Busy with day-to-day operations, it’s easy for a small business to feel disconnected from big tech trends. Having a basic understanding of them could, however, stop smaller enterprises defaulting to outdated practices or falling too far behind the curve.
Taking three of Gartner’s top tech trends of 2021 – including the internet of behaviours, distributed cloud and hyperautomation – let’s break down the terminology and consider what lessons can be learnt from these trends.
Internet of Behaviours
The Internet of Behaviours (IoB) involves analysing data with the aim of understanding customer behaviours, interests and preferences. It taps into information collected by the Internet of Things (IoT) – the collective term for devices that can connect to and share information via the internet, such as fitness watches or virtual assistants.
In short, IoB utilises data collected by IoT to influence consumer behaviours. Phone companies, for example, can use data collected by smart phones, such as location data, to understand more about their customers.
As a small business, you may not have access to or actually benefit from this level of data, however understanding your customer’s behaviours can still help to improve their experience with your brand.
To get started, focus on your business website analytics. A lot can be learned from understanding the search terms your customers use to find you or how they navigate around your website. If you can optimise your online activity to tap into these behaviours, consumers may be more likely to make a purchase.
Consider using a website builder that provides an easy-to-use analytics dashboard. This can house all your key metrics in one place, making it easier for you to identify what information is important and action change accordingly.
Distributed Cloud
Data stored in the cloud isn’t floating around the sky, but rather it’s held on machines often found in large data centres. Distributed Cloud is the distribution of public cloud services ‘ such as Google Drive or Dropbox ‘ to a variety of physical locations around the world. Simply, this allows you to be closer to your data, which means your data will load more quickly and efficiently.
As a small business, it’s unlikely you’ll ever need to fully understand the ins and outs of Distributed Cloud. What you can learn from it, however, is that when your data is closer to you and your customers, your online activity will run more smoothly.
Your website, for example, is a collection of data and can be hosted in a data centre or on a server in your office. If opting for a data centre, consider a solution which will house your website’s data at a UK-based site. Many of the cheapest options may host data abroad due to lower operational costs. However, if you and your customers are based in the UK, it’s best for your data to be here too.
Hyperautomation
Hyperautomation allows business to hand data intensive tasks to software robots. For example, you could teach a software robot to process all your invoices, scanning, extracting and processing the data as required, leaving you with more time in your day.
A great benefit of hyperautomation is that providers have tuned into the importance of offering no-code or low-code platforms in which to build your bots, meaning you don’t need to be a tech-whizz to get started. The lesson for small businesses is that no-code applications can save even the least tech savvy employees a huge amount of time.
Rather than focusing on automation, you may want to consider how you can use no-code platforms to make the most of more common business tech without the need for additional training.
Your website is great place to start. No-code website builders offer a drag-and-drop experience which allow you to customise your website as needed with no coding experience. Meaning you can spend less time, money and effort creating a site that works for you.
These tech trends are new, exciting and… complicated. Rather than diving into the ins and outs, you can use them to understand the way in which tech is heading and apply these lessons to your own tech, such as your website, to improve the way you work and better serve your customers.
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