While 2020 presented many setbacks for business with the sudden onset of COVID-19, 2021 taught companies how to survive even in the midst of a pandemic. Many digital and technological solutions have played a prominent role in uplifting the business world and helping overcome the effects and challenges of the pandemic. However, as existing problems continue and new ones continually present themselves, many businesses continue to struggle.
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Below are the seven major challenges faced by modern businesses and the technological solutions that can help.
1. IT integration, Strategic Planning, and Maintenance
Many businesses that have recently embraced high-end digital solutions face IT integration issues. Many blunders can occur when conducting operations digitally, particularly when the business is new to this way of operating. Software integration tools and training by technology experts can help to avoid these issues. They can also help with effective planning before implementing new technology.
Strategic planning around how to use the implemented IT resources and technology is also a major problem. With new digital solutions, new types of maintenance issues also will pop up from time to time. Using the correct project management software and digital tools will be of great help to solve such issues, along with adequate training from experts.
2. Digital Payment Issues
With widespread digitization, many businesses that had never tried cashless payment methods adopted various digital modes of payment, such as mobile wallets and card reader options. However, many of them face a range of challenges because they may have overlooked certain nuances of such systems. For example, merely having a card reader may not help much, because today there are different models suitable for different business models.
For a restaurant, a wireless card reader is most useful as it can be taken to the customer’s seat for easy and convenient payment. Similarly, different swiping methods are available, including the ‘tap-to-pay’ option which can sense card proximity and do away with swiping. Therefore, choosing the right type of digital payment system can help you to avoid hassles from the start.
3. Digital Security
Cybersecurity is one of the biggest issues faced by organizations today. A cyberattack can compromise your critical digital assets and valuable information. It may also compromose your customers’ private data which is stored on your network. All this can lead to huge losses, both in terms of financial and reputation loss.
Applying some of the most robust cybersecurity software solutions available in the market can be of great help to solve such issues.
4. Technology-Related Fees and Expenses
As businesses adopted digital technology solutions, a new issue has emerged: their related fees and expenses. This new types of expenses need to be managed and budgeted.
The issue can be solved by using one of the many technology expense optimization software solutions available today. These tools maintain centralized records and validate and check invoices. They can also manage technology contracts and efficiently handle monthly expense allocations.
5. Regulatory Compliance
With the adoption of digital technology, businesses now have the additional responsibility of regulatory compliance. A big part of compliance is about safeguarding the security and privacy of the digital data you handle.
There are various regulations in place to protect customer data including GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) legislation. Additionally, certain industries have specific regulations to comply with, such as the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) for the healthcare sector and the PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) for the finance sectors.
6. Data Backup Issues
When enterprises go digital, they should also be aware that more of their data has turned digital, and this comes with certain backup responsibilities. If you accidentally delete something or information is lost because a power failure, critical and highly valuable data may be lost.
Cybersecurity concerns are an even more serious issues, where cybercriminals could lock and encrypt your data beyond retrieval. In such cases, the only way out is to rely on backup. Make sure you have a reliable and effective backup solution in place.
7. Marketing and Customer Service Challenges
As businesses moved online, so did a big part of marketing. Platforms that facilitate digital marketing and advertising, including social media marketing can be extremely helpful for businesses. Additionally, chatbots with advanced features like Artificial Intelligence (AI) can help in answering customer queries, assisting them in selecting a product, and providing solutions to many of their aftersales issues.
The problems businesses face today are overwhelmingly related to digital technology. With the onset of the pandemic, many businesses embraced digitization if they weren’t already. However, maintaining the technology is the real challenge, and technology itself is here to address the problems associated with technology.
