SME business owners have a problem…
Technology is essential to pretty much every business these days…but there is so much of it.
- Computers
- Websites
- Social Media
- Data Storage
- Mobile Access
- Remote Access
- Communications…
The list goes on, but rather than being able to focus on using one specific technology a lot, to work effectively, most businesses need bits of many different technologies. Furthermore, business owners should focus on their business, they can’t normally be technical specialists as well.
I believe the ideal business technology is effectively invisible. It does its job so well that you just don’t notice it. You can concentrate on your business. Herein lies the problem. Accessing different technologies normally means dealing with a range of suppliers who (too often) don’t talk to one another. Your business should use technology as an integrated business-focussed resource but to make it works seamlessly (and invisibly) you need effective support. This support is typically fragmented across a range of ‘expert’ suppliers each of whom is competing for your attention. they can be too focussed on their own needs.
There is a second issue with accessing specialist skills, particularly in the marketing arena, and that is that there are a lot of people offering “Expertise“. But not all are as expert as you might hope. Finding the right expert to fit your needs and expectations can be challenging.
The BSA Philosophy
We understand and appreciate the issue. Both myself and my fellow director, David, have been running and supporting SME businesses for many years, so we have practical experience! Furthermore, we have grown up with the technologies that are now central to running a successful business. These two experience sets work together allowing us to be ideally placed to support SMEs … and bridge the technology gap.
Unlike most technology experts, we start with business objectives. From here we establish how best technology can be used to support and meet these. Only then do we look to the “experts” to assist in the situation. At this point, we have three great advantages:
- We understand the business, and what technology is appropriate to move it forward
- We have built an effective working knowledge of a wide range of technologies and their application to real-world business.
- Because we are dealing with a wide range of technologies on a regular basis, we have the right contacts to call on high-end specialists when required. We can speak the technology language, so can communicate the issues and manage solutions effectively.
Benefits in the Real World
That’s the theory, but how does this philosophy play out in the real world?
To answer this, I go back to the list at the top of the post. Over the next few months, we are going to work through this list and look at some individual business issues, discussing how our philosophy delivers real value in each area.
Taking each subject in turn (Websites, Marketing Content, Social Media, Hosting, Email etc) we will look at how to effectively bridge the technology gap and deliver real world business benefits.
With each subject, we will be publishing a podcast on podcast.bsamarketing.com. Alongside the podcasts, there will also be blog posts exploring the issues. To be sure you don’t miss any of this content, you can either subscribe to our podcast here, or better still, sign up to our email here.
If you can’t wait, and would like to talk to us further right now, we are always happy to chat.