Emerging Technologies

How and why you should integrate them into your business

By Robin Roberts

It can be challenging enough to keep on top of all that your business demands, let alone keeping abreast of all the new tech tools that pop up every year. Knowing which emerging technologies will benefit you and how can be confusing and even a bit daunting. But benefit you they will – from boosting productivity to staying connected to your customers.

Saul Colt, founder of Toronto–based The Idea Integration Company, broke it all down in his insightful webinar on T/K. Following are some highlights.

Q. What exactly does the term “emerging technologies” refer to?

A. “Emerging” really means things that are on the rise and relevant right now, it doesn’t necessarily need to be new. I [spoke] about Chatbox [for example], but that’s the shiny new emerging technology. I also talked about Instagram, which has been around for a while but for business it’s reasonably new. It doesn’t have to be futuristic and crazy and unapproachable. It’s just that we’ve made something old better.

Q. Why do businesses need to be up to speed with them?

A. Customers’ expectations are changing. They expect you to be on Instagram, they expect to be able to communicate via text message, they expect a return call within two hours. If you want to survive you have to give your customers what they want.

Q. How do emerging technologies boost productivity?

A. [Tools such as] Skype, Rogers Unison, Microsoft 365 make your life easier. Rogers’ Unison allows you to have basically 20 lines on a single cell phone, whereas 15 years ago you’d need this really sophisticated phone system. [Tools such as Office 365 are] also great for accountability. There’s a lot more visibility and collaboration in how work is being done now. You know exactly where you and your employees are at all times in your work flow. Some people see that as a negative but from a productivity standpoint, if you see somebody falling behind it gives you an opportunity to help and support them. The only goal for any project is to do good work, and these allow better work to be done at a quicker pace.

Q. So what’s your bottom–line advice?

A. Just start, and figure it out as you go. You don’t have to try everything, but you should try something. And as your comfort level grows, try another thing and another thing and before you know it you’ll create systems to make your work life much easier. A lot of these tools themselves are really simple; they do all the work and thinking for you. I’m a small company myself [and they] allow me to do the work of three people. If you have 10 people, they might allow you to do the work of 30 people. They just make your business more efficient. Go in with ultimate optimism and you will be surprised at how easy it is.

For information on more upcoming webinars, go to T/K.