We’ve talked about business solutions and tips for business users here on Techburgeon.com. In a previous article, we discussed how you can keep your small business account safe. That article – and some of the responses we got in return – made us realize how businesses now rely heavily on technology, particularly cloud computing.

Some solutions are more transformative than the others. There are some interesting new ways technology is affecting businesses around the world. From cloud computing to automation, here are the interesting effects technology has had on the business world.

Conferencing

Remote working was not so popular a few years ago, but that doesn’t mean people are not working remotely. In fact, conference calls and video conferencing were among the most absorbed solutions on the market. Everyone loves the ability to conduct meetings without actually being in the same meeting room.

Today, conferencing has been transformed into a more comprehensive solution. Instead of using conventional landlines, video conferences can be done using IP and internet connectivity. A secure conference call is easy thanks to encryption, private hotlines, pins, and other advanced features. It is even possible to share screens while in a conference call.

Business in the Cloud

Business solutions are no longer available only to large corporations. In the old days, only big enterprises can afford the large investments required to get a business solution implemented. Today, the same solutions are available as a service (SaaS), giving small and medium enterprise access to the same comprehensive suites and business solutions.

Solutions like Salesforce for customer relationship management are now used by home businesses operating e-commerce sites. They are available for free or for a small monthly fee, and small businesses are benefiting from them the most.

The biggest transformation brought by the SaaS business model is a change in the playing field. These cloud solutions don’t just streamline businesses across the globe; they also create a level playing field for everyone. The resources are just as accessible, and any business can operate seamlessly in the cloud.

Advanced Data Analysis

If you are a business owner or a professional, you are definitely familiar with buzzwords like data-driven, big data, and data science. These are more than just buzzwords because the implementation of data analysis across business processes has changed many things over the years.

Data-driven decision-making, for instance, is made possible thanks to more sources of data and capable cloud computing clusters with plenty of resources. If you have used Google Assistant on your phone, you are interacting with the result of machine learning by artificial intelligence, all thanks to massive amounts of data.

Businesses also have the ability to understand their operations as well as the market better. Data is everything; those with access to relevant and contextual data will lead the market and gain a competitive advantage.

Better Security

The shift towards operating in the cloud is not without its challenges. As more small and medium enterprises began to rely on cloud solutions, the number of cyberattacks targeting small and medium businesses started to grow as well. Everyone is a potential target.

That growth in cyberattack incidents created an unexpectedly positive result: better security awareness. Business and private users are more actively involved in securing their data, online activities, and other aspects of their digital lives.

For businesses, access to better security is made possible thanks to the SaaS business model too. Once again, small and medium enterprises don’t have to invest big in hardware-based security measures or run a team of security experts in-house. Every security layer is added as a service on top of comprehensive cloud infrastructure.

Business on the Go

Then, we have the mobile devices we use every day. Our smartphones are more capable than ever; they are inseparable from the everyday routines we do. Since smartphones are now essential in the lives of virtually everyone, it is not surprising to find mobile devices being used as endpoints in business processes.

Modern business solutions are designed from the ground up to be mobile-friendly. Systems like SAP for enterprise resource planning, Salesforce for CRM, QuickBooks for accounting, and many other store mission-critical data in the cloud. The same solutions can be accessed using any remote device, including smartphones and tablets.

If remote working wasn’t so popular before, it is certainly more than possible today. Sales executives, for example, can quickly generate quotes, get them approved, and present them to prospective clients, all while commuting from one client to the next. With the solutions integrated, the possibilities are endless.

Automation Leads the Way

That brings us to the biggest advancement of them all: automation. Yes, artificial intelligence is great; it already helps businesses perform complex analysis and deal with other tasks seamlessly. Machine learning is also interesting since it allows AI to learn from the business and other sources of information in an autonomous way.

The real key to the future, however, is automation. Mundane tasks can now be automated, either with the help of AI or by setting a series of routines triggered by a simple action. Regardless of the approach, automation completes these mundane tasks without human input. There are many data science online course options to take that include automation as a subject. You can find one.

There is a big implication to using automation in business. Instead of allocating resources and asking employees to do things like filing a report, creating a purchase order, and generating invoices, all of these everyday tasks can be fully automated.

In an integrated ecosystem, an order from a big customer can automatically trigger production planning, order raw materials, logistics planning, and reporting, all in one seamless go. No more manual input at every turn. Automation allows businesses to operate at several times their capacity without expanding their team or scaling up.

Automation in the cloud is every more powerful due to the always-on nature of cloud computing. The combination allows businesses to be incredibly lean and incredibly competitive on the market. At the end of the day, all of the new business technologies we discussed in this article will be amplified by automation. If you want your business to lead tomorrow, use these solutions today.

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