Lift up your technology Game

The prospect of being on TV as part of the upcoming SME business plan development reality show Lift your Game was not the main motivator for my accepting the invitation to do an hour session for the participants. Honest. I was excited by the idea, as requested by the organisers, of developing training content to assist the contestants in incorporating the use of technology in the proposals. Even my two daughters didn t believe that. So the question i addressed is that how can a SME maximise technology to its fullest at minimal or no cost. I had to mull over the topic to extrapolate a good perspective to ensure that the participants got their monies worth. I decided to modify a presentation i gave at the CIO summit earlier this year to suit this audience. The topic i delivered then was deriving business value from technology and i think the framework is very much pertinent for SME s. I arrived at the venue in good time but was delayed in beginning on time by the previous presenter who was a motivational speaker. The speaker was powerful and the words hard act to follow came immediately to mind. He eventually left me with a very expectant, motivated and hyped-up group of people, 25 min behind schedule. Yes, i had a hard act to follow. I started by going through some quotes made by a few leaders of technology innovation who failed to see the innovation coming. My point being that you underestimate the opportunities and mass adoption of new technology at your own peril. Everything that can be invented has been invented were the unfortunate words of Charles Duell. Commissioner of the U.S Patents Office. In the year 1899. If he could see what is happening now, he would sit up in his grave. That was my first quote. Perhaps my best unfortunate quote was made by the President and Co-Founder of DIGITAL, Ken Olsen, in 1977. He said, There is no reason for an individual to have a computer in their home . The company does not exist today, although Uncle Ken is still kicking around, with parts of it sold off to known companies like Oracle, Compaq (now part of HP), Quantum and Genicom. The only person who was able to survive an unfortunate quote perhaps that because he didn t actually say it, was Bill Gates of Microsoft and the words were 640k RAM ought be enough for anyone . Bill has categorically denied saying them, explaining that anyone involved in computers would not say that. Anyway, some of his software found on computers at homes demand a minimum of 2GB RAM! Having established the need to be strategically abreast with technology developments, i went on to talk about operational efficiency and customer experience, areas in business that makes technology show value. Solutions in the area of operational efficiency for an SME should aim to enhance collaboration. Taking advantage of Internet based applications can make a business run from a garage seem like sharp corporate entity operating from a penthouse office suit in a prime area high rise. Getting a well designed website with all the good features and email sitting on your own domain will make all the difference in how you are perceived. At the same time it will improve information flow within a small but tight SME team. These days mobile internet has become the rage and has become very easily assessable. That means that you can get to all your mails and website on the go, a state that any small business needs to be in. The internet will also prove invaluable in marketing and dealing with clients. Social networks like Facebook, flixter, Linklin etc are becoming the new word-of-mouth marketing strategy, and it really

works. The number of people who can read your status and access your info is exponential. Advertising on those networks as well as information search engine portals like Google and Yahoo are not expensive as one would think and actually very much accessible to SMEs. The reason why this way of advertising on such portals is so effective is that it is linked to the searches that users do, so immediately it becomes targeted marketing. The SME will only pay if the user actually clicks the link and the cost per click can be as low as 1 US cent.