Technology

Connectivity: How to be ready, leaner and more profitable

tools

Smart tools will make billions of shillings. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The consumer has become picky, chasing after convenience and value; unafraid to switch brands at whim or experiment with the latest fad.

They are mobile and increasingly connected to the Internet — at home and on their devices, where access to information and social networks underpin their world view and behaviour.

Competition for these consumer wallets and mindshare is at the core of any operation, whether an enterprise or a small to medium business.

It follows, therefore, that businesses must go all out and make effort to be on the same platforms as their customers.

Having a digital strategy, distilled here to focus on mobility and connectivity means that the hustler, the small business owner and the listed juggernaut must be connected to the information and infrastructure super highway.

It’s everything; from book keeping, human resources management, customer relationship management, resource planning, marketing to payments and communication, the tools that help business owners run more efficient, transparent and profitable.

Businesses now have a much lower cost with many service providers having adopted a shared services model riding off high availability infrastructure dubbed ‘the cloud’ provided globally by players such as Amazon with Amazon Web Services, Google with Google Cloud Services.

READ: How to build digital commerce platform for first-time users

Others are Microsoft with Azure and, locally, through custom and hybrid deployments such as those run by banks, payment and communication gateways.

I have seen numerous lean businesses run multi-million shilling operations making smart use of available tools and open knowledge.

It is great that connectivity service providers have gone all out to craft product and service bundles — fibre to the premise and mobile data, which would appeal to the different types and stages of businesses.

This buffet quite frankly means that every single business operation registered in Kenya, regardless of its vertical of operation should launch ready.

A ready business is one that can hit the ground running every day and maximise present and future opportunities. Get connected, stay connected.