that are not of the same model. Since this technology uses a technique called frequency hopping, you can avoid interference from other wireless devices. Since the Blue tooth uses low power signal, the energy consumption is very low. Blue-tooth technology is widely used and is here to stay for years to come.
4. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) cloud services is another latest technology commonly used by the start-ups and small business owners. SMBs are increasingly investing in applications in cloud technology to cut costs on software and hardware.While using the applications on cloud, you need to pay only for what you have used. It is similar to paying your utility bill. Though data security is a growing concern among the cloud users, using online tools such as invoicing, project management, Human Resource management and many more is the growing trend.
5. Android devices are commonly used by entrepreneurs because they are inexpensive and you can connect devices such as Motorola Droid Pro key boards to it. Android is highly recommended for the small/medium business owners because the OS is Linux which is an open source code. Android phone is compatible with hardware devices from different vendors.Here you can buy an android phone and choose the applications and devices that best suit your business at a reasonable price.
One of the trends that are currently seen in many companies is that the employees prefer to use their tools instead of the ones provided by the company. The companies will soon have to make employee policies and guidelines for those workers who use their personal devices to access the corporate network and data.
