Starting a Business All-In-One For Dummies

Chapter 4

Managing with Technology

In This Chapter

• Using technology to help you
• Understanding the pros and cons of technology
• Improving efficiency and productivity
• Networking your organization
• Developing a technology plan

You've gotta love technology. Unfortunately, like everything else in life, technology has its good and bad points. On the upside, computers make our work lives much easier and more efficient (right?). As long as your computer doesn't crash, it remembers everything you've done and makes completing repetitive tasks (like merging a letter with a 1,000-person mailing list) a snap. On the downside, computers can be an enormous waste of time. Instead of working, some people spend a significant portion of their workdays checking their Facebook accounts, watching cat videos on YouTube, and keeping track of the latest celebrity gossip.

You may automatically assume that your employees are more productive because they have computers at their fingertips, but are you (and your fledgling business) really getting the most out of this innovative and expensive technology? Given how much money most startups invest in their information technology (IT) systems, hardware, and software, that can be an expensive question.

This chapter explains how to harness IT — technology used to create, store, exchange, and use information in its various forms. It examines the technology edge and considers how technology can help or hinder a new organization. It looks at how technology can improve ...