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December 10, 2020

How to improve decision making with technology

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For a business to grow in the right direction, keep staff on track, and customers happy, business leaders have to make tough decisions daily.

“How much do I allocate toward marketing and product development?”.

“Is now the right time for expansion?”

These important decisions determine everything from day-to-day operations to what direction your company will take in the future.

When being tone-deaf can mean the death of your business, you need mechanisms to make informed, data-driven decisions.
Implementing the right technology and deploying it strategically will take the guesswork out of the decision-making process.

The result is cost and time savings, greater efficiency, and keener insight into a company’s health and growth potential at any given moment.

How technology impacts business decisions

Here are some benefits of using technology to make better business decisions:

● Tracking and monitoring employee and process efficiency. This will let you know when bottlenecks are being created, prevent fraud, and identify areas of concern;

● Improving customer service by helping you analyze market response, develop new ideas, collect and respond to customer feedback, and conduct field testing;

● Improving product development and service delivery by streamlining processes and providing added value;

● Enabling insightful asset management will tell you at a glance what assets are available, where they are, and how they can be better utilized.

Decision-making is a process that runs through several distinct phases. Data collection, sorting, and analysis is required at each phase.

Here are ways that technology can be deployed at any phase to make the process more accurate and transparent.

1. Information gathering

Before you decide where you want to go, you first need to know where you are.

This applies to your internal processes and conditions, and to knowing how you fare compared to your competitors.

Therefore, you need to gather all the information you can.

Businesses require data to analyze trends, predict customer behavior, manage finances, and keep up with the competition. Using automation and other data collection technologies allows your business to gather massive amounts of information quickly.

Rapid access, often in real time, enables insightful decision making. You can use information-gathering tools to create competitor and customer profiles or analyze market trends.

This will help you make decisions that will propel your business forward without relying on biased or incorrect assumptions about the state of your business.

2. Data collection

The amount of data collected by companies is staggering. Marketing stats, historical trends, business financials, and customer histories are among the numerous types of information to sift through.

Technologies like AI and Big Data allow you to segment, analyze, and refine huge amounts of data in a fraction of the time that a human team could manage the same feat. What’s more, these technologies eliminate human error, which means a greater degree of accuracy.

For example, a lawyer could deploy technology to analyze millions of documents and case histories in seconds when that kind of research would take a team of paralegals days to conduct.

Financial management companies could have stock histories and market trends at their fingertips, providing deeper insight for client portfolio management and buy/sell recommendations.

An entirely new industrial era is being ushered in by technologies that rely on gathering, analyzing, and exchanging data. Data tools are an essential component of Industry 4.0 to better use the data available across all aspects of a business. Among the most useful are:

3. Customer relationship management (CRM)

Customer relations technologies provide better insight into consumer requirements and improve service. Software and applications include inventory control and management systems, mobile apps, and order processing systems.

CRMs enable you to make granular decisions about approaching a client based on their history with your company.

Your marketing messages will be more targeted, and you’ll be able to spot upselling opportunities faster.

They can also inform you about the state of your customer service so you can take steps toward either increasing availability or working on removing common bottlenecks.

4. IoT

Internet of Things (IoT) is an interconnected network of devices, appliances, control systems, and apps that can run autonomously and remotely. It’s made up of different technologies that include robotics, sensors and data processing applications.

These networked systems can be accessed and controlled by staff and team leaders from any location, at any time. This leads to greater efficiency and less downtime.

IoT devices can also play an essential role in determining customer behavior and developing tailored customer propositions using the gathered data.

5. Machine monitoring and maintenance tools

These technologies oversee a lot of manufacturing processes. They can troubleshoot problems, calibrate and optimize production equipment, and conduct repairs to prevent disruptions.

Gathering this information can provide insights into business aspects you may otherwise not be able to see firsthand.

Be it identifying energy waste or monitoring equipment health before it breaks down and brings operations to a standstill, IoT devices have a wide range of applications in making better business decisions.

6. Mobile apps

Mobile apps can provide extra value to customers in the form of discounts and order processing, keep remote teams in the loop, and allow you to conduct business on the go. They enable real-time access to data and improve overall communications.

Having a mobile app for your business means that you can literally live in your customers’ pockets. The amount of data generated through apps ensures that your offerings are as relevant as possible instead of stabbing in the dark.

7. Information processing tools

Now that you have all of this data collected and collated, what do you do with it? Information processing tools, such as inventory control software, help you manage large amounts of data and put concise reporting into action.

By processing raw data more efficiently, you prevent creating a disconnect between business functions and information technology. It helps users and analysts make sense of the data and put it to use for the company’s benefit.

Modern BI tools allow organizations to monitor performance, compare historical data, optimize supply chains, and more. They enable users to select and manipulate data into whatever form is needed to make sense of the information at any phase of the decision-making process.

8. Business collaboration

Even before current circumstances forced many businesses to operate solely in the digital realm, remote work and collaboration were becoming the norm.

There is a wide range of tools available for remote teams to keep everyone on the same page and streamline otherwise cumbersome processes. This could entail using simple cloud-based collaboration tools like Google Workspace or project management tools like JIRA, Basecamp, Asana, and others.

It’s important to choose a customizable tool so businesses can simplify the decision-making process by zeroing in on aspects that matter most for their unique circumstances.

Using technologies connects scattered personnel and makes information available when and where it is needed most. This creates cohesion and supports a unified approach to meetings, strategy sessions, and other forms of remote collaboration.

Conclusion

Technology is about more than just convenience. It makes companies more efficient and productive by generating and processing precise, timely information that’s relevant and meaningful.

By choosing the right tech and deploying it in crucial areas, you stand a better chance of staying ahead of trends and riding them to success. In today’s more competitive, digitized global economy, that edge can mean the difference between helming a leading enterprise or going down with the ship.

— Heather Redding is a content manager for rent, hailing from Aurora. She loves to geek out writing about wearables, IoT and other hot tech trends. When she finds the time to detach from her keyboard, she enjoys her Kindle library and a hot coffee. Reach out to her on Twitter

• Posted 12.10.20 at 06:38 am by Roy Osing
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