How Does Technology Affect Business

Technology affects us all. Technology can catapult a business into success or destroy it. The technological environment of a business is the external factors in technology that impact business operations. Changes in technology affect how a firm will do business. Although technology trends seem to come and go quickly, some have a lasting impact on business. These are ones that change the way businesses operate and provide huge improvement for those that adopt them. Such technologies help firms become operationally agile and responsive, increase efficiency and improve outcomes. Innovative technology also empowers managers and staff to operate their businesses more effectively. Some experts are now predicting that our technological knowledge will
Companies are using technology solutions to improve their firm’s productivity in some business functions to gain a competitive advantage against competitors that produce similar products. If companies can produce similar products at cheaper prices because of increased productivity due to new technology innovation then this is a big success for technology. Marketing can be achieved by placing advertisements that reach millions of buyers on the internet or through social networking sites. New technology can not only speed processes up, or allow flexible new ways of working, but can transform how your business works, and can often save you time and money. Small businesses can also compete with large businesses by being more swift and agile. Additionally, a small business can respond to change faster than a large business. Years ago, electronic mail did not exist and the only way to communicate with someone else in a different location around the world was by postal service, the further away your customer or supplier, the longer the communication would take. Today, with the advance of information technology, information is shared at an astounding rate. This saves time, meaning a business is able to make decisions
For example, bookkeeping functions now can be handled by software applications such as ‘QuickBooks’. Sales can also be handled automatically through contact management sites such as ‘SalesForce’. This gives the business the ability to focus on other things and cut down on wage expenses.
Technology allows for the management, collection, and reporting of your customer data. There is no better purpose for a business than to provide a good experience to customers and technology helps provide the resources needed to manage customer data. Customer data can be used for customer service activities, marketing, product development, customer surveys, and to improve the activities that are needed to make your customers satisfied and enjoy dealing with your business.
Though we like the advantages that come with technology at work there are many ways in which technology can impact negatively on a business. The use of social networking sites at work can cause a lot of distraction and it affects the productivity of employees. Some companies have decided to block access to specific websites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, because of the distraction they cause. Other business technologies which cause distraction at work include smartphones, computers and virtual meeting applications like