Published on August 2nd, 2018 | by Tushar

8 Small Business Technology Trends to Watch in 2018

As the biggest enterprise market in the world, technology companies keep inventing new products for the midrange market. New generation IT offers better products for small businesses. If you want to invest in these tools, 2018 promises to be a good year.

What are the top trends in technology for small businesses? Small and medium companies can use anything that large companies use.

This is not a trickle-down effect. The midrange market is the biggest and the technology industry keeps designing products specifically for them. While some of these services and products come from fortune 2000 organizations, many of them have been remade for small-scale use.

The internet is a great equalizer. If online customer service is great and quality goods and services are delivered in a timely manner, the size of the company does not matter. Here are the technology trends to watch in 2018:

Small Businesses Need to Secure Information Better

In case of disaster, your small business needs to have secure information. When you move your data to the cloud, you will be able to maintain audit records while adding an extra layer of security thanks to the 2-step verification process.

Machine Learning Automation in Back Office

Machine learning will aid in the automation of small business back office and do most of the heavy lifting related with financial management. This increases the efficiency and accuracy of financial reporting thus making it possible for the industry to have real-time financials. Having the chance to make learned business decisions can be a big win for business owners.

Facebook Ads Costs Will Rise

The costs of Facebook advertising will rise because more business owners will want to use it. While Facebook ads will be important this year, it is necessary for small businesses to look into personalization for better customer experience. Personalized customer service, local SEO, and email segmentation will be key.

Small Businesses Will Outshine Big Corporations

As technology becomes more accessible, you will see small business owners using technology to provide all-inclusive benefits to their employees. With modern software in use, small business owners will start offering savings plans as well as health insurance to their employees.

Data Will Be Like Gold

You have probably noticed a shift the world over with software, tax departments, and banks releasing APIs, which allow small businesses to connect with each other and consolidate data for analysis. This means that USB devices are essential for the transfer and storage of digital data.

Big Data Will Be Accessible for Small Businesses

Big data will go from being a preserve of big businesses to being accessible to small businesses. The quality and extent of data is growing faster while the unit costs keep decreasing. This democratizes access, allowing businesses to access it in a way that is cheap and easy to consume.

Businesses Will Turn to Open Banking for Payments

Open banking will bring in a new era of bank-to-bank payments and small businesses will adopt this new means of payment. Banks have been monopolizing financial data, including payment history and account balance. Thanks to open banking, small businesses can start sharing important data with app providers, which will result in less time spent chasing payments and improved cash flow.

Better Decision Making

In 2018, we will see an increase in chat-bots, which will change the way businesses make decisions and get insight. Artificial intelligence is being added into back-end systems thus providing businesses with tips in real-time and offering them with advice based on the existing activity and data.

You should expect to see the above trends in 2018. Just prepare to go with the flow.

Tags: 2018, business, small business, technology, trends, watch