Technological developments in recent years have become part of the routine of many companies. From small actions to complete automation, technology plays an important role in achieving consistent and long-lasting results.
However, technology also serves companies during times of crisis. With falling sales, reduced credit and rising costs, taking the right measures is crucial for business continuity.
Therefore, see how technological innovation in companies can help overcome the crisis:
1. Costs are reduced
During a crisis, no one can afford to lose money. Any extra spending can mean a loss of relevance in the market and more difficulty in achieving satisfactory results. Furthermore, having high costs causes profitability to fall and even become negative.
With investment in technology, on the other hand, costs are reduced through optimization. Through process automation, it is necessary to spend fewer resources to achieve the same result, or redesign them to find new ways to increase production without spending more. Therefore, the company can reduce operating expenses overall.
When you think that the best thing to do during a crisis is to save money, that does not mean that the business needs to stop in time. This reduction in costs is exactly what the financial sector needs to maintain growing investments and continue preparing for a new market boom.
2. Processes become more agile
In addition to the financial gain, another optimization provided by technological innovation in companies concerns time savings. With less human interference, processes take less time to be completed, with the same or greater efficiency.
In optimized processes, there is less room for errors and the need for rework. Employees have a better view of the entire production chain and can discover ways to improve their tasks to benefit the whole.
In this way, the operation becomes much more agile, increasing the company’s production capacity. In a time of crisis, this means doing more with less, reducing the need to use resources and increasing productivity in general.
3. Repetitive tasks are a thing of the past
For most of the industrial era, operating and managing a company was a series of repetitive and boring tasks. Think, for example, about the financial sector: how many professionals in the area spent their lives writing down and checking amounts in notebooks and paper documents?
Digital transformation has revolutionized this way of working. In addition to speeding up and reducing errors in daily life, new tools allow for data processing like never before. Week-long tasks take minutes, and reports and comparisons are made in real time.
This is such a significant revolution that the digitalization of processes has become a market requirement if the company wants to compete on equal terms at the top. When the next major crisis comes, it may already be too late to make up for lost time.
4. Employees can focus on the business
The great positive side effect of the end of repetitive tasks is what skilled and motivated professionals can do with the time they didn’t have before.
The market is currently witnessing a major change in the concentration of efforts within a company’s routine. People who were previously tied to data collection and analysis functions can now use technology to free themselves from these tasks and, at the same time, use the gains in BI to focus on the core business.
IT professionals, who used to spend their days managing the company’s network, can now think about how to implement technological processes to improve the quality of service or delivery to the end customer — offering a better experience and satisfaction.
Likewise, workers in the financial area can stop filling out spreadsheets all day and find savings and investment opportunities with the richer and more detailed data they have at their disposal.
5. Mobility increases
When implemented well, technology also provides greater flexibility and mobility to the business in general. With cloud computing, for example, the company’s system is accessible to employees from anywhere in the world.
Remote work is a major competitive advantage today. A system of this type allows for better communication with employees who are traveling, with external teams, and even with customers.
The fact that the information is stored in the cloud also allows the company’s management to make informed decisions from anywhere. This means that the company is not tied to just a few resources and locations, facilitating all of this strategic movement that is so essential in the current scenario.
6. The customer becomes closer
This brings us to what technology can do for the relationship between your company and the public. Resources and tools are creating a new way for companies to know, study and communicate with their customers.
On the one hand, we have management systems, which we have discussed extensively in this post. One of the data segments that they are able to collect and store is habits and information about customers, a gold mine for digital businesses.
With this type of support, it is possible to create more efficient marketing campaigns in times of crisis, for example, that deliver exactly what the customer needs at those times.
On the other hand, we have direct communication with the public. Quality in customer service is essential to create a relationship of familiarity and trust. To be successful in this area, technology allows the company to identify where to speak to its audience, how to speak to it and measure the results of these interactions.
All of this allows niches to be better explored. Consolidating a business in a smaller but more engaged demographic is the right recipe for ensuring loyal customers when the market is more retracted.
7. Results control becomes better
One of the main characteristics of the market during a crisis is volatility. Everything can change in a short space of time, and the change can even worsen the overall outlook.
