With technology seamlessly keeping together our entire lives these days, it isn't a surprise that small business's are starting to rely on group work technology as much as the big corporations. These programs are very helpful in the larger corporations because it makes everyone accustom to the same protocol, and "standardizes" all operations.
My father owns a small business of about 9 employees. salesmen, an accountant, a secretary, and him self, the main salesman and CEO. He has been in business for close to 30 years, and has very particular ways of doing things. In his way of business, which moves on the fly so fast, it is hard for him to rely on such a tool to get information out. His main hurdle would be that since he is on the road so much, and only available to answer his 100's of emails when on the road 2 times a day, he diverts many issues to his secretary. All of his employees accustom to his normal protocol of calling and emailing with no organization, they would not reap any benefits from this type of system. The time it would take his secretary to learn the new system and how to use the new collaboration system would negatively affect their operations. too much of his business is relied on phone calls and negotiation, and these systems do not have a good enough substitute for a conference call. this is most beneficial to larger business's of around 20 or more.
Is Social Gaming Crossing the Line?
14 years ago
With a business as small as your father's, it makes sense that it is unnecessary to use technology to increase communication. But there may be other scenarios where technology can help - such as organization of documents or groups calendars.
ReplyDeleteMy dad is a small business owner as well. In fact, he only has 3 employees, but technology works great for him. Sure, he doesn't need intense networks to connect everyone in the office since they are 20 feet from each other, but they have databases and servers to make their business more efficient.
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