The same desert island idea is often applied to other topics, such as books, podcasts and movies, to single out those that someone values above all others.
So, we thought, why not ask this year’s Telstra Business Awards national finalists if there were one business technology they just couldn’t imagine doing without.
OK, sure, it’s a nonsense question really. Almost every business technology is partly or wholly reliant on every other piece of technology in your office, and palm trees don’t come fitted with power points. Yet, some businesses are so reliant on one or more bits of tech that were it to disappear their entire operation might disappear with it – or at least become far less viable or efficient.
So, which business technologies did they nominate as essential instead of merely convenient?
Of course, most businesses are not defined by their tech. Many similar businesses managed just fine before computers, the internet and all of these gadgets came along. However, in many cases, doing without would mean hiring more staff or reaching a much smaller customer base. Transactions might be considerably slower to complete, tasks more complicated or certain opportunities just not available.
In short, many micro and small businesses are only possible today because certain business technologies make them so.
Knowing which are indispensable and which are – in the wider scheme of things – more trivial can also give you greater focus on what’s really important to the success of your business. Then you can allocate your time and resources where they will do the most good.
If you’ve ever lost an afternoon to fiddling with an ultimately unimportant new digital gimmick or spent far more time tinkering with a minor web design detail instead of the actual web content, you’ll know what I mean.
