This question cannot come at a more relevant time. With so much uncertainty, disruption for businesses is the new normal – this could be a global crisis, when the world economy faces strong headwinds or pandemics that totally disrupt our business & lives.
For a small business, this loss of productivity can be devastating. Yet it can be difficult to prevent unexpected business disruption, said Raz Mohamad, Sales Director, Small Business, Commercial and Distribution, Southeast Asia at Cisco. In a conversation with TechTarget, Mohamad says that being prepared and embracing digital transformation can help small businesses stay on track.
TechTarget: What can small businesses do to survive and thrive when faced with an uncertain future?
Raz Mohamad: By being digital ready and taking the right strategic steps, small businesses can keep their company running in these ever-changing business conditions. For companies of all sizes – not just small businesses – strong business performance is related to using IT to maximize efficiency, revenue, and customer satisfaction. We have seen how companies that are further along with their digital transformation efforts cope much better with disruption and have a clear advantage over their competition.
The challenge is that many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are in the ‘Digital Indifferent’ stage of digital maturity, where digital efforts are often reactive to market changes, rather than driven by a proactive tactical approach, according to findings from Cisco’s 2019 APAC SMB Digital Maturity Index.
It may not always be easy to make changes or to overhaul approaches that used to work perfectly well before, but tapping more efficient ways of working, reaching and engaging better with customers, can help businesses to thrive.
In the current context when the world is gripped with a pandemic, schools being shut, countries in lockdown, the need for adopting technology has never been so critical. In this uncertain environment, technology becomes a key pillar of how businesses navigate through this crisis. Technology enables businesses to keep their services running, enables employees to work from home, and most importantly allows businesses to continue to serve their customers.
TechTarget: What are some strategic steps small businesses can take to keep their company agile?
Raz Mohamad: A strategic step is to deploy collaboration tools that allow the ability to hold virtual online meetings and to chat, allowing employees to work together without being in the same room. This enables remote working and a mobile workforce, connecting staff and providing them with the flexibility to work anywhere they want.
Look at each of your business processes and consider how you can automate them to be more efficient. There are many tools that can help automate different tasks and processes. This could mean securing your network connectivity with network security, or using smart cameras to gain business insights into areas ranging from foot traffic to identifying which displays are attracting attention, or parking utilization.
TechTarget: What would you say are the challenges that small businesses face to progress in digital maturity?
Raz Mohamad: The Cisco study found that the biggest hurdles Asia-Pacific SMBs are facing to digitally transform include: the lack of digital skills and talent within their organizations, the lack of insight into operational and customer data, and the lack of a robust IT platform to enable digital transformation.
The scale at which companies digitize may be different, but even the most traditional companies have gone digital by connecting with customers through social media, having a company website or embracing mobility.
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Download NowTechTarget: Cisco built its reputation as a technology provider for larger businesses. How has Cisco translated that experience for small businesses?
Raz Mohamad: Cisco’s goal is to give small businesses access to the same best-in-class technology innovation as our enterprise customers, but ensuring that it makes sense for their business and also balancing it with simplicity and usability.
Our portfolio of purpose-built small business solutions – under the Cisco Designed brand – are all about value and are created to make buying, installation and maintenance simple.
We understand that IT systems can be complex and expensive to maintain, especially with the limited IT resources of a small business. This new portfolio of offerings has products scaled for small businesses, and brings together the power of machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud-driven solutions. For example, the new Cisco Business Wireless Mobile App offers powerful functionality by providing a simple way for an individual or company to configure and manage networks in any location, all from the convenience of their smartphone.
The newly launched Cisco Designed portfolio is also curated in a way where our new bundles and offers focus on key technology areas to support rapidly growing business use cases such as “Quick Office Setup”, “Secure Guest Wi-Fi”, “Seamless Remote Work Experience”, “Ransomware Protection” and “Safe Business Transactions”, targeted to further reduce cost and complexity while improving operational efficiency for small businesses.
TechTarget: If you had to select one key takeaway for small business leaders, what would it be?
Raz Mohamad: Small businesses don’t have to recreate the wheel to digitally transform effectively. Try to see what others are doing in the industry and seek external help. Incremental change is better than having no change. In these current times when faced with lockdowns and uncertainty… having a digital organization is the new normal. While we all hope that the pandemic is resolved as soon as possible, it has highlighted that businesses need to be Digital Native regardless of their size.
Learn more about how you can build business continuity plan and increase business resilience at the Cisco Connect ASEAN Virtual Event this 20th May 2020. Learn from keynotes, technical sessions, demos and more, delivered online directly to you in the comfort of your own home.
Register now: www.cisco.com/sg/virtualconnect2020
