Technology is progressing at an almost supersonic rate – it is continually evolving, changing and transforming the way we live our lives. It has also had a tremendous impact on the world of business; companies are in a constant race to capitalise on this in a bid to stay ahead of the game.

To give you a taster of what lies ahead, we’ve gathered together some of the most exciting technological developments for 2016 – and the ways in which they could change the way you run your business forever.

• Faster payments

In 2016, the friction of making payments is going to be reduced even further. With a litany of mobile payment solutions flooding the market, making payments is becoming as easy as sending a text.

Currently, only 17% of consumers pay for items using a smartphone most of the time, but this is set to change. The mobile payment industry is predicted to increase by billions of pounds in the coming years with the growing popularity of apps such as Apple Pay and PayPalApp, and forward-thinking businesses are already starting to adopt this new technology for the streamlining of future payments.

• Security steps up

In their rush to embrace the latest technology, many businesses have so-far placed security as an afterthought. Many SME owners know shockingly little about digital security; emails are left unsecure, phone systems are not fully encrypted and employee mobile devices are left unprotected. Statistics have shown that an astounding 86% of websites have at least one serious vulnerability, often more.

One of the biggest technological trends of 2016 will be in filling these holes, and ensuring that systems are adequately protected.

• Employee wearables

In 2016, wearables are expected to reach a whole new level of popularity. Smartwatches will be introducing a range of features from health and communication to fitness, making every day more efficient and connected than ever.

Seeing the direction that wearables are going, many companies are beginning to consider ways in which wearables can be integrated into their business processes. Some companies are even beginning to give wearables to their employees in order to track their progress and see how they interact with each other.

• Cloud-based solutions

As it stands, roughly 93% of businesses use the cloud for all or some of their business software. Due to its many benefits, it’s likely that more businesses will begin to adopt the storage system in 2016.

“Currently 68 percent of enterprises run less than a fifth of their application portfolios online, an unsustainably low figure given the necessity for connected systems and interaction with connected devices“

Increasingly sophisticated technological tools are now more affordable for small businesses than ever before, thanks to continuous innovation and competition. Cloud-based software solutions can enable even the smallest of start-ups to perform on a global stage like never before.

• The power of Mobile 

Businesses are going to need to start putting their mobile users first in 2016, as over half of all Google searches occurred on mobile devices in 2015. Applications that replace desktop-based activities are going to start being replaced, and internal systems are to become more mobile-friendly to increase connectedness.

Mobiles are not the only devices that are expected to become more prominent in the coming year. All other computers are starting to converge. There will be tablets that turn into laptops, smartphones that turn into monitors, among other things. Mobile operating systems are adapting and taking on a whole new definition. Apple, Google and Microsoft all want to make their mobile offerings more functional for both work and play, as a way of appealing to the mobile-first culture.

• The rise of the virtual workforce

A 2015 survey predicted that 60 percent of office-based workers will regularly work from home by 2022. This trend has seen a rise in productivity apps and collaboration platforms which allow teams to leverage technology to maintain a fully-distributed team, no matter where each employee is.

For small business, this can dramatically increase the talent pool that you’re outsourcing to, and make the limitations of geography a thing of the past.

• Automated marketing

Any work that your business can have automated is more time (and money) you can spend on other things. Systems such as Buffer can allow you to build up a backlog of social media posts so you don’t have to interrupt your work flow by continually updating them throughout the day, or paying someone else to do it for you.

Automated marketing can also help to reduce the considerable fees of outsourcing to a marketing agency, and enables marketers or business owners to specify a goal and have the software handle the tasks involved, reducing the burden on the business owner.

• Business intelligence

Business intelligence tools such as Google Analytics can provide and leverage real-time date and analysis to drive a faster and more detailed understanding of business processes, and help business owners to make informed decisions based on facts.

New developments in this technology will integrate such tools and remove the need for separate BI tools for dashboards, analysis, and reports.

All businesses, from the largest to the smallest, will be able to make the most of the power of this software in 2016.

