“Tech talk” these days is the awareness that things are possible and is about dreaming big.
That’s the opinion of Oscar Wetherell, managing director of Scope Logic, an information, communication and technology consultancy.
“We’re living though such an exciting age at the moment, especially with technology,” he says.
“The concept of being able to pretty much do anything with technology, to improve any process is real.”
“We’ve got technologies that do voice recognition and analyse the voice for patterns to then identify whether a conversation is going well over the phone – in real time.
“So this artificial intelligence is available and it’s available at a price point that suits small business.”
He says these days business owners don’t need to understand everything about tech talk and associated technology news and updates, but they do need to understand their business and its pain points.
“We ask: Why are you here? What can we solve? How can we solve those things? If they don’t know, then we look at how can we help,” Wetherell says.
Once you have these problems, you can find a technology advisor or consultancy to help you learn what technology solutions are available, how it might help your company and then how to implement it.
Using the right technology in this way can create efficiencies that reduce time, expenditure or allow a company to enter new markets. So, in that way it will contribute to your profit.
However, if you’re a sales-focused company, technology can help you make money. For example, progressive dialers can increase sales volume because your sales people are calling through the CRM in a progressive and efficient way that can increase revenue.
“What used to be achievable for the enterprise because the upfront cost was huge has really changed with the onset of subscription pricing where you pay on a monthly basis,” Wetherell says.
When looking for a technology consultant or advisor, Wetherell says it’s vital to meet them because the relationship you have is key.
They should have excellent team skills and you need to feel comfortable sharing business information and working with them.
“We find it’s the mind meld of the business and technology that really assists businesses,” he says.
Also, find out how far along the journey the consultant or advisor can help you.
“Businesses usually want to go somewhere and have someone able to do infrastructure and internet connection, consulting and support. They want a one stop shop,” he says.
If information and communications technology is your hobby and you want to learn new things, Wetherell recommends the following:
- IT publications: Search online for ‘CIO review’ and CIO Enterprise for all things technical.
- Microsoft Office 365 ecosystem: “It’s not just Word and Excel, you have automation tools, you can tie business analytics into your accounting package,” Wetherell says.
- Microsoft app store within Office 365: “Click on here and you have a link to create things like management reports.” Search the different areas that you’re needing or interested in.
- Apple app store: There’s also applications in there.
“But really,” says Wetherell, “it’s just so vast”.
