2009 presents an opportunity for businesses to improve the way they do things and to re-think their business processes and methods. Businesses are constantly changing. The ones that keep up will thrive; the others will be left behind to struggle, especially in the economic climate we have today… yet change is nothing new to business.

Technology’s revolutionary influence
Today technology runs through all businesses, yet in some companies, the utilization is really low. Most businesses have a significant investment in technology. Yet in many enterprises, the workstations are relegated to fancy word processors and little more. To stay competitive it is essential that today’s business capitalize on their technology infrastructure to the greatest practical degree.

Let’s identify some technologies that should appear on everyone’s list, technologies that will impact a wide range of horizontal and vertical industries:

eBusiness
In many enterprises eBusiness is misunderstood. Those businesses think eBusiness is just for dot coms. The reality is that most any modern business can benefit from the things that electronic business processes can bring to it.

Getting Customers
The cost of acquisition of getting new customers is growing or out of control for many companies today. Advertising, marketing, prospecting, pre-qualifying and closing are critical business functions. By using the right technologies your company can lower its costs of acquiring new business and producing revenue.

Planning Strategies
Organizations today are building their enterprises around computing environments using networked and Internet-based systems. While these environments offer a number of business benefits, they also present challenges in migration, integration, and deployment which must be included in strategic planning.

Tracking Revenue
Developing a system to track daily revenue streams is crucial to maximizing company productivity and ROI. Many companies utilize computer based accounting, and they may outsource some financial services, however there are many benefits to be derived from an integrated, enterprise wide solution for both sales and GL.

Gaining Insight
To be successful, businesses need rapid, easy access to information about their customers, internal finances, and external market conditions—information collectively known as business intelligence. Without relevant data decisions may be more risky and may not be the best one for your situation.

Reducing Expenses
It is obvious to most managers and owners that you can improve cash flow by reducing overhead. When you perform an audit, it may not be readily apparent just where to make the cuts. Again, technology can help reduce your overhead through “virtual office” savings, “virtual meetings” and through a business database system that contains the necessary “intelligence” to facilitate a variable workforce which can expand and contract as demand requires.

Reducing Man Hours
Smart, progressive businesses know how to raise skill and efficiency levels to consolidate job descriptions - to do more work with fewer people. The proper implementation of technology can facilitate this, and can improve the overall efficiency of your staff. Become more independent from certain employees

Simplifying Work
Simplifying your business processes has many benefits, less stress, more productivity and higher profits. The work streamlining model process is to distill the most complicated business processes to a simpler level, by reducing the number of steps, make the process easier, and speed up the process. This may involve physical proximities as well as the technical logistics.

B2C Businesses
B2B businesses often embrace technology to use in specific ways such as with their supply chains, partner extranets, JIT inventory, and vertical marketing. B2C businesses are often at the forefront of using technology in their niche to compete and excel.

B2B Businesses
Modern B2C businesses often have favorite uses for technology such as online Web stores, POS systems for retail, RFID, and end to end integration for purchasing, shipping and receiving.