The speed of change is a defining characteristic of the Information Age. It took 38 years for there to be 50 million radio listeners. Television took 13 years to reach the 50 million mark. The Internet passed 50 million users in less than four years. Some of us can remember when the fax machine was first introduced to our offices. Our younger peers need instructions in order to send a fax because they don’t do it often enough. In a relatively short time span, we saw this piece of technology arrive, become ubiquitous, and nearly vanish. The fax machine had a long lifespan compared to more recent technological innovations. Already the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) has all but disappeared – replaced by the smartphone.
While most of us find it hard to imagine work life without email, others are abandoning email for the more immediate response of Instant Messaging. The first Internet domain name was issued in March of 1985. In less than the span of one work career, this medium has become so tightly integrated into our businesses that we can’t get things done without it. Our suppliers and customers want us to interact with them via their websites. Purchasing and payment happen online. We even attend meetings virtually instead of actually.
The Internet is the most notable example of the pace of technology, but it’s not the only one. Your computer gets faster and smaller every month. Your monitor get bigger and flatter. Your cell phone gets smarter. Your software gets new features.
What must you do to keep up with the changes in technology that affect your business? How do you find the innovations that will make a difference in your future success? The answer involves an allocation of your most precious resource: time. Another defining characteristic of the Information Age is the abundance of information. The number of ways in which you can get information is also increasing. Most of us haven’t tried reading a blog or listening to a podcast, but these have become useful sources of information.
Here are suggestions for keeping up without going mad:
- Limit your Scope. Port-to-Port follows a broad range of technologies to keep current with things that might help our varied clients. We can’t track everything. You should start by considering the areas of your business that might benefit from technology. These are the things that occupy a lot of someone’s time or the things that interfere with a good night’s sleep.
- Start Close to Home. Your industry peers will sometimes become aware of new technology that can help in your type of business before you do. Spend some time talking with them about the technology they use or have tried unsuccessfully.
- Read Periodicals. News and Business magazines devote considerable ink to the introduction of new technology. Be careful though, the writers may not know much more about technology than you do. These stories often tout new things in ways more sensational than true. your industry publications are a better source. Almost every industry-specific magazine devotes one issue each year to technology. These stories are better researched and give more targeted information.
- Find Someone You Can Trust. You are the world’s best expert on your business. You need someone who can listen to your business needs and determine if there is useful, affordable technology to help with them. This advice is a part of the Pertingo® service.
- Experiment. Don’t dive full force into a new technology. Figure out how to do a trial. When things move as fast as technology does, there are going to be some crashes. You can limit yours to fender-benders instead of crash-and-burns. This does mean that you are going to buy some things that turn out to be wastes of money. Not all new implementations can be done with this trial method, but with a little forethought, you can find ways to minimize the initial investment to determine whether you’ll realize a return.
Learning about new technology is one of the many things to which a business owner must devote some time. How high it falls on the priority list is determined by the level of technology already in place. If you don’t have much, you should figure out if that’s intentional or if it’s because you haven’t kept current. If you have a lot, you should determine if that’s because it’s really helping you or because you’ve got a geek streak in you. You can’t keep up with everything that is happening in technology. Once you figure out where your business can benefit, follow developments in those areas.