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How can I understand what digital tools or support my business needs?

Digital questions

From project management platforms to employee chat portals, digital tools are reshaping the way businesses in all kinds of industries operate. However, without paying careful attention to your company’s initial requirements, the right kind of services and how they get integrated, any investment can end up becoming an expensive mistake. Find out how involving the entire business and identifying specific operational issues can help turn the effort into something transformational.

Ways to help you deal with it:

Action plan

Define which business needs digital tools could support

Effort : Medium

Impact : Medium

There’s a wealth of digital tools available to support your business needs, but how do you know what’s right for your business before you invest?

ACTION PLANS are a structured list of steps designed to help you approach tackling a particular business challenge.

We explain why each step is important
Customise by setting your own completion dates and assign tasks
Helpful tools are provided for certain steps
A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available

Action plan

Make a decision about which technology is right for your business

Once you’ve identified the business needs new technology could support, it’s time to research and choose something that’s right for your organisation.

Action plan

Choose a business process that could be automated

Effort : Medium

Identify the parts of your business where automation could be beneficial and understand where the human touch is still necessary.

Guide

An introduction to understanding what digital tools or support your business needs

There is a lot of tech available to small businesses. How can you pick the right tools for you? Read our guide to find out.

GUIDES break a challenge down, providing important context and real-world experiences.

Based on SME experiences, not corporate jargon
Filled with real-world stories
Achievable steps every business can take

Other support that's available

Help to Grow Digital

Help to Grow Digital

The government's Help to Grow programme is combining management training with tailored digital support and financial assistance. Vouchers are available to help fund the purchase of new digital tools.

Technology explainers

Technology explainers

New technology and digital tools can often be hard to get your head around. Our sister website has focused on proven technologies which can be used by almost any business and have clear productivity benefits.

How other businesses have tackled something similar

Christopher Dell, Locale

Real business story

Be pragmatic about technology to align investments with business needs

Translation service Locale used customer feedback to kickstart its thinking about new developments and ensure they fit genuine business needs.

Real business story

Find a CRM system that delivers value for your business

After implementing two unsuitable CRM systems, rural recruitment agency Fortem People learned to approach technology investments much more strategically.

Peter Saunders

Real business story

Check technology meets your standards before automating processes

Animation business leader Peter Saunders shares the research he did before automating a process and the impact new technology has had.

The questions lots of businesses are trying to answer

What issue is keeping you awake at night? A bit of targeted support is often all you need to overcome those challenges.

Select a topic

Digital

How can I improve the digital presence my business has? How can I streamline and automate some of our business processes? How do I work out the best digital sales channels to use? How should I use the data I have to improve decision making? How do I effectively seek external digital support? How do I know if my technology is robust enough for growth? How should I best budget and plan for new technology investments? How do I assess and choose the right technology to improve business operations? How can I understand what digital tools or support my business needs? How should I