Therefore, it is important for management to keep an eye on both market behavior and internal results, in order to anticipate any obstacles and make them more easily surmountable.
The cloud itself is an example of how technology can help in these cases. Centralized management systems collect, segment and analyze internal performance indicators and external benchmarks, both from the financial sector and the company’s operations.
In times of crisis, this data can be the difference between losing control of finances or becoming the benchmark for the next major market expansion.
8. Decision making is more assertive
The importance of these information controls lies in their ability to make quick and assertive decisions — a must when the market is uncertain. This type of innovation, through digital transformation, contributes to the reliability of the system, in addition to ensuring that analysis is carried out more easily.
Cross-referencing data becomes a much less bureaucratic task and, thanks to this, it is possible to find trends and relationships that would be lost in a mountain of individual reports.
Therefore, business decision-making becomes more assertive when technology is used. Cloud systems, SaaS, ERP, Artificial Intelligence: thanks to technology resources, management is better informed and can reduce risks.
More than that, decision-making also becomes faster and more dynamic, which helps managers find new opportunities that can make a difference in a crisis.
9. Security reaches another level
Another factor that needs to be taken into consideration is security. Many companies forgo major IT investments using vulnerabilities as an excuse, but they ignore how a good technological infrastructure can be the best solution against external risks.
With the use of cloud computing, data centers as a service, automatic backups and several layers of protection, it is possible to ensure that data is virtually incorruptible. Cloud backup is another great ally of digitalized businesses, as it prevents the loss of sensitive information for decision-making — even if an unforeseen situation occurs.
This is especially important because, during a crisis, losing data can mean a stain on the brand’s credibility, incurring unforeseen costs and even handing over your customers on a silver platter to your competitors.
10. Products become differentiated
With technology, products gain more quality and standardization. It is easier to meet stricter requirements when the process is automated, since the chances of error are lower.
In addition, operational optimization and automation allow for cheaper products, which contributes to an increase in the value perceived by customers. In other words, the product costs a little less, but for the consumer, it is worth much more because it offers more benefits.
As a result, products become differentiated, especially in relation to other competitors in the market. The company benefits from better and cheaper delivery. And you know that, in a time of crisis, trust is a decisive factor when it comes to purchasing.
11. Competitive advantage begins to exist
This leads to our next point: all of these factors together give the business an important competitive advantage. If the crisis has reached companies, it is possible that it has reached customers as well.
To convince a customer to spend in this scenario, it is necessary to present many more arguments, such as better quality and more affordable prices. A business that invests in technological innovation offers exactly that.
The tendency is for the public, in these more difficult months and years, to shift their spending to what is more familiar and safe. Satisfaction is very important. Working with this experience requires extensive knowledge of customer purchasing habits, information available in automated management systems and the inclusion of Business Intelligence in business decision-making.
And yes, this is the time to invest in technology! During a crisis, it is common for competitors to limit their investments. If your business does things differently and invests in digital transformation, it can stand out from the rest even in the most adverse times.
12. Investments are favored
Investing in technological innovation in companies during a crisis is an investment that leads to other investments. It works like this: thanks to the introduction of new technologies, the business starts to have more revenue and more profitability. Above all, it starts to have a more open view of the market. This leaves more resources and more paths available to outline new strategies.
In this way, the business can continue investing to become more robust. Eventually, this generates even more prominence in relation to competitors and allows the achievement of even more satisfactory results.
13. The business vision reaches 360º
If you reread all the topic titles in this post, you will realize that we have covered practically all the points that allow a business to grow and consolidate in any sector.
And it is no wonder. Digital transformation is not just a luxury or a simple competitive advantage that has become a trend; it is a complete revolution in the way companies operate and see themselves in the market.
The ultimate goal of including technology in a business is to have a system capable of seeing 360º, into the past, present and future, so that its managers have all the necessary information and can always make the right decision.
This is only possible with planning, investment in IT and joint participation from the entire company. By meeting these requirements, you will have all the tools to predict a crisis in advance, as well as plan and execute the perfect strategy to make the most of this difficult time.
Technological innovation in companies enables cost reduction, process acceleration, product differentiation and competitive advantage. As a result, it is possible to attract and convince customers more efficiently, which helps to ensure revenue consistency and overcome the crisis in general.
