Business Technology Insights

When you run your own business, you put a vast amount of time into making it a success. In fact, the majority of small business owners in the US say they work at least 50 hours per week - far more than the national average of 33.8 hours per week reported by the Bureau of Labour Statistics.

33 percent of small business owners reported working more than 50 hours a week, with an additional 25 percent of small business owners claiming they work more than 60 hours a week, according to a poll of readers of the New York Enterprise Report.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Small to medium-sized companies across the world are making the transition to becoming digital businesses. That means less time passing around paper documents that can easily be lost, and an increased focus on turning those documents into an electronic format.

By moving physical paperwork into a digital format, employees within your company will be able to efficiently access documents when required. You’ll also give these documents improved protection through backups and other security methods.

Small to medium-sized businesses in Ontario, Canada, operate in a highly competitive market. To become profitable it’s crucial that their internal processes are efficient, that they can minimize downtime and they can provide a world-class customer experience (CX).

As a small to medium-sized business, the investment you make into your IT infrastructure could be the difference between the successful operation of your business and struggling to compete with the competition.

According to IDG’s 2018 State of Digital Business Transformation, 55 percent of small businesses have already adopted a digital business strategy compared to 38 percent of traditional enterprises.

The good news? If you are part of that group of small firms which are revisiting their technology strategies and investing in new IT solutions to transition to a digital business solution, then you are perfectly set up for future growth.

At OT Group, we receive a large number of questions from businesses in regards to which printer they should choose for their office. Perhaps the most common question, however, is whether they should purchase or lease a printer.

Investing in a printer or photocopier is a big decision for any size business. You want to make it as cost-effective as possible, but at the same time, you want to ensure your company invests in the right technology to give your employees the tools they need to be productive.

Investing in your company’s IT strategy is more important now than it ever was before. An excellent IT infrastructure is now the foundation of any business, driving improvements to your internal operations as well as your customer-facing processes.

This is particularly true in Canada, where the small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) market is highly competitive. According to the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), there are almost 1.1 million SMEs in the country.

It’s more than likely that your organization has an important internet usage document that must be signed by all staff members during the onboarding stage of their employment.

This document allows your company to define the standards of appropriate internet usage, so your employees know exactly what is expected of them. However, a question we receive on a regular basis is - should my organization monitor and track the internet usage of employees as part of its IT strategy?

The technology industry is currently completely focused on the software as a service (SaaS) and cloud computing phenomenon. Despite this, many small to medium-sized businesses are only just becoming familiar with this type of technology and how it can benefit their business.

This trend will only grow in the future, with Gartner predicting that SaaS market revenues will grow to $113.1 billion by 2021.

Computer software and hardware are not designed to be built for life. Is this something you have taken into account in your IT strategy? Because many small, medium and large-sized businesses haven’t.

Technology evolves at a rapid speed, especially when your team is working remotely. Keeping up with these changes is the key to a cost-effective strategy that focuses on data security, business efficiencies, and improved productivity. All of these aspects improve the profitability of your business.

Today’s business world is saturated with companies offering the same, or incredibly similar, products and services. To stand out and remain competitive, it’s essential that your company’s internal processes are seamless and efficient - and your IT strategy is crucial to that.

Cloud computing offers cost-benefits, business efficiencies, easy scalability and many other competitive advantages that can transform your organization’s internal processes. Yet many businesses are still continuing to operate without it.