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When you attend a Broadway musical, it’s easy to get swept up in the magic happening on stage — the music, dancing, acting, set, singing, props and costumes. Oftentimes though, no one in the audience thinks about the crew operating the lighting or sound or the team that must switch up the set between each scene. Who did the actors’ makeup and hair? Who decided what costume they’d wear? The same applies to business. Customers and the end users typically don’t think of the IT team behind the business, except, of course, if they encounter a problem and are on hold with a customer service representative for hours on end fighting to tell the recording what their issue is and to connect them with the right department. IT is the magic behind the operations of the business. If any musical is going to last on Broadway, the actors must trust their crew. The same goes for business and IT. For a business to operate at its fullest potential, there must be trust established between the leadership team and IT department.
Over the past decade, rapid advancements in technology have revolutionized the way business is conducted. It’s modern-day Darwinism, only on fast forward with a shot of adrenaline — adapt or die and do it quickly. Now, similar to the weather, it’s impossible to predict what will happen next week, let alone next year. Tomorrow could very well see the launch of a technology that would once again force us to adapt. For this very reason, we are beginning to see the emergence and growth of a field known as ‘enterprise architecture.’
While companies may be interested in adopting new technologies, implementing these tools effectively can be a challenge. Aside from ensuring the materials are correctly installed, the management team should check that everyone understands how to use the tools properly. Among the many potential obstacles presented through such a process, companies are at a greater advantage when everyone’s on board and in the know with the newest gadgets in which the company has invested. Management teams are often stuck on how to shed a positive light on change when some feel it’s more of a battle to learn a new way of working or new process. When you emphasize technological advancements can save time and drive innovation, employees will recognize its importance. While knowing the advantages of improving workflow with new tools, how do companies thrive and grow with new workplace technology? Here are five initiatives to help employees adapt to the change.
When we think of robots, many of us picture characters like R2-D2, C-3PO, Optimus Prime, WALL-E and others. While these are fictional characters, there’s no denying the benefits machines with human-like qualities can contribute to society. In today’s technology industry, artificial intelligence-driven robotic process automation (AI-driven RPA) is becoming more crucial in ensuring efficiency.
In an already highly automated world, COVID-19 forced us to become even more dependent on technology as we adapted to conducting business, interacting with friends and family, scheduling appointments, and purchasing products and services remotely from our computers and phones. As a result, the information technology (IT) industry has experienced significant change throughout the pandemic. When considering IT, some picture a company’s IT department or a professional who they can call when experiencing technical difficulties — but it’s so much more than that. IT refers to anything related to computing technology, such as networking, hardware, software, the internet or the people that work with these technologies. As we continue to evolve as a society from the effects of the pandemic, here are four ways it has changed IT forever.
Creativity involves more than encouraging employees to become thought leaders. Cultivating creativity is a process and should be a priority inside and out of the office. These skills enhance problem-solving, team collaboration, innovation, communication and growth. Creativity isn’t just reserved for writers and artists, it’s beneficial to all employees, helping them grow and push personal and professional boundaries. So how can cultivating creativity become a goal-oriented task on every company’s to-do list? In order to foster creativity, consider these tips: collaboration, do your homework, and embrace change and bravery.
Before you get too deep into the world of AI, it’s vital to ensure you understand its application and capabilities. Machine Learning is the branch of AI that is focused on building applications that learn from data and improve accuracy over time. This type of AI is most commonly used in businesses and can process large amounts of data quickly. Regardless of what AI service you’re seeking to fulfill your business needs, it can be an extremely useful tool in executing your business objectives.
It’s easy for a job candidate to rattle off their software proficiencies and case studies of happy bosses, clients or customers, and, unfortunately, it can sometimes be easy to overload a resume with a long list of skills and capabilities. However, a critical point of advancing one candidate in the interview process is to find out more about their personality and what attributes bring their resume to life. What will help HR managers fine tune their search for their company’s next rockstar employee is investigating candidates’ ability to identify, assess and manage the emotions of oneself, and to positively impact those of others and of groups.
If you take a look at any organization, you might find that there are many functioning as embedded teams, which are cross-functional groups working together with their individual talents toward a common goal. This type of team looks a little different than one conducting a more traditional outsourcing approach. Traditional outsourcing processes can lack in how they benefit an organization due to limited opportunities to get up close and personal with the work they’re trying to improve. This is where an embedded team has the advantage in long-term client projects.
Most small business owners have a treasure trove of information at their fingertips that could be the key to unlocking even more revenue and spurring growth. You probably already use spreadsheets, databases and customer relationship management tools to manage the business on a daily basis. Therefore, the question then becomes how to leverage this data to analyze what's working well, what product or service is most successful, or what efficiencies could be gained? It’s time to consider the power of data aggregation. IBM defines data aggregation as the process where raw data is gathered and expressed in a summary form for statistical analysis. Raw data can be aggregated, or gathered over a period of time, to provide statistics and presented in a readable format so that management may gain insights about particular resources. So how should small business owners utilize data aggregation? Consider the following tips as starting points.
