How Gadgets Have Changed The Business World
In today’s world of fast advancing technology, no one can avoid using technological gadgets. More and more people around the globe rely on phones, tablets, computers and other devices as essential parts of their daily lives. Due to the ever-changing technologies, every aspect of human life is affected, including our health. An area that receives great effect from technology is business. The way businesses operations were carried out 10 years ago is completely different from the way they are performed today. Gadgets and their technologies have allowed us to discover new ways of conducting business. These gadgets make operations easier for clients and business owners, with the greatest benefit being saving time and money.
So, what are the ways in which gadgets have changed the business world?
Communication
Mobile phones, tablets, iPhones, computers and other devices have made communication easier and instantaneous. A manager can communicate to subordinates from anywhere in the world and receive results of an assignment at any time. Colleagues can communicate with each other and with the boss while each one is at the comfort of their homes. There are small or no costs at all for communicating across the world today. This has greatly enhanced working efficiency and made things a lot easier to do. According to reliable research results, the number of people using a cell phone increased from 12.4 million to over 6 billion between 1990 and 2011. This was about 87% of the global population by then. Today, 90% of handset sales are attributed to the sale of smartphones.
Marketing
In older days, a company would hire personnel to go around a target area and preach about one or several of their products. This was a costly and inefficient way of advertising. However, the internet, particularly the social media has revolutionized marketing. Companies now use their websites, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other sites to advertise their products and services. This is a very effective way of marketing since according to research, people all over the world (especially the youth) spend a considerable amount of time in social media sites and the internet in general.
Data storage
Traditionally, any kind of data would be stored either in writing, audio or video record. This forms of data storage required a lot of storage space and retrieving data that was stored long time ago would be tasking. Transportation of data was another problem. The storage materials, files and tapes would be transported through road, air or railway, which involved a lot of costs. That sounds like a ridiculous story today as storage has been made so effortlessly simple that the entire information about an enterprise can be exchanged between two locations in a matter of seconds.
Gadgets such as memory cards, flash disks and hard disks have replaced traditional data storage equipment. With the current technology, businesses are shifting to off-site data storage through cloud storage. Today, it is hard to think of how any business can be run without a computer.
Software
Some business operations today are operated by automated software, saving business money and increasing the efficiency of the operation. These operations include banking (e.g. ATM machines), information back up, marketing and so on.
Technology and the internet are the main factors behind the change that we experience in conducting business. More and more gadgets are being invented, some of which we never thought could exist such as the cheat watch. These two factors have brought many benefits such as lowering business costs, increasing efficiency and security and decreasing the time taken in business operations. We hope for more advancement that will improve further the way businesses are carried out.