Could your tech be hindering your business growth?

How digital transformation can boost your business growth

Part 1: Could your tech be hindering your business growth?

Small businesses have the advantage of being nimble, agile and able to respond to new opportunities quickly - or at least, that’s the theory. Because in many cases, the technology that’s supposed to enable this is actually what’s holding them back.

Why? Because the tech they use isn’t configured to their business workflows and processes. And where the technology and software architecture should be adapted to fit those processes, it ends up happening the other way round. This ‘square peg, round hole’ approach can hinder business growth and prevent efficiencies being found.

The best solution is to explore bespoke tech solutions that fit the specific needs of a business perfectly. In this blog, we explore the scale of the difference it can make to SMEs who want to maximise productivity and boost revenue.

So, how does this work in practice?

As an example, let’s imagine two competitor businesses, which we’ll call Company A and Company B. Both operate in the same marketplace and broadly have the same processes, the only difference being in the technology their workforces use.

The two companies have similar sales pipelines where enquiries come in and quotations have to be generated. 

Company A does this using an Excel spreadsheet, as they have done for over 20 years. After all, the business is making money, so if ‘it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’! It takes a member of their sales team around 20 minutes to complete all the details in the Excel sheet, generate the quote document and send it over to the customer. 

It does the job, although because it takes a long time, some enquiries simply get ignored because there isn’t enough time in the day to process them all.

Company B, on the other hand, has deployed an automated solution for quote generation, which was specifically developed for the particular goods and services that they sell. 

As a result, customers making enquiries provide all the information needed for a quote, which then populates the quote form automatically. The solution can validate this information itself, meaning that the sales team only need to give it a quick check over before approving the quote and sending it out, a process that takes them less than a minute. 

The end result is that Company B can handle all the quotes they receive, and maximise their sales potential far more than Company A ever could.

Sounds good! But what does this mean for your bottom line?

Obviously, there is a clear benefit to revenue if you can process more quotes and take full advantage of sales opportunities. But the knock-on consequences are substantial too.

By relieving admin burdens from your staff, they have more time available to add value elsewhere within your organisation. Not to mention the fact that using automation reduces the risk of human error and inconsistent data, which can be costly further down the line.

Because of this, the investment into a bespoke tech solution for your business can easily deliver a strong return on investment. The kind of ROI our clients have seen through working with us.

We’ve shown how digital transformation can make you more money, but can it actively drive your business growth? In part two, we’ll explore the long-term benefits of bespoke tech solutions.