The name of the game is ...
As Facebook has now rebranded as Meta - encompassing all the platforms they now own (Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp) and Sky have launched their intelligent TV, you could be eagerly looking forward to more innovation. However, technology isn't dashing ahead as quickly as has been predicted.
The advances that actively aid business management and growth are few. HMRC launched Making Tax Digital (MTD) some years back, but it's still not quite there yet. Software packages like Sage, Xero, Quickbooks and other similar systems definitely integrate with bank accounts and the HMRC digital system, but they could do so much more.
Collaboration is one of the most frequently heard buzzwords from solo pop-stars creating music together to businesses pooling resources to improve outcomes for all parties. But what about collaboration between different software packages?
At present, if you want your helpdesk to report the number of calls per client to your costing system, you'll need to pay the heavy fees needed to get the two systems to communicate accurately.
For instance, wouldn't it be useful if your stock management is recorded in financial terms so wastage doesn't just disappear into the ether, but is taken into account in the costings? It's great to know exactly what you have in stock - but it needs to translate into your management accounts too.
Integration is available for many online platforms, so AWeber (email marketing) will talk to HubSpot (CRM and marketing) - but these integrations are less common for business packages. For many small businesses, choosing a CRM or other software is dependent on which other software it will integrate with.
Even the financial processing options like Stripe, PayPal and Shopify all have different ways of providing information and this can result in multiple transactions that need to be manually edited for the accounting system to make sense. This is particularly problematic when it comes to international transactions with fees and exchange rates being added to the actual transaction. In some systems this arrives as a series of different transactions, in others as a single lump sum amount. This situation is desperately in need of some smart programming being applied.
So, if the metaverse is listening, that's where we'd like to see some changes to provide flexible and easily integrated solutions.
Taking tech too far
Life is very different to how it was even ten years ago - people seem to have almost replaced good old email with WhatsApp or Telegram. It's easy to ask a quick question in a WhatsApp post instead of sending an email - and there lies a challenge.
WhatsApp (and similar apps) is based on private phone numbers so there's no company record. Unlike email where the message is accessible to the business, WhatsApp messages are only seen by the people directly communicating.
If you have several different people in one organisation working with a client you can fall into the situation of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing! Private messages mean some people are literally out of the loop - with no audit trail to follow.
When it comes to tech - keep it professional and ensure that advice, requests and information is provided to and accessible to everyone involved.