How small business can adopt new tech: Don’t change a thing
Posted by Gary Keorkunian | Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011Posted in Small Business Technology | comments">1 Comment »
by Serguei Sofinskit, Intermedia, Special to ZDNet, March 23, 2011
Commentary - When it comes to using technology to improve their profits, the first place small businesses should lookto is the success of social networks. This is not a recommendation to set up a Facebook page or Twitterfeed, although those actions can be valuable, instead, it’s a recommendation to take cues from how social networks operate.
Social networks amplify basic human behaviors rather than asking people to substantively change behaviors. Take Facebook. You use it to talk with friends, see what friends are doing, and share with friends what you are doing. The underlying human behaviors are not changed. They are amplified by the network’s scale.
However, when it comes to small business technology, IT decision makers – and vendors – often ask people to change their behavior. Employees are asked to conform to new processes, re-learning how to work. Classic examples include complex CRM or document management systems that introduce multiple layers to existing ways of communicating. The required behavior change is a big reason why so few small businesses successfully adopt enterprise IT beyond email and a website.
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