The Best Way to Take Advantage of New Business Technology

Technology is showing up in unexpected places these days, like kitchen appliances being connected to smartphones and wearable tech enveloping people's bodies. These fun technology trends make life easier, and it is advantageous to get in early on these trends. Technology is also showing up in new and unexpected places in the business sector. Are you up on these tech trends?

The Importance of Staying Current with Tech Trends
Taking advantage of new solutions will give your business an advantage over your competition, but do you have the time to find and stay on top of these valuable business technology trends? If you're a business owner concerned with the day-to-day operations of your company, then it's likely that you don't have the time to add "look for new technology" to your massive to-do list. You may think that you can't afford the time to find new solutions, but for the sake of your business, we think that you can't afford not to.

To illustrate how important the role of technology is in business, think back to the way business was done just 20 years ago. In 1994, the Internet was an oddity, the post office was thriving because e-mail had yet to catch on, cell phones came in bags, pagers where a big deal, and so much beige. The modern office is a completely different place, all thanks to technology. The way that a business transitions from beige to black, from CRT to LCD, and from portable bag to front pocket is by upgrading each piece of technology, one at a time.

A Lesson Learned from HD DVD
Every technology upgrade requires knowledge about the new product that you're upgrading to. You have to understand why it's better, and most importantly, how it's going to save or make your business money. You will also want to have the foresight to make a choice about technology that won't end up wasting your money. For example, if you outfitted your home entertainment system back in 2007 with a premium HD DVD player to play your vast collection of HD DVD movies, then you would be pretty bummed in 2008 when major movie studios stopped issuing movies in HD DVD. Being informed as much as possible about technology trends will make sure that you're upgrading to exactly what your business needs while avoiding disasters like that of HD DVD.

Because upgrading your company's technology is so important, and because following technology trends can eat up a lot of your time, it's in your best interest to have a technology consultant on board for your business. An IT consultant will get to know you and your company's technology needs, and recommend the best solutions on the market that will save your company money and give you the competitive edge.

One of the biggest advantages of having an IT consultant is that they will be able to introduce you to solutions that you may not have known existed. For example, how cool would it have been if you had an "Entertainment Technology Consultant" back in 2007 if you were considering HD DVD? The ETC would have told you something like, "Trends indicate that Blu Ray is going to win out and overtake HD DVD within the year. Plus, I notice that you are more of a casual movie watcher. For your needs, you may want to look into a movie by mail service like Netflix, which just launched a movie streaming service that you will be able to watch on your new TV. If you stream your movies, then you won't have to spend money buying physical copies. Plus, you should buy lots of stock in Netflix."

Benefit from a Regular and Professional Business Technology Review
With IT consulting from Ferrum Technology Services, you get this kind of advice for your company's technology. If you need to upgrade to a new server, you will be presented with all the latest server units that will meet your budget, and you will be explained the benefits of hosting your data in the cloud as another option. If you are experiencing limitations with your mission critical applications, we can help you find something better.

Anytime you need some advice with your technology, you can call us at (847) 697-3282. Although, a random phone call may not be enough to benefit from serious IT consulting. The best way to get technology advice from Ferrum Technology Services is with our business review service. By having a regular and in depth review of your business, every level of your company is able to take advantage of the latest technological advancements.

We recommend doing a technology business review once a quarter to go over all aspects of your business, like your marketing plan, your hiring plan, your operations budget, and whatever else you can share because there will likely be new hardware and software solutions that will cover these needs, and you'll be surprised by how much easier these solutions will make doing business.