As these developments change the way businesses and clients interact, a better understanding of user experience is now essential to driving success. Companies need to ask some basic questions about the user’s wants and desires, and then do an honest review of how their own technology could better meet these needs. The more your business is able to get on board with the latest developments in technology trends such as these, the more competitive and future-friendly your SME will become.

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Recent studies have shown that as many as 65% of small and medium sized businesses are losing time and money due to a failure to adopt technology, and use it to its full potential.

Although the large majority of SMEs do use the internet for business purposes, including online banking and emailing customers, almost a quarter of owners have admitted to not possessing the basic digital skills and knowledge beyond this. This is despite a proven correlation between digital skills and a high company turnover.

Key findings

• 59% of SMEs waste up to 10 hours a week on administration tasks, taking time from activity that could increase revenue and growth.
• 65% of SMEs admitted to using outdated Microsoft Office technology, decreasing productivity by not taking advantage of latest benefits.
• Giving SMEs back two hours each week could boost the UK economy by almost £9bn.

Over half of these businesses have websites (64%), but of those companies who do not have businesses, a shocking 77% believed it wasn’t necessary. This was either due to a lack of awareness of the prevalence of technology, or other preventive factors such as a belief that setting up a website would be expensive or time-consuming.

Websites were found to be least common in the primary, transport, accommodation and food service sectors.

‘Attitudinal barrier’

An ‘attitudinal barrier’ was found to be the biggest obstacle to SMEs forming and developing an online presence, caused by a lack of awareness about the benefits and opportunities available. The ‘barrier’ is especially evident in attitudes towards social media with a relatively small 36% currently on a social media platform. However, those that do use these channels have said that they have been beneficial in promoting their goods and services, as well as boosting direct sales.

Owners of small and medium businesses often hesitate to roll out new technologies because they lack the expertise and staff to properly manage them, but IT is universally understood to be a great enabler for businesses, regardless of size or sector. Technology allows you to do everything from organising, promoting, understanding and expanding your business on an unforeseen level, facilitating worker mobility and increasing your client and market reach many times over. In fact, SMEs who embrace technology have been found to grow two to three times faster.

European trend

This trend is true for the whole of Europe, which includes the 20 million SMEs that are the backbone of the EU economy. Regardless of their home country, entrepreneurs who were early technology adopters increased their annual revenues 15% faster than their competitors. Moreover, they managed to create jobs twice as fast as other small businesses.

It’s essential for Europe’s SMEs to stay ahead of the game when it comes to digital skills, for the sake of the recovering economy, and also to protect the benefits of this (and the next) wave of technology adoption.

What can you do?

So what can you do to ensure your small business is clued up on your digital potential? There are many free online courses in digital learning, which offer a great place to start. We’ve included some of our favourites below.

• http://www.digitalbusinessacademyuk.com/
• http://www.fluency.io/
• https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/categories/online-and-digital
• http://www.77academy.com/internet-marketing-course/
• https://www.edx.org/
• https://www.codecademy.com/

For more information on digital skills for business, take a look at this government resource.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/492889/DCMSDigitalSkillsReportJan2016.pdf

The post How a lack of tech skills are costing your SME time and money appeared first on Brighter Business by Opus Energy.

Creating a strong website and web presence, no matter how simple, is one of the most important things you can do to give credibility to your small business.

Currently, an estimated 40% of worldwide internet users buy products and services through the internet, either through a desktop, mobile or tablet platform. In total this adds up to over one billion global buyers – a figure that’s expected to rise considerably over the next few years.

It’s fair to assume that it’s more important than ever before for business owners to take practical steps towards creating a viable website, but how do you go about it?

We sat down with Sam McCulloch, Opus Energy’s resident User Experience expert, to break things down. According to Sam, user-experience isn’t a single factor in a site. It’s a combination of considerations that contribute to an overall experience.

So if you’re a business looking to create a website for the first time, where do you start?

First thing’s first. You’ll need to define the purpose of your site. On a practical level, be clear what your goals are – this includes both your business goals for the website, and your user’s goals when using it.

Really think about your target audience and what is important to them. Try to put yourself in your visitor’s position when visualising your website to help you find the best way to direct them to where they need to go.

What about the content?

Once you know your goals you need to think about creating content that reflects that. For example, if you’re a hardware store and know that your customers are looking for technical information on products, then make that clear and easy to find.

A clear and logical content structure is key. That is the biggest ‘win’ for websites, no matter what their function is.

From product descriptions to the copy that adorns each individual page, content must be natural, informative and relevant to the core purpose of your site.

It’s good to think about what kinds of factors go into a customer’s decision to engage with your business. What kind of information are people looking for in order to proceed to the eventual goal of your site; whether that’s making a sale or getting someone into your shop.

Here are some things to remember when creating content:

• What are you trying to communicate? keep it concise and to the point, using plain and simple language where possible. The aim is to get the point across in the clearest and most engaging way possible.
• Organise your site’s navigation to make it easy to understand and use
• Use good quality photos and images
• Make it SEO friendly. Find out more about that, here.
• Make sure you have a ‘way for prospective customers to get in touch with you. If you frequently get similar questions, it may be helpful to include answers in an FAQ style format, as it might make the difference between a conversion or not.

Now that you’ve got your purpose and content sorted, how do you go about designing the site?

You’ve got a couple of options here – you can either work with a professional designer on this or go it alone. Most importantly, though, you need to think about how you want your site to look.

When it comes to actually designing the look and feel, here are a few basic points to help:

• Make sure your style and layout choices are consistent, ensuring that any text is easy to read.
• Be obvious how a user can progress through the site. Buttons and links should be in logical places, and indicate that they are ‘interactive’ items to the visitor.
• Have a good hierarchy – make sure that your page design breaks up content with headers and sub-headers.

Consider how a user might view your website; devices come in all shapes and sizes now, so try and think how your customers might be consuming your content, and make sure they can do so easily! Given the rising popularity of smartphone technology, it’s imperative that your site is available in a usable and functioning version for mobile users. Without this, there’s a high risk of you losing business to more progressive rivals.

Also, don’t forget to keep your site consistent with your other branding materials.

 A note on budget

Consider how much investment you are willing/can afford to make going in. This will help you evaluate the viability of anything you look at, and frame any conversations you might have with professionals if you’re looking for help.

Be realistic when it comes to budget. Defining your purpose and how you hope the site to operate or look will help indicate cost, but be realistic with what your business can afford.

The below diagram shows that when it comes to the value, speed and quality of creating your website, you may need to compromise. It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to build a website that’s cheap and fast whilst still being high quality, for instance.

You might also want to set some budget aside for testing (see below).

Your website is an investment in your business, and you may want to consider a phased approach for its development if initial costs are likely to be too high.

Analyse and track

Gathering feedback can be done at a qualitative (where you sit a small batch of people down and ask them to try and perform a task, seeing where they stumble or struggle) or quantitative (where you see what trends large volumes of users demonstrate, using tracking tools such as google analytics or services such as usertesting.com) level.

Once your site is live, you need to constantly monitor how people are using it, and track results. Keep in mind that it can never be fully “complete”, and that improvements, tweaks and changes will always be a part of it.

A website is a necessity for anyone selling services or products, but even if you don’t sell anything directly online, a site can act as a sort of extension of your business card, clearly articulating the goods or services you offer.

Building a business website takes time, planning and effort, but it doesn’t have to be impossible. By understanding the basics, the functionality and the content, you can build a platform that works for and enhances your business.

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With UK business bills rising and the ever-present threat of global warming, it’s now more important than ever to become energy-aware and look at ways in which you can go about reducing your carbon footprint.

We’ve pulled together some of the most well-known gadgets to help you to monitor and manage your energy output, for simple and efficient ways to help both your pocket and the environment.

   Smart Thermostats

Smart thermostats allow you to change the energy settings of your house from a remote location, making it easier to manage your energy whilst on the move.

Radiator Tubes

These little gadgets sit on top of a water-filled radiator and suck up lost heat from behind it using a small fan. The fan then circulates the warm air around the room, allowing you to turn down your thermostat by as much as three degrees celsius.

Energy Management Systems

These are systems that allow you to control your home or office’s energy usage via remote control. Whether through an app on your smartphone or another kind of remote device, you can ensure lights and appliances are off, as well as making sure your house is warm and comfortable for when you get home.

LED Lighting

LED light bulbs offer the brightest light safely and for the least amount of money. Halogen and compact fluorescent lights haven’t been as readily accepted by consumers due to the poorer quality of the light, and worries about the mercury in fluorescent bulbs not being safe.

Energy Star Appliances

Energy Star certified products are appliances that offer significant savings in operation, often saving you enough money to pay for the appliance in just a few months. From washing machines to fridges to microwaves, make sure you check for the Energy Star.

Charging Stations

A major cause of energy waste around the home is power that is used up from electronics that are plugged in but not turned on, sucking as much as 8% of a home’s power for nothing. Charging stations will automatically turn off and stop power leaks such as these when phones or Mp3 players are fully charged.

Smart Power Strips

Smart power strips are another clever way to avoid power leaks. Instead of going around your house unplugging appliances every night, consider a smart power strip which cuts the power of anything plugged into it.

The gadgets above vary in price, but easily pay for themselves in the long run. It may be possible to get your landlord to agree to deduct the price of some of these items from your rent bill, as this is an easy way for them to upgrade the property at little expense.
Overall, gadgets such as these should be considered a wise investment in the future of your home, and the planet.

The post The best energy-saving gadgets appeared first on Brighter Business by Opus Energy.

For almost two years now, the global number of mobile users has been (soaring) ahead of the number of desktop users- and the numbers continue to rise.

This has huge implications on your corporate strategy and the approach you take to marketing your business through your website. More consumers than ever are using their mobiles to search for the products and services that your SME offers, but are you ready for them? Does your website offer an optimised mobile experience when accessed via a smartphone or tablet?

Making your site mobile user friendly doesn’t have to be a hassle, or even break the bank. There are plenty of ways to improve and adapt the content of your current website to keep up with the increasingly mobile demographic.

Mobile Website

One option for creating a mobile-friendly site is to recreate a version of your existing one which is optimised for mobile devices. (This approach ensures that all of your content and site features will load correctly on mobile devices while offering the exact user experience consumers get from your traditional website.)

However, an arguably better option would be to create something called a ‘responsive website’; a single site that will render correctly on both computers and mobile devices. This way, all development and ongoing maintenance can be invested into one single site, which saves both time and money.

Another benefit to responsive websites is that you’d avoid Google’s penalisations for duplicated content. This will improve your overall search ranking.

Apps

Depending on the services consumers are looking to get from your site, it could even be worth creating a task-orientated mobile app.

For example, restaurant customers might be looking to make reservations or view the menu and check opening times. A mobile app that is strictly used for scheduling, viewing files and giving alerts would be extremely useful to these consumers

There are many online tools you can use to create a simple but effective App, at little cost. Alternatively, you can hire a mobile app developer to create a fully-customised app at a higher cost. However don’t get an app unless you need one (link), as it could be an expensive and unnecessary drain on your time and resources.

Font and button sizes

When it comes to font size, you don’t want to make your users zoom in to read every bit of your content. Make it easy for them by adjusting your font size for maximum legibility; this should be at least 14px, or a minimum of 12px.

As for buttons, you need to make these as large and as visible as possible, reducing the risk that your visitor will miss it or accidentally reach the wrong page. For example, Apple’s design guidelines recommend button sizes to be at least 44px by 44px. Having clear direction and legible information on your site will increase conversions, especially for e-commerce sites.

Make it easy for customers

This leads us on to our next step- make it EASY for your customers to complete their objectives.

Design your site to help make it easier for your customer to complete their most common tasks: from task conception, to visiting your site, to task completion. Ask yourself, what do they want? They may be looking to be entertained, informed or reassured. Whatever they’re looking for, make sure you provide it.

An easy way to do this would be to outline the basic steps of your average customer’s journey. For example:

1. Customer clicks on site when searching for beds to buy
2. Customer browses through a selection of beds
3. Purchases the desired bed

The stages don’t have to be complicated, in fact it’s better if they’re not. Try to streamline the experience and reduce the number of user interactions.

Never stop testing

Once you have your mobile site up and running, don’t forget to test it. Not once, not from just one device, but regularly across a variety of devices. Check every page and every call to action, really put yourself in the position of the user, or ask a complete novice to test it for you. It’s far better that you find an error before a potential customer does.

Make sure that your users can easily complete the most common tasks, and prioritise making these as accessible as possible. Being able to support these tasks is critical to your SMEs growth, and this is why the measure of your mobile site is how well customers can complete their objectives.

However you approach the task of making your website mobile-friendly, you need to make sure it aligns with your strategic goals.

Your business goals, consumers’ needs, and your budget are the most important things to consider. (Match the mobile audience’s needs with the right content and the right ways to get that content, and you’ll create a mobile solution that adds to your ROI rather than just draining your marketing budget.)

Remember:

MAKE IT EASY FOR THE USER

Integrate mobile into your core business strategy and build a site that is useful for your mobile customers.

DON’T FORGET ABOUT SPEED

Users don’t like to wait for content to load. Use PageSpeed Insights to review and improve the speed of your site.

TEST YOUR SITE

Take the Mobile-Friendly Test to see if your site is mobile-friendly. If you have issues with the tool, ensure Google is crawling your site correctly.

The post The quick guide to a mobile-friendly website appeared first on Brighter Business by Opus Energy.

If you haven’t heard of it already, the Amazon Dash button is the latest fad in online retail shopping.

A simple device that allows you to order your favourite products at the press of a button, the Dash makes shopping almost effortless, and saves on time spent scrolling through your phone or ordering through a desktop.

You can stick one onto your coffee machine, and when you start running low a simple push of the button will get espresso delivered to you within the next few days. Or put one in your larder, and restock your favourite products as and when. Amazon currently offers Dash Buttons for over one hundred products, ranging from drinks to paper towels. Most of the products are low-cost things that you buy regularly, so you will click the button whenever you realise that you’re running low.

The device itself is very simple, made up of an AA battery and a small circuit board. On this circuit board is a button and several small integrated circuits.

The Dash is a computer, albeit a very small one, that is able to connect to the Internet over your Wi-Fi network and send messages to the Amazon server. Once the message has been sent, Amazon sends a response that acknowledges the request, and the Dash Button changes the colour of the LED to green, then goes to sleep to save battery power. Amazon claims that the AA battery included in each Dash Button is able to last for at least a thousand button presses.

These buttons will no doubt increase revenue for Amazon, making it easier to buy from then, but it will also generate an incredible amount of useful data on people’s shopping habits. This data doesn’t just help Amazon; it also helps the product makers who are perhaps four or five steps removed from the consumer action, and so relatively unaware of shopping habits.

Dash Buttons are the first step to a system that automatically re-orders supplies for home appliances such as printers, pet feeders, and water purifiers.

In fact, Amazon’s looking to completely reshape the future of retail with a whole array of new gadgets. Here are some:

• A new Dash device that can scan barcodes – just scan the barcode, hit the button and Amazon will search their product list, find it and ship it out to you.
• A new microphone device – order a product without the barcode by hitting the microphone button and speaking the name: Amazon’s Alexa voice recognition system will try and recognise the name and add it to your shopping cart.
• Amazon’s hackable Dash Button – this can be used to trigger events like turning smart lights on and off, opening a website or ordering a taxi.

So what does all this mean for the future of retail? Moving forward, it seems as though the keywords are ease and immediacy. So look into new ways your small business could streamline its transactions, and improve and simplify the buying process for your customers.

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