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If you read the business press, you know that big business has embraced the idea of “digital transformation” to enhance collaboration, improve connections with customers, and increase data security to stay competitive. What you might not realize is that the benefits of digital transformation are available to small businesses, too. In fact, upgrading digital resources in any organization can deliver a force multiplier effect that helps people achieve more every day.
- Enabling new ways of working
For many businesses, the COVID-19 pandemic brought about a cultural shift that continues to pay enhanced employee engagement dividends. In fact, in the 2022 Work Trend Index survey, 52% of employee respondents say they’re likely to consider transitioning to hybrid within a year. They also said they’re more likely than before to prioritize well-being over work. In short, they want a better employee experience. With hybrid and remote work now commonplace, many businesses are realizing workplace flexibility can help attract and keep top talent. Supporting this new reality with effective collaboration technology is smart business.
Modern collaboration applications make it possible for workers at any business to meet, share information, and track projects more efficiently. What’s more, they enable small businesses to connect with distant customers and suppliers while avoiding the time and cost of travel. Such enhanced collaboration helped many businesses survive and thrive during office shutdowns and showed business owners and workers that a daily trip to the office wasn’t necessary for a business to stay productive.
- Strengthening customer connections
Today’s customers are more sophisticated and demanding than ever. Their ability to research and compare companies they might want to do business with gives them a lot of power.
Increasingly, the first contact businesses have with customers is digital, so being able to capture data about who’s visiting your website, responding to your digital ads, or engaging with your social media is key. By harnessing that data and drawing actionable insights with easy-to-use digital marketing tools or a powerful marketing platform, business owners can shape individualized customer journeys that attract and engage target audiences more effectively and foster deeper business relationships with them.
- Reining in cyberthreats
Data security is now among the biggest concerns for small-business owners, and for good reason. Research shows that small businesses make up one-half to three-quarters of ransomware victims, and overall ransomware attacks have risen 300% in recent years.1 Traditional antivirus software is no longer your best defense against the phishing, social engineering, web applications, and mobile malware that today’s cybercriminals use in network attacks. Such cyberattacks aren’t just inconvenient, they’re also dangerous and costly.
Unfortunately, security threats are likely to keep increasing. A recent article from Microsoft found there are now 921 password attacks per second—or 79.5M attacks per day—a data point that has nearly doubled in the past year.2
Small Business Solutions
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Digitally transforming a business’s approach to security is the best way to protect its data, people, and profitability. Upgrading from traditional antivirus software to an enterprise-grade security solution protects a small business’s apps, data, identity, and devices. That gives owners peace of mind and more time to focus on growing their business.
Simplifying digital transformation
Although digital transformation might sound like a big undertaking for a small business, it’s anything but that. It’s really just the process of empowering people to achieve more using technology. Taking your small business digital will save you time, protect your data, and allow you to focus on what’s most important: your customers.
To get an idea of all the ways Microsoft technologies can support digital transformation in your business, schedule a consultation with a product expert to learn more about the right solutions for your business.
About the author
The Escape Business Solutions 365 team is focused on sharing resources to help you start, run, and grow your business.
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