Digital Challenges : Although they recognize its importance, half of SMEs perceive themselves to be at an intermediate level of digitization and 20% consider themselves to be at a very basic level or not at all in digital transformation. Big Data, cybersecurity, cloud, mobility and CRM will be five key technologies to apply.
As the latest edition of the Observatory points out , digitization is still a pending issue in SMEs, but it is increasingly essential to maintain competitiveness. And it is that the development of technology and its democratization have forever changed consumption habits, and with them, business models. In accordance with market trends,
Big Data
Big Data is a technology applicable to any sector, allowing useful information to be obtained for business development, knowing the customer better, anticipating changes in demand, generating personalized offers according to purchasing habits, and detecting failures in the production process. in real time and act on time.
Every company, through the mere exercise of its activity, generates data constantly. New technologies allow any company, no matter how small, to have predictive analytics tools and perform Business Intelligence functions to interpret their data. But not everything is about equipping yourself with technological tools, but also about establishing a new corporate culture and having the ability to read, interpret and argue decisions based on information and data analytics. The SME must empower its employees or incorporate profiles with these skills.
Cybersecurity
Beyond the collection and exploitation of the data, SMEs must also face its protection. Theft, data hijacking and loss of information are major concerns for companies, especially SMEs, where the risk of suffering a cyber attack is 43%.
Cybersecurity will also be basic in 2018 to comply with the new Data Protection Regulation, avoiding the payment of sanctions and compensation for damages to third parties. The SME must make the company’s workers aware of the sensitivity of the information they collect and of the possible phishing attacks with which they can be attacked on a personal and professional level.
Cloud Computing
Cloud computing allows you to store, create and manage information from the Internet, without the need to download the information or the necessary software for it. Despite its advantages, 9 out of 10 SMEs do not use cloud solutions.
Using services in the cloud adds scalability and mobility to your business project, saving you the costs of software, equipment, experts and knowledge, adapting to your needs and favoring the mobility of your teams, by allowing them to work online on the same document in real time from device and place.
Mobility
The large number of visits to web pages from mobile devices has led to adaptive design being a priority on any company’s website. The SME must assume that its potential customers are connected to the Internet and consume content on mobile phones, and any communication with the customer must be geared towards this new way of consuming content.
Contributing to the development of digital content for mobile devices allows an SME to reach a greater number of potential customers, achieve better positioning in Google, and save programming costs, since mobile servers do not interpret codes such as JavaScript.
CRMs
Finally, having a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool is essential to give a personal and personalized response to each client according to their preferences and experience with the company. However, ignorance of CRM tools is quite common among SMEs.
Thanks to CRM solutions, marketing departments can easily identify users who are most interested in the company’s products or customers who generate a greater number of purchases per month, among others. Its use facilitates decision-making, allowing sales volume to be forecast, customer service to be measured and business performance to be monitored, and it adds efficiency to the commercial department.
In addition, there are free CRM tools that make it easy to adapt these technologies. Its use by SMEs can mark a before and after in the development of relationships with your customers, suppliers and strategic partners.
