The Impact of IT on Today’s Business

Businesses have been going through a lot of change over the last decade. The way business is carried out nowadays has changed dramatically from 10 years ago. It doesn’t seem that long ago when Michael J Fox was back to the future and everyone thought that they would be hover-boarding to work through London’s busy streets. A lot of people might have also thought that we wouldn’t need the London Tube any longer because we could just simply say “beam me to work Scotty”. But things did not work out exactly the way we wanted to. However, other really great technological leaps did happen. We are mobile – in all ways possible, on the phone, on our laptops – we can do work from wherever we want really. The confinement to a desk or office is truly something from the past!

The technology that actually happened has made business life so much easier on the one hand – but also so much more complex on the other. Complex because there are so many different platforms, systems, processes etc. to integrate and maintain. So let’s delve together into the technological ideas that are making every day business life a treat (or not).

As said before it is all about connection. Businesses, their employees, their customers, their suppliers, they are all connected at all times. Email was revolutionary, a quick way of online communication. But business life has moved on since then – traditional email did confine us to our desk and desktops. Now with smartphones email is something that follows us wherever we are. Mobile phones have opened a whole new level to business, with companies now investing money in mobile websites and mobile applications to ensure a more efficient business use.

Desktops are almost a thing of the past – with pads and phones almost doing the same as a computer would. Plus the even bigger step is that it doesn’t even matter anymore what device you are using – because you can unify your communications to be all in one place – I know technology it is mindboggling.

Who still remembers the relaxing humming of a big server just next to your desk in the office? Yes it was a part of my office life for a long time. But office people nowadays do not have to be tortured by the sound – because they all have their heads in the Cloud!

Cloud storage is the newest hype for large or small companies alike. In London where every square foot of office costs a lot of money – saving the space a server takes up will make a difference. Plus knowing that everything that will keep your business alive is securely and remotely backed up is a great piece of mind. We all know the panic of when a server crashes and the horror of finding out important files simply vanished. Additionally Cloud storage can’t burn down. Why I mention this? Because in my old job every time we heard about business continuity planning that was the hot topic “what would happen if the office burns down with the server in it!”

And of course you again have access to your files from anywhere – and do not have to be connected to the actual server!

Social Media is not just a personal thing anymore. It has taken business by storm. It is a great channel to connect with your customers on a different level – almost personal. Social Media reminds me with direct mail – just not as spammy. Customers turned the tables a little though because now they can contact you directly and very publicly – which is a good and might be in some cases a not so good thing.

If you are doing the right things online you will hopefully see that your customers, business partners, suppliers are sharing your products and increasing your online reputation. However, if you are not doing your job that well it could backfire slightly, because customer anger could be publicly displayed in real time! So understanding how to respond to those not so happy clients is a whole new skill businesses have been acquiring (some better than others).

Although the new way of business communication is great and lets you write an email wherever you are – sometimes this is just not enough. This is especially when you have to communicate with people who are not in the same geographical location – but you need to actually see them face to face. So the rise of web conferencing tools has been very apparent in the business world. Today’s web conferencing platforms are almost nothing like the ones that popped up in the 90s.

Current conferencing technology lets you have a face-to-face conversation whilst sharing your screen with the other person and sharing some really important files. Skype which was mainly a platform used for personal use has gotten the business hint as well and launched a business service which allows web conferencing. Although a paid for service I would still guess it’s cheaper than calling internationally.

With all this technology going on is becoming increasingly important to ensure all systems are maintained correctly. Where before it might have been enough to have one person in the company do some server maintenance you now might need some more sophisticated support. Being a big (or not so big) player in the city it will be important to get the right IT support in London. There will be a vast amount of different support companies, which means it is important as a business to fully understand your systems and what you require.