Remember the time when computers were new, and people weren’t convinced they really needed one? If you’re too young to relate to this, just imagine an office without digital software, where the most sophisticated piece of equipment was a calculator. There were those who didn’t trust those either or preferred to add things up by writing columns of figures on sheets of paper.
Then came a plastic TV-type object that took up half the space of the desk, but on which the words and figures on the screen were not the same as what came out of the printer. A breakthrough called WYSIWYG was required to make that adjustment, what you see is what you get. It sounds bizarre, but it progressed, and in our enlightened times, there is progress that is still passing many people by. Technology is a constantly moving phenomenon that offers us new possibilities all the time, and the only question is how soon or how late we will jump on the bandwagon.
Analysis
Analytics is a fashionable word now, even though it is one of the tools needed for modern business, you don’t buy it in a box, wrapped in cellophane. You get it installed in your computer system and it analyses everything under the sun. If you’ve ever wondered where the sports pundits come up with their weird and wonderful information about this is the first time since some year that someone scored a dunk against a southern team on a Wednesday when it was raining, this is how they get such gems to tell us.
While that may be all about filling space and time when they’ve got nothing else to say, the software that can come up with that sort of detail can certainly give you insights that can be helpful in a business context. So, let’s give technology something worthwhile to do let’s harness it to bring benefits to our businesses. Let’s use it for what it’s good at, which is identifying patterns and trends so we can understand things better, predicting and enabling good developments, while heading off trouble before it hits.
Technology can analyze the performance of your website. It can tell you who looked at it, at what time of day, which parts they looked at, and which they scrolled past. It can even tell you which browser they used. What you do with that information is down to you, but it may make you understand why this is happening and give you a sense of what’s not working.
Electric Vehicles & Fleet Management Software
Sooner or later, the gasoline fueled internal combustion engine is going to be consigned to history, and the change is happening already. That means when the time comes to replace your company vehicles, you should be assessing EVs (electric vehicles) to see how they can help your business. There is plenty to learn in this area. How easy is it to charge an EV, where you can do it, how many miles will that give you, and so on?
The issue of electric car range is important and EVs could be right for you now, or they could be right next year as further developments are made. With company vehicles, there is software that can revolutionize your fleet management. It can tell you where your vehicles are right now, where they have been, how they got there, and how fast they were driven. You can find out a lot in this way, and again, what you do with the information is your business, but it can be used to improve efficiency, save money, and increase sales – whatever the issue for you.
You are probably already covered in communicating with your staff when they’re out and about, and hands-free mobile communication was certainly a groundbreaker in that respect, but it doesn’t end there. The forward-thinking businessperson is always alert and looking for opportunities to improve in every department, so it may be worth talking to an IT expert about what is on the horizon, or already available, that could help in some way you’ve maybe never really thought about.
Image Credit: Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash