Blog Spot

• Commodity versus Added Value - 21/05/2013
• Competition: Niche - 15/05/2013
• Competition: Stealing your Profits – Past, Present or Future? - 08/05/2013
• Myth Four: It’s better to put up with poor employees than risk a tribunal - 01/05/2013
• Myth Three: If someone’s bad at their job, you need to lose them fast - 29/04/2013
• Myth Two: Most staff do it for the pay – they’re not interested - 24/04/2013
• Myth One: You just can’t find good staff - 17/04/2013
• Find the real profit in your business - 09/04/2013
• managing the resources in a business - 03/04/2013
• Skills - 02/04/2013
• Products - 27/03/2013
• having trouble with stuff - 20/03/2013
• The hidden profit loss…. - 13/03/2013
• Message - 06/03/2013
• KPI’s – Measuring and Monitoring - 27/02/2013
• Staff – Recruitment, Management and Monitoring - 25/02/2013
• Booking the holidays you deserve? - 20/02/2013
• Are you a business leader booking the holidays you deserve? - 11/02/2013
• Clicks to cash £££ - 30/01/2013
• Three approaches to customer service - 23/01/2013
• Website mastery - 14/01/2013
• How to create the marketing mind-set of high growth companies - 09/01/2013
• Planning is Not Everything – Successful Implementation is Key - 04/01/2013
• Keys to achieving a Successful 2013 - 03/01/2013
• What is Your New Year’s Resolution for 2013? - 27/12/2012
• A Decent Christmas Present – BUSINESS GROWTH! - 17/12/2012
• we thought we would end with a competition - 05/12/2012
• Cash flow, not sales, is the reality in business - 28/11/2012
• Sales are not the most important issue in a business… - 21/11/2012
• Sales are not the most important issue in a business… - 13/11/2012
• Where’s price ranked on buying decisions? - 31/10/2012
• How good is your Sales conversion process? - 24/10/2012
• The recent embarrassment for the Government - 15/10/2012
• Sell, sell and sell some more - 09/10/2012
• The edge over the competition - 03/10/2012
• The benefits that the IT explosion has given us - 25/09/2012
• Top 5 business IT tools - 18/09/2012
• Managing the wizard -  the role of your IT Manager or supplier? - 10/09/2012
• Setting achievable and challenging goals - 04/09/2012
• Goals for your business and personal life - 29/08/2012
• Knowledge to ensure the best chances for your business - 21/08/2012
• A business owners new found curiosity - 13/08/2012
• Is your business life a dream or a nightmare?.... - 13/08/2012
• fascinating tour of the frustrations and triumphs of customer service - 03/08/2012
• We explore the fascinating world of customer service - 30/07/2012
• An area of reflection for everyone that owns a business… - 19/07/2012
• I want to manage an airport… - 13/07/2012
• Too many business plans, not enough business - 21/05/2012

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Top 5 business IT tools

By The ICON Team on 18/09/2012 - 0 Comments

The recent article about managing the IT wizard raises the interesting subject of inventions or innovations that affect the way a business is run.  It prompted me to think a little more about some of the tools we use today and take for granted. I started to think about it purely from the perspective of how these tools can help the business owner in their specific role of running their business.

I am a firm believer in the importance of accurate and timely information (based on data) to help a business owner be in control.  The two elements of accurate and timely lead me to my first fundamental “tool” which is the ability to pass information over vast distances pretty much instantaneously be it via analogue cable digital radio or somewhere in between.  Then there are the decoding systems be they telephones or computers.  However I see these as just the enablers. Whilst there are software options that are doing something brand new the most powerful uses of technology in my view take fundamental business tools and “just” make them more accurate and more timely.

So here are a possible top 5 business IT tools, but having thought about them one by one they are all based on the fundamentals of business that people have been doing for hundreds of years all be it in a far more labour intensive way.
Electronic mail, Spread sheets, databases, search engines, CRM systems.   ………..
But how about electronic banking.  Is that new or once again just the same process of transferring money just done in a new faster, more secure way?

So please let us know what you think the greatest IT invention is that helps business owners run their businesses better. Maybe it’s a quill pen and some parchment to make a to do list and stick to it!!

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