How has the previous year’s technological advances changed the way you run your business, if at all?
1. We Have More Remote Workers
We have been able to add more remote workers because technology is making it so easy to manage teams and projects with people located all over. Each year it gets easier because of improved applications. Businesses should look into transitioning a lot of their workforce to a remote model. – Jonathan Long, Market Domination Media
2. We Use Cheap, Cloud-Based Data Storage
We have switched our file storage completely to Google Drive and Dropbox. They are very cheap and apps are available for Mac, PC and mobile to control and view all files. Earlier, saving data on multiple devices and transferring it was a nightmare. A few years ago it was only possible with SharePoint or expensive tools. Now it’s off the shelf and we can apply user policies to access the data. – Piyush Jain, SIMpalm
3. The Online B2B Business Landscape Has Shifted
While online storefronts and shopping carts have radically altered the consumer retail space over the past decade, B2B online portals were neglected and underwhelming. That’s finally changing, and we’re excited for the way this tide shift will improve our customer relations and selling opportunities. NuOrder, the company we are working with, is one of the game-changers for wholesale in 2016. –Erica Easley, Gumball Poodle
4. We Use More API Integrations and Automated Processes
We are in the business of custom systems consultation. We have received many more integration requests between third party systems this year, so we had to implement additional measures to make sure our web services could handle all these automation tasks. We also had to learn about a bunch of CRM, inventory management and custom e-commerce systems. Our developers had to build new execution schedules. – Duran Inci, Optimum7
5. We Have Focused on Marketing Automation
Marketing automation was a big push for us last year. Now that we have it in place, we can attribute revenue accurately back to its lead source. This grants us the ability to calculate an exact return on investment across our marketing investments to optimize where we’re spending time and money. – Christopher Kelly, Convene
6. Facebook Ads Continue to Get More and More Effective
2015 represented another innovative year for Facebook, especially the Facebook ads platform. With a new reporting and analytics platform also came enhancements to targeting abilities and a more powerful audience network. Audience campaigns allow you to micro-target audiences of your selection, while look-alike campaigns allow you to scale proven audiences and performance. – Kristopher Jones, LSEO.com
7. We Are Focusing More on Mobile
Last year, Google had a major push towards making the web mobile, as the number of mobile searches increases by the day. We worked on making sure all of our properties are lightning fast and mobile optimized. We created an app version of our software and have plans for new apps to develop in the future. The mobile web will continue to demand tools, and wearables will be the next frontier. – Marcela DeVivo, Homeselfe
8. I Use X.ai to Schedule All My Meetings
X.ai
, also known as Amy, now schedules all my meetings. It’s an amazing (and free!) artificial intelligence tool that handles scheduling just like a real (human!) assistant would, with 100 percent accuracy. It’s saved lots of time and headaches, and I recommend it to all my founder friends. – Brittany Hodak, ZinePak
9. Payment Is Now a Breeze
There were so many strong advances in 2015 when it comes to payment options and applications that there really is no limit to how our clients and customers pay for our services. Breakthroughs such as Apple Pay and chip-card technology have made it possible for us to reach new, global consumers that feel much more secure when paying for their subscriptions or upgrades. – Miles Jennings, Recruiter.com
10. JavaScript Is Taking Off
JavaScript is really beginning to solidify its place as the dominate coding language it should be. We could not be more excited. Our developers specialize in JavaScript and we truly believe it’s the way of the future. – Christopher Swenor, East Coast Product
11. We Are More Connected Than Ever With Slack
We run a virtual team operating in 10 different countries, and all of our staff are fast-paced Millennials. Slack is the perfect tool to reduce the number of emails we send. It keeps us in closer communication as if we were all sitting in the same office. It’s great for building team culture and camaraderie because of it’s short, informal nature. Our team stays hyper-informed with Slack. – Matt Wilson, Under30Experiences
12. We’ve Increased Productivity and Personalization
In this last year, my team has worked using AlignToday to track priorities and Slack to communicate about various projects, which has played a large role in increasing our productivity. We have also used a new Twitter solution that allows us to segment and personalize ads to specific target audiences so that we can better serve our clients. – David Tomas, Cyberclick
This article was written for Business 2 Community by James Spillane.
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