In the 80’s and 90’s, big businesses began handing out laptop personal computers to many key employees. But at $3,500 apiece in some cases, these devices were hardly on the radar for small to mid-sized organizations looking for computing power. Still, as popularity increased and competition drove prices down, it was not too long before small business – and the average consumer – could purchase one of their own for approximately $500.
In similar fashion, small to midsized business can often watch the big business trends and begin to prepare for the right moment to adopt that innovation into their business plan. There are a few factors to consider when doing so.
How to Determine the Right Time to Adopt a New Trend
- How Much Does it Cost? The most prohibitive factor for many new technologies is the cost – usually when a new product or capability is unveiled, it can be quite pricey. This means by default that the biggest companies with the most resources will be the first to utilize the newest trends. By watching their experiences, and listening to their feedback, smaller companies can learn a lot about the adaptability of the product or service to their company – when the price is right. But price is not the only factor to consider.
- Is it Worth It to Us? Being able to afford the newest tool should never be the sole reason to invest in it. There must be a way to tangibly determine your ROI (return on investment) and if this product or service will help your business. You may be looking to streamline a process, eliminate some overhead, or be more customer-friendly than your competitor; but whatever your goal, if the trending new product won’t help you get there, you probably don’t need it. Conversely, if you can see a reduction in operating costs, or an increase in customer satisfaction which results in more loyalty and more sales – it may be worth it.
- Can it Be Scaled Correctly? There may be times when the newest trend seems perfect to solve a need for your small business, but the solution itself would be overkill. If the newest hot innovation requires you to purchase far more than you need – and you don’t see yourself growing into that capacity anytime soon – it may not be the best for you.
How Managed Services Can Help You With New Trends
All of the above concerns can actually be addressed with the help of a managed services firm. Experts who have knowledge regarding the emerging technology can assist in applying these big business trends to smaller companies in several ways:
- By reviewing your current technology and business plans, IT professionals can determine if this emerging technology will be of value to you, and help you to budget time, resource and money towards its implementation.
- They can then help you to assess ROI, and to clearly see how this new product or service will help you to achieve your goals.
- Perhaps the best way a managed services firm can help you is with economies of scale. For instance, when organizations had no choice but to purchase multiple servers for different applications – such as an email server and an accounts payable server – very often a lot of processing power was going to waste. Server virtualization – the ability for multiple companies to share the same server utilizing partitioning – came along, it allowed smaller organizations to use the server power big business was profiting from, but at a much lower cost.
If you are looking for ways to take advantage of the big business trends without spending your entire IT budget, call Alliance IT. We are here to help small to mid-sized business to operate at their most efficient and profitable, every day.
