Automation and big data are the next big tech disruptions coming our way that will dominate our processes and strategies, looking to refine and optimize them and make them as efficient as possible. Big data and Automation allow businesses to utilize the vast amount of data available to them in an immensely powerful way. They also help in bringing down the costs by allowing firms to formulate better strategies which help the organization become more efficient.
Small businesses cannot often compete with the larger companies because the latter has a lot more resources to run the business operations while still keeping the costs down. Automation and big data aim to neutralize this very factor and even out the playing field for companies of all size.
In the upcoming decade, small businesses have a lot to gain from automation and big data, especially in helping them handle the effects of a post-Brexit economy, which will demand more of them in terms of being compatible and much more efficient to compete in a more closed market. Here I’d like to share five great ways in which automation and big data will benefit SMEs:
In a small organization, the effort of each employee is immensely valuable and if there is a window to release some of the mundane burdens on an employee, the SME could stand to benefit a lot from it. This will happen by redirecting the employee’s effort pool to do other more critical work, making it more productive.
Companies can now automate mundane and time-consuming tasks like customer relationship management, making it a whole lot easier for them to stay as resourceful as possible in terms of employee productivity.
These tasks are quite repetitive in nature and automation also provides a more accurate and faster picture on all of these domains, where a report can be generated within seconds and you can track its progress and current situation.
This is where big data and business intelligence comes in. The data accumulated by automated software systems is now more useful than ever as big data allows small businesses to make predictions and forecasts based allowing companies to streamline their processes and become leaner.
For example, a small business manufactures fruit juices and, in many of their products, the demand varies from season to season. Automating inventory control and invoicing, the company could get access to a more accurate picture of the seasonal demands allowing them to order only those fruits that they require at the moment in precise quantities. This allows them to save more money by lowering inventory holding costs. This is just one aspect where automation and big data can provide a huge advantage to SMEs. It can be applied to more and more fields and make these organizations grow.
