When it comes to company management, all organizations have a core set of business processes. These are present regardless of the size of the enterprise or the industry in which it is in. Examples include customer retention and acquisition strategies, employee recruitment and development, financial management, and product innovation. In layman’s terms, they are known as the marketing, human resources, management, and production departments.
But what is the role of technology in these and other facets of a firm’s operations?
The answer can be divided into several parts. First, technology enables business processes to run more quickly and efficiently. Second, developments in artificial intelligence and automation help companies reduce labor and employee training costs. Finally, solutions like cloud computing systems and business collaboration tools maximize output. For instance, a machine can calculate hundreds of columns of information on a spreadsheet more than a million times faster than a human being.
Having said that, let us look at three specific ways in which technology can optimize business processes and lead organizations towards successful growth.
Data Management
Whether it is for accounting, sales, or marketing, all organizations have innumerable amounts of data they have to collect, process, and store daily. As a result, they need solutions that are heavy-duty, expeditious, and reliable.
Unfortunately, they cannot do this themselves. For one, they don’t have the technology to put in place these solutions. Also, several small and medium-sized corporations cannot allot exorbitant amounts of financial resources for setup and maintenance costs.
Instead, they make use of cloud management and information storage services provided by external vendors. Companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have the adequate infrastructure to handle a lot of information. Not only that, but they can do it in a non-stop, real-time fashion.
With state-of-the-art server and cluster farms and cutting-edge power distribution management tools, their clients have easy access to information no matter where they are or what time they need it. Best of all, this information is kept confidential and safe from external breaches.
Intelligent CRM Systems
In the current environment of digitalization, few things are more popular than customer relationship management systems. Even if most people know what the term entails, few know the many benefits it can provide to an enterprise.
A CRM system is not only a platform that stores customer information. It is also an all-inclusive, AI-based environment that handles anything from analytics and marketing strategies to customer acquisition data and consumer trends.
Advanced platforms like Salesforce allow for efficient, error-free information collection. Once this information is in the system, algorithms work behind the scenes to develop the best way to reach these potential clients and turn them into a loyal customer base.
They can also identify past trends and design action plans to maximize product or service penetration in a particular market. If you work in a consumer goods corporation like Procter and Gamble, this means knowing when, how, and whom to sell a specific shampoo or what kind of households would benefit most from personal health care and grooming products.
Efficiency in HR Operations
A human resources manager has a variety of roles within an organization. The most important one of them is the acquisition of new talent.
Most companies hire people almost every year. As such, the HR manager’s job is to find the few needles in the haystack. These are people with either the talent to do something special or the willingness and ability to learn it.
But how does one decide as it pertains to another human being? After all, potential doesn’t guarantee success. In the same way, not having it does not mean an employee will fail. What about hard work, diligence, and motivation? Aren’t they important factors as well?
Enter machine learning solutions like IBM Watson’s Personality Insights. Using historical information, empirical data, and predictive analytics technology, they can forecast with much more accuracy whether a person will actually be beneficial to the organization he is trying to join.
Aside from this, the system can look at past trends in performance and skill level to determine a specific candidate’s ideal position.
Of course, the system is not perfect. But neither are the decisions made by a human being.
The world is always changing, constantly evolving. One of the results of this is a dramatic increase in the pace at which business is done. If corporations want to survive, they cannot afford to engage in age-old practices that are time-consuming and ineffective. Instead, they must look for technological solutions to expedite these processes while maintaining optimum quality and results.
