Is Your Business Evolving or standing still?

TORONTO - May 22, 2015 - PRLog -- In history, there have been many stories of business success and business failures. Many of them come down to companies suffering from slow decision making and refusal to evolve. Is your business evolving?

It is no surprise that today, all companies are faced with multiple challenges in a fast-moving economy. For this reason, businesses should embrace evolution and change because if they don’t, they will lose their competitive edge and fail to keep up with the market, competition and client base.

Here are some areas to consider when looking to evolve to the next step:

Technology

This is an obvious one however mostly misunderstood.  Many companies think because they use technology already, they are up-to-date and competitive.  They could not be more wrong.  Change and evolution results in the adoption of new technology which can be disruptive at first however in the end it will ultimately increase productivity and profitability.

Fix:  Have a professional IT consulting (http://365itsolutions.com/) company perform a network assessment (http://365itsolutions.com/offer/) of your current network.  This should include a plan of what has to addressed now, six months from now and how to address future business goals.  Assessments should always include project budget costs.

Communication

Have you noticed, businesses do not communicate as we once did and technology has taken over. Businesses are now in communication via phone however busy signal is a thing of the past as well as your phone following you everywhere. People are no longer do business via making calls to find out if they might be a useful resources, they will Google for experts online as well as through social media sites. This is all great but this is a double edge sword, on one side you have to be engaged with social media and many other forms to find new leads for your business.  On the other end, you have to be available to communicate with the lead in order to turn it into a sale.

Fix:  There are many great tools to help your business manage its presence online and internally.  You should look at many great cloud services (http://365itsolutions.com/cloud-services-toronto/) and apps that can help your business be more productive and turn marketing time and money in to real sales.

Economy

The economy impacts all companies in positive and negative ways and this is where change and evolution make a very strong presence. In a strong economy, there will always be a demand for products and services. In a weak economy, this is where problems arise and companies find themselves making difficult decisions. It is extremely important that a business manages both ends of the spectrum as it is critical for organizations that want to maintain a strong and profitable company.

Fix:  For this reason, many companies turn to outsourcing (http://365itsolutions.com/it-support-and-solutions-toronto/) in our case a managed IT services provider (http://365itsolutions.com/managed-it-services-toronto/) or offshoring to protect their business and bottom line. There is a big difference between outsourcing and offshoring however that is a separate conversation. This gives companies great flexibility as you get what you need in a good or bad economy. You can scale your teams as needed.

Challenging Your Current Business Model

Have you ever looked at your current business policy or procedure and simply ask the question “Why?”?  Asking “why” can be one of the greatest questions in business and lead to new ideas, new innovations and new procedures that can impact the bottom line.  As a business leader, if you do not ask “why”, how can your business evolve to the next step and change your results?  Technology can bring new ways at handling client needs, new ways of delivering services or new ways to attract new client in new markets.

You can also benefit from new consultants or employees as they bring a fresh look on your current status. These people or organizations can be especially valuable as they can often point to areas of opportunity for improvement that might be overlooked by employees that have been involved with your company for a long time. Let’s not rule out current employees either as they should to question why things are done a certain way and look for new ways to get work done faster, better and with higher levels of quality and service.

Fix:  Try a fresh approach, bring in some fresh eyes or consultants to take a look at the day-to-day. You would be amazed at how much can come out of this and how it can impact your business.  Also, many industries have their own associations with professionals such as yourself facing the same challenges.  Now you might not be interested in discussing this with a competitor in your backyard but about if you are in Toronto and they are in Edmonton?  There can be some excellent knowledge and experience transfer there.

365 iT SOLUTIONS is an industry leading IT consulting firm based out of Toronto with Canadian talent servicing multiple markets including construction, manufacturing, professional services and healthcare.