Jane Savvides, Head Of Partner Management
My recent 46th birthday smacked me in the face with the realisation that I have been working for 30 years this year. It got me thinking about how much our working environment has changed and how much of that is down to technology.
At high school I learned to touch type on a manual typewriter, fighting with carbon paper and Tippex. In my first job, I had an electronic typewriter and later a word processor on an IBM computer – I didn’t have a mouse though, we got around the screen using the F keys! It wasn’t until the early 90s that the ‘world wide web’ started to be used by the mainstream and luckily my boss at that time was a bit of a geek so we fully embraced it. Well, as much as you can with a dial up connection… Around the same time, I remember a customer coming in with the ‘new mobile phone’ that was as big as a brick and required him to carry a battery pack on his shoulder - quite possibly inventing the man-bag at the same time.
30 years on and technology touches almost everything we do both in our personal and working lives.
Before you’ve wiped the sleep out of your eyes, the alarm on your smart phone has woken you up and your Fitbit has told you how well you’ve slept before deducting each sleepy step to the bathroom from your new 10,000 step target.
Most of us will have checked our social media and emails before we have a cup of tea, and checked the traffic news with Alexa before we get into a wi-fi enabled car with built in sat nav.
But by far the most exciting changes for me have happened in the work place and the way we are now able to communicate with our customers and our colleagues.
Use of laptops and tablets mean we’re no longer tied to a desk or office; improved connectivity and IP telephony solutions mean we can answer the business line from anywhere without any change to the customer experience. By utilising cloud systems, we can access our internal business systems securely from wherever we are. We can place orders online and receive delivery the same day without leaving the house or needing so much as a payment card. Not that I ever leave my bank card in the payment reader at the supermarket or anything...
The use of meeting and collaboration tools mean we no longer need to arrange a physical meeting to get a decision. By utilising apps that are included in Office you can have a full video conference service with real time document sharing without spending a penny extra. No longer do I waste an hour coordinating diaries, six hours travelling in the car and the cost of a hotel room.
There are so many affordable tools available to help SMEs grow and with productivity reportedly being 30% lower in the UK compared to some of our close European neighbours, automation and integration will be key to ensuring we stay competitive.
A Gartner article suggests: “CIOs and IT leaders are in need of vendors that can merge technologies and business scenarios to solve multifaceted problems, vendors that deliver rapid transformation projects, optimise the use of technology and solve challenges”
inTec fit this description perfectly, we are no ordinary technology company, we specialise in Business Optimisation, helping businesses use technology to streamline processes, increase productivity and improve customer satisfaction. We need to be talking to customers now. By Partnering with us you are able to offer the full range of technology solutions and consultancy services to your customers immediately. We help your business grow by helping your customers’ business grow.
To find out more, contact me on 07944 871 186.
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