Technology has smoothened the business game. It took 13 hours for a Toyota executive to fly from Japan and reach the USA to meet quarterly sales. But that’s history! Now they can have the same meeting at an ease of a click. There were bundles of spreadsheets that accountants used to take forever to analyze. But that’s not the case anymore; you can use any software to manage those data sets.
There was a time when hiring a new employee was a tedious and time-consuming task. Now a single online post can shortlist you as the next potential talent for your organization. In these contemporary times, a singly social media post can create brand awareness for literally billions of people.
It would be pure stupidity to deny the increasing role and significance of technology in business. The global market sizefor technology will reach a whopping $5 trillion by the end of this year. According to Cybertech, there were around 4.6 million job postings from the field of tech in 2019. Such a staggering market presence will cause disruptions in the world of business.
Mainly COVID-19 has induced an unprecedented shift toward digitalization. According to Spiceworks, a leading B2B technology service provider, 44% of total global businesses have significantly increased their digital transformation pace. However, technological bolsters will propel this transformation. Technology has already advanced its role in the industry and will further expand. Every functional area of business will experience a morepivotal contribution of technology.
Moreover, the advent of data analytics is the cornerstone of technological applications. Either it’s marketing, sales, finance, HR, or general management, data analytics has applicability in every functional area. This article gives an insight into how technology has smoothened the business in different functional areas.
Finance
You might already know the most popular technological marvel used in finance; SAP and Oracle. It has been in the industry for quite some time. The world has changed now. Technological advancement in the field of finance has become unimaginably intricate and adept. Now we have cloud assistance, analytics, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), and Artificial Intelligence (AI) with a more significantrole.
The application of AI is not new to finance. However, the tech standard has undoubtedly improved. The AI utilizes an extensive web of digital networks to generate advanced outputs. These are helpful in financial projections and decision-making. Therefore, Fintech has also become an essential element of formal business education. The training plans of MBA technology management online and finance specialty MOOCs mainly revolve around Fintech.
Sales
Technology has revamped almost every selling function. Most importantly, it has improved the sales communication process by providing practical tools for presenting what a business offers. It might be from the manufacturing or service sector. Technology has drastically improved the chances of transforming an initial sales pitch into actual sales.
Mainly, the FMCG industry has experienced a paradigm shift due to technology. The extended market coverage of FMCG products created huge hurdles for organizations to track sales records. Now with enhanced sales monitoring dashboards, it has become possible. Leading brands like Unilever, P&G, Mondelez, Nestle, Reckitt Benckiser, and Danone have expanded exponentially using these tech marvels.
Marketing
According to Digital Marketing World Forum, an estimated $93 billion was spent on mobile ads in 2019. With more than 5 billion people having active mobile devices, the expenditure seems res. We canexpect massive growth in digital marketing over the next five years. According to Cisco, the Internet of Things (IoT) will generate an unbelievable total of $14.4 trillion for global industries by 2022. Such a ubiquity of IoT has promoted personalization among contemporary customers. Tech-equipped marketing channels like social media marketing, SEO, and geofencing have helped businesses meet customization expectations.
The customers have become overwhelmingly informed. Today’s customers make a very well-informed purchase decision. There are opinion leaders readily available online. Therefore, brands need to spread their product knowledge in consumer markets through a variety of channels. In such a cut-throat competition, only technology can provide efficient and quick means to reach customers. It has provided these means in terms of social media marketing, pay-per-click, and email marketing. Social media has a penetration rate of an astonishing 53%, more than any other marketing channel.
Human Resources
Managing the most important resource ? human resource ? of your organization serves monumental importance for corporate success. Like every other business area, HR also received technology input but mainly through SaaS and cloud computing. We have already transformed old, rather rudimentary personnel management into modern, more advanced Human Resource Management. Now technology has further provided us HCM (Human Capital Management), HRMS (human resource management system), and HRIS (human resources information system).
The most prominent contribution can be seen in the division of talent acquisition within HR. The average time-to-hire has decreased from 43 days in 2015 to just within 21 days in 2020 across all industries.This became possible through digital job posting mediums, advanced testing systems, AI-powered interviewing mechanisms, and Application Tracking Systems (ATS). Technology has remodeled the entire landscape of recruiting, selecting and hiring employees.
Final Words
Resistance to technology is of no use. It has undoubtedly smoothened our business operations. There is not a single domain of business that can survive without technological assistance. Especially during the pandemic, technology came to rescue our businesses from exacerbating. Now to resist technology is certainly shooting your own foot. Now that you have already read about the monumental contributions technology makes to every crucial functional area of modern-day business machinery. Your business needs tech support to stay relevant and competitive in new markets. Huge organizations like Kodak, Nokia, IBM, and BlackBerry have failed because they could not match the technological development pace. They were once market leaders in their industries. Now they are almost wiped out of the global business landscape. Simultaneously, other companies that capitalized on the tech revolution have become successful more than ever before.
Varsha