Implementation of new technologies or ICT (Information and communications technology) has been increasing productivity at work, in large business as well as in small ones. For sure you are already a user of them, let me tell how the work.

Companies are trying to improve, standardize and automate their processes as much as possible from the very beginning. Reducing manual work is a challenge when you get used to it, as it happens in small and familiar business. Every employee that works in a familiar business is responsible for multiple tasks, from production to customer service and from procurement to billing. Being a small group of people you have to minimize the usage of their time in clerical stuff, it’s really worth it to take your time to plan and get the most out of your people, giving them tools to accomplish their tasks more effectively. This will bring them more joy at work as they will be able to multitask much better, in an organized way, while delivering a faster, cheaper and better service to customers: that is improving quality.

How can you leverage your business with ICTs?

As per Wikipedia, ICT  is often used as an extended synonym for information technology (IT), but is a more specific term that stresses the role of unified communications and the integration of telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals), computers as well as necessary enterprise software, middleware, storage, and audio-visual systems, which enable users to access, store, transmit, and manipulate information. You are probably already using internet, phone, Ipads, whatsapp, Facebook, Linkedin, blogs and e-commerce platforms to sell your products and communicate with internal and external customers. There are also most sophisticated softwares that SME’s are starting to implement as well, such a ERP’s (Enterprise Resource Planning) and CRM tools (Customer Relationship Management). Some years ago it was hard for SME’s to follow tech trends, but nowadays is easier, free in many cases and can make you save a lot of money by improving the quality of your services.

How can quality be improved?

ICT have the power of transforming from manufacturing processes to accounting by increasing automation, reducing at the same time manual errors, helping to standardize processes and making them more user friendly. A lot of “one person” business have even became micro-multinational companies selling product and service through these tools. An example of it is explained by Manu Vora ASQ member who discusses in his blog post how he utilizes technology like Google Hangouts and webinars to transfer quality knowledge throughout the world.

Below I share a list of some of these apps:

· Paypal, to make and receive payments. I write for a blog in Spain destinonegocio.com who pays in euros through an account in Paypal.

· Skype y Gmail Hangouts for videoconferences

· WhatsApp to make it easier to contact your customers. Nowadays not only retailers but also journalists are using this tool to promote their business. In Argentina people don’t use email anymore for business, cellphone apps like WhatsApp and the facebook messenger are accelerating the contact with the potential customers, making feel them closer, and available 24-7.

· Youtube, Vine and Wideo to promote business creatively. Videos are today the most appealing way to capture potential customer’s attention, and communicate our products in a simple and intuitive format. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlnLbOgPcdU

· e-Bay, Amazon, Mercado Libre, and Alibaba to buy and sell all around the world

· Web sites, Linkedin and Pulse, Facebook, Google Ads and blogs are used to communicate with customers, to keep them updated on what you do, share knowledge and promote your products and services

· Mailchimp to send newsletters to current and potential customers

· Muarl.ly is used to brainstorm online and enhance collaboration. Interviewing the CEO Mariano Suarez Battan he said that “Mural.ly was brought to life to solve a problem I had when I was designing a video game with an interdisciplinary team that was collaborating remotely. I needed something to help me collect information in one place so that I could organize my thoughts, but also to share what was inside my head with my team in a space where they could give feedback and we could get things moving.”

· Trello y Google calendar to organize events and tasks, individually or across teams.

· ERP’s. A business implemented an ERP to improve management of customer claims. Once implemented, The ERP reduced the time to respond to customer 25 to 12 days, manage 2500 orders a month instead of 300, reduced costs 50% and help them to standardize processes reducing the amount of claim types from 300 to 25, making it easier to train employees to handle them.

· Cloud computing which provide users and enterprises with various capabilities to store and process their data in third-party data centers. Dropbox and Google apps (Corporate Gmail, Google drive, contacts, calendar, docs, hangouts, intranets and blogger) are great tools for this. You can have your documents everywhere you go, and still they are safe, and cane be available for others in your team if you wish.

What is actually good for SME’s and entrepreneurs about these tools is that they are free or require a low investment, they are flexible so you can leave or upgrade them based on your actual needs. You can increase or decrease users access fast, no matter where you are and no matter where they are, considering lot of entrepreneurs work from home or hire employees who work remotely.

Disadvantages

Disadvantages? Yes, of course there are some as well. But most of them are related to connectivity issues that companies or locations may have, and the fear of any information security issues. Usually security is high, but a lot of people, mostly in developing countries are still afraid of sharing credit card numbers or strategic information online, which I guess through time it will continue to be enhanced.

Some tips: Keep Calm and PDSA on

· Plan for innovation, providing time, people and resources

· Do: Be flexible, train your team be flexible too and adapt to the changing environment and always communicate. Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram and blog posts must be your best Friends. No matter if you have not got any new customers thought them, they increase buzz about your business, therefore visibility, and instant contact with potential customers.

· Study: Monitor your competitors, tools they use (social networks are great for that without your competitors even noticing it) and measure your success: Google analytics, “Likes” shares, Facebook and Linkedin performance reports are very useful in letting us know how are we going in regards to getting to know our customers and satisfying their needs.

· Act: learn from your mistakes. Results can be measured quickly so you can act even more quickly. Don’t get frustrated if something goes wrong, just keep pivoting like Eric Ries recommends in Lean startup. Just in case, reduce your risks: save your passwords and make them difficult to be hacked, perform information back-ups periodically, protect your intellectual property and train your team in information security.

What ITC’s do you use? You are very welcome to share your technology tips so that we all improve the quality of our business!

Luciana Paulise

CEO Biztorming Training and Consulting