Craig Scott, chief executive officer and president of FUUZ, discusses exactly where some SMBs go incorrect in beginning their technologies journey with standalone applications.

SMBs are suffering from “information overload,” generated by a flood of information from social media, advertising and other sources. And when it comes to acquiring the technologies required to make sense of it, “there’s an overwhelming quantity of buzzwords to navigate via,” Scott says. Numerous vendors “are attempting to sell you application rather than partnering with you for your continued accomplishment.”

Software program “point solutions” — applications made to address a single process — are “one-trick ponies,” Scott says. Firms lured by the guarantee of “intuitive” and “easy-to-use” tools obtain themselves stuck with outdated technologies as they attempt to develop. In addition, point options typically outcome in siloed information that can not be shared across the organization. In the finish, “SMBs are compiling information far more than they’re in a position to act upon it. That is difficult and frustrating.”

The most significant misstep that an SMB can take in acquiring application is to do so “without a clear vision of your future state,” Scott says. Focused on challenges of the moment, and restricted in their sources for investing in technologies, smaller sized providers typically neglect to take the longer view of what they actually will need. “That leads them down a disastrous path correct from the starting.”

Yet another prevalent error is to believe of an enterprise resource preparing program as a total remedy. In reality, Scott says, quite a few ERPs are just a conglomeration of point options that are cobbled collectively, leaving purchasers with the exact same inability to unify information across the organization.

Scott recommends that SMBs adopt 3 guiding principles in acquiring technologies: Don’t invest without having possessing a approach in hand. Concentrate on a platform strategy to the technologies stack. And do not fail to think about application-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, which he says are superior in terms of safety, usability and expense.