This article is written by Mark Monfort, Head of Data Analytics and Technology.
A someone who’s been a part of the technology industry since 2010, it’s been an interesting ride. For the most part, despite the potential for good, many businesses have not embraced technology as much as they can. On the one hand we have had cloud adoption for many applications but on the other, we’re still doing things manually like copying and pasting data from one system to another or doing repetitive tasks in Excel.
If you have questions on how Prosperity Advisers could help you with your business situations then feel free to get in touch. We provide a wide range of business advisory and accounting services along with the data analytics work that I specialise in. Some things from a data analytics perspective that we can help out with include:
I’ve often wondered what the missing link has been because there are businesses that have embraced these capabilities and seen gains in efficiencies which have driven new streams of revenue or lowered costs and risks. Other businesses have been slow to follow suit here but if there is going to be any silver lining from the current coronavirus pandemic it’s that we will now, more than ever, have to rely on technology to help us pull through.
Another factor that is somewhat ironic in all of this is that despite the ease with which technology has made it easy to communicate good ideas and spread the truth, we’ve also seen quite the opposite with the manipulation of data in UK and US elections and the spread of fake news from both sides of a political aisle. Technology was meant for good yet we could used it poorly.
Now, we have a chance again to come together and use technology in a brand new way. I’ve heard stories from people in various industries checking up on their employees during daily Zoom or Microsoft Teams chats as well as online via messaging apps like Slack. They have been asking questions like what their team members are doing for their well-being and what actions they take related to that.
I’ve also seen people post stories about using technology to host yoga or other workout sessions with colleagues or show others what their remote working setup is like and sharing productivity tips and tricks. By doing all this, we are not just getting to know those in our team better but getting to know people that we did not know so well before.
Perhaps the way we connect with each other and get the most out of work will be better because instead of having the former situation where we tried bringing technology into our humanity, we’re now reversing this. We’re bringing humanity into our technology.
- Reviewing how your data flows throughout your business, especially if you need to save time to focus on customers or get the job done with fewer resources.
- Building online applications to help you share more of your data with customers who might only be able to get that service from you online.
- Discovery of new insights which could be in the form of new data or analytical processes that can help you make faster and better decisions.
