Smart Tech for Small Biz

Smaller, Smarter, Synced

I'm on several media lists as an expert source for technology quotes, especially for small business technology. One came through today that caught my eye as an interesting topic, but one that small and medium businesses should ignore. The question was about great new innovations in the pipeline. I suggest small businesses not look over the horizon but focus on what they're trying to accomplish this month. But when you do buy new software and hardware tools, focus one these innovations: Smaller, Smarter, and Synced.

The best place to see innovations transforming real products right now is the smart phones market, as the Apple iPhone update battles the new Palm Pre and various Blackberry models. All these phones are smaller than they were. All include hundreds or thousands of new applications which hopefully help you work smarter, although Apple has cornered the market on new apps right now. All include constant synchronization via voice, cellular data, and wireless networking protocol support. This battleground leads the tech industry for leapfrogging competition as innovations bubble up constantly.

When you buy technology, keep Smaller, Smarter, and Synced in mind. Smaller desktop computers are more energy efficient than larger ones, and desktop replacement laptops are more efficient still. Smaller generally means less power, as we saw with the wave of CRT monitor replacements by LCD monitors over the last decade.

Smarter, in technology, often means more manageability and control by administrators rather than users. Automatic features, like backups and updates, work better because they don't ask the user to remember something in order to protect the system. We've tried training users to be smarter, but now the trend is making the devices smarter, a shorter learning curve and less painful than trying to upgrade most users.

Synchronized means many things, but I include collaboration tools as a big part of the equation. Devices constantly synchronized to the network mean users can be synchronized with each other. Coworkers collaborate more easily, partners are pulled inside the decision loop sooner, and customers feel more a part of the process. Synchronized devices allow synchronized coworkers, which will, after management adjusts to a different working model, greatly improve business processes.

The new things in technology for this year? Same as the last 20 years: make devices smaller, make then smarter, and synchronize them. Not hard to say, but it has been hard to do. Luckily, vendors are really making progress toward making your modern business tools Smaller, Smarter, and Synched.

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