Tech Talk: You snooze, you lose

I have found that a majority of small business owners and managers acknowledge that technology is important. What they practice, however, is usually quite different.

Business always has been about having timely information and making good decisions based on that information. The rate of change is so fast in all industries that without a good, timely information system, you will fall behind very rapidly.

Great innovations come out continually. They offer great returns when integrated properly into a business.

But many of the innovations are slow to be adopted by small business people. Why? The business people don't know what they don't know.

This state of affairs has two implications.

First, they think they know and go about buying equipment and hacking together systems. To help them out, they bring in friends and relatives who also think they know all that is needed to put in a system.

We recently have seen several examples of how this leads to bad technology decisions. In one case, several laptop computers were purchased when on sale at Best Buy. They looked to be a great solution for the company's lack of computers.

However, they did not realize that the operating system the laptops came with were incompatible with the network. They then had to buy new software, have it installed, etc. - any “savings” were quickly erased.

The second implication is that they get comfortable with the technology they have and stop considering better ways of doing things. Paradigms like this can be very powerful and will block progress.

This means, of course, that new technologies that could be employed to increase productivity, to help management make better decisions and to save money are never given a chance.

We saw this at a company that had grown and had many employees creating reports and passing information to each other and/or customers. Fairly typical.

However, they did not have a file server, so the employees created their own subsystems to handle the documents they worked on. Some people were even using Outlook as a filing system - quite ingenious, but horribly inefficient from both a system and user standpoint.

Emails also were used to move documents around, which of course led to problems in finding the most current version of anything.

They were so used to working this way, they did not see weaknesses and dangers in such convoluted systems.

With a small investment, we put in a file server and a system of passwords and permissions to secure sensitive information, and generally rationalized the whole system very quickly. The general reaction was “Why did we not do this before?”

So what might small businesses be missing? Lots.

For instance, it is possible to get a hosted telephone system, which has all the features of a large enterprise system, for about $30 per month. You can set the phone system up to handle calls so that you can be as big and professional as you want to be.

Once you have access to a VoIP system like this, you can then take advantage of the features that allow you to stay on top of your business no matter where you are. You can have the phone system automatically find your cellphone if you don't answer within a time you set.

You can take the telephone home or to a hotel and use your phone system to make calls.

Other devices and technology can be used to let you and your employees stay in touch and to take care of customers.

For example, your laptop or iPad can have an inexpensive application installed that allows you to use the device as a phone (called a softphone). This allows you to access your VoIP phone system with a laptop or iPad.

Another handy device to expand your working range is a personal hot spot that is available through the major carriers.

For a low price, you can have a small device that connects to your carrier and then acts as a hot spot for connecting to the Internet.

Very handy when you are on the road. And, these devices generally allow multiple users to connect to them at the same time.

One company we assist found a clever use for a virtual fax service. Some of their traveling employees send documents via virtual fax to branch officers where they're visiting, thus allowing them to use the local fax machine as a printer.

The lesson? Technology is important, so practice what you believe.