5 Tips for Choosing the Best Tech Solutions for Your Business

Tips for choosing the best tech solutions

If your business is in the market for new tech products, there are a few steps you can take to help you choose with confidence. 

Do your research. 

Because business-to-business technology is a burgeoning field, there are often dozens of companies eager to meet your business’s needs with their products. Make sure you take the time to outline what exactly you need a product to do. How can it make your employees’ work easier or your product more appealing to customers? What are the pain points in your current system? 

“With so many technology products on the market, choosing the right solution often requires diligent research,” Durham said.

If you’re not familiar with the technology you’re shopping for, take the time to learn the basics about its function. Then, compare the product guides each company provides to your notes about your company’s needs and concerns. Consult trusted business publications for reviews, rankings and lists. 

Talk to your peers.

If you’re considering a new tech solution for your company, tap into your professional network of small business owners across similar fields. While every company is different, they can offer you valuable insights about what has and has not worked for their teams and why. In addition, sometimes vendors offer their customers referral programs. If your peers can point you toward a great product, each of your businesses could reap the benefits. 

Request demos from vendors.

Once you’ve narrowed down your options to a few top picks, schedule some demonstrations from each vendor to get a better feel for how they work in practice. Typically, you’ll have a short “discovery call” with vendors first so they can build the demonstration around your company’s circumstances. Before the demos begin, work with your team to develop a rubric for evaluating each demo and to establish a list of questions to ask the vendor. Try to schedule demos so that the employees who actually use the technology, or at least a representative from their team, can attend. 

Try free trials. 

In addition to demos, many vendors offer free trials of their products that your business can try on for a few weeks at a time. Once you settle on a product that seems like a good fit, ask if the company provides free trials. This way, your employees can determine whether the software actually suits your company’s processes and adequately addresses the challenges it’s meant to overcome. 

Gather feedback from your team. 

Throughout the demo and free trial periods, it’s important to collect as much information as you can from your team. As your employees test a new product, encourage them to consider the rubric you’ve developed to evaluate it. Even after your company purchases new technology, try asking your employees for feedback on its implementation at team meetings or through employee surveys. You don’t want to continue paying for a product that does not contribute to the business’s operations. If the software is client-facing, you can also seek feedback about their experience by incentivizing reviews. 

Factors to consider when choosing tech solutions 

To get the most out of their investments, Durham said businesses should consider the following five factors when choosing any new software or technology solution:

A rich user experience

Business owners and employees often have to accomplish a wide range of tasks on the go or on short notice. You can use technology to make that experience smoother by  implementing a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that offers an intuitive user interface across a range of devices based on consistency, simplicity and intelligence – one that aims to drive increased user productivity and streamline the tasks at hand. 

Evolving capabilities

In the ever-changing workplace, it’s important to have technology that can evolve as quickly as your business. Cloud-based platforms are designed for scalability to meet growing customer demands. As a company grows and needs to add additional services from a technology vendor, the new features and functionality should be easily and seamlessly integrated with little to no disruption to the business owner. With cloud-based platforms, the vendor manages regular system updates, ensuring that the platform is running smoothly. That way, the business owner can stay focused on business goals rather than the system.

Accessibility

One of the major benefits of a SaaS platform is that users can access it from anywhere at any time. Not only does this make it easier for business owners to do what they need to when they need to, but it also allows them to grant secure access to employees and partners on their own devices. Additionally, mobile solutions enable business owners to manage their enterprises when on the go, while configurable desktops can help create easy-to-use actions and workflows for improved productivity.

Security

When it comes to a company’s financial data, employees’ personally identifiable information or other proprietary information, security is a top priority for business owners. Often, a company’s business information can be better protected in an SaaS solution than in traditional software. SaaS vendors take extra steps to keep their clients’ data protected, and they have access to top-rated data centers and technologies that most small and midsize business owners don’t.

Customer service

The vendor-client relationship can make or break the success of a SaaS platform. Your team will inevitably have questions about the tool during its implementation period as well as the day-to-day use of the system, so it’s always a good idea to research vendors’ service models to ensure live help will be available when you need it. 

Tech solutions can bring your business to the next level

Ultimately, choosing the best software for your business requires you to understand your customers’ needs, the day-to-day work of your employees and your overarching business goals. Make sure any tech solutions your company adopts complement its existing work. As your business grows, make sure your tech solutions continue to alleviate pain points, not add to them. The same attitude of constant improvement you have toward your company can help you ensure that the tools you use remain a great fit. Once you’ve implemented tech to streamline your processes and overcome operational hurdles, your business can soar.