If you are starting a small business or are currently a business owner you need to pay close attention to the role that new technology is playing in the landscape of consumerism and how companies do business. If you thought that people wanted quick, easy, and user-friendly solutions years ago, times that by about one hundred and that is where we are at today. Apps can help with everything from project management, to accounting needs, to inventory control, and in order to maintain a competitive edge, you will need to be familiar with them.

Traffic and Transportation Apps

Both everyday people and business owners alike use traffic and transportation apps to propel themselves forward. The benefits that these apps can provide you include road safety tips, route optimization, and real-time weather patterns that might affect your transit. Paired with in-office solutions like GPS tracking software these innovations are transforming the way that fleets and logistics companies operate to meet the high standards of today’s consumers in terms of delivery of products and services.

Websites like Samsara.com go into greater detail about how advantageous it is to be able to remotely track your equipment and the products you transport. Here you can review a guide on everything you need to know about GPS tracking for trucks. Even if this is not your specific niche, the knowledge of both these software programs and how they work in tandem with apps is a benefit because chances are whatever your niche is, there is a supply chain element that you will want to both understand and have running smoothly so that your business is not negatively impacted.

Accounting Apps

Of all the processes that you need to closely monitor when running a small business, your financial strategy should be near the top. If you do not have a firm grasp on the monetary comings and goings of your business things can spiral out of control quicker than you realize. Even as an entrepreneur who knows about and expects ebbs and flow in the cash stream, using apps to help with accounting can provide you with the analytics you need to make highly informed decisions.

Since this is such a great need, apps for small business accounting is commonplace. Work closely with the members of your team who handle the accounting projects to understand what you do and do not need from an app. Many will offer free trial periods and opportunities to familiarize yourself with the features before you formally commit to your final choice. Another great perk of an accounting app is that the possibility for human error is mostly eliminated. Automation of your finances means that the figures you are looking at in black and white are as exact and correct as they can be and not dependent upon things like if your bookkeeper paid enough attention or minimized distractions when inputting figures.

Video Conferencing

It is hardly a secret that remote work and hybrid teams are here to stay. Video conferencing tools have become critical to operations across every industry in the world. Of all the tech trends changing lives the updates and innovations surrounding ways to unite remote teams is at the top. Think about what this means for your specific business. Do you need these tools to be able to help with productivity and project management as well as with communication?

In many cases, these apps also come with in-app messaging that can essentially replace the need to send an email or make a call. Many complain all the time about how their inbox can become cluttered and unmanageable out of nowhere; these apps can mitigate those issues. Imagine being able to also communication through type, during a video conference. This allows for collaboration and question asking to still thrive without interrupting a presentation for the entire group.

Cloud Collaboration

Keeping in theme with remote and hybrid teams, small business owners need to know about, and put into practice, cloud collaboration. Bringing teams together in spite of physical distance and bridging the gap of both time and space is one of the best ways to ensure that everyone stays on task, remains accountable, and has on demand access to materials they need to do their jobs. Companies like Dropbox, for example, have apps that are insanely user friendly and can translate between mobile and stationary work.

Giving yourself as a small business owner, and your employees as well, the ability to collaborate in an environment that still supports the ability to work from home, or anywhere with an internet connection for that matter, is revolutionary. These solutions also offer opportunities for dividing responsibilities between team members that feels authentic to each person’s role. Cloud collaboration apps have made it almost impossible for one person to do all the heavy lifting while another collects the credit, for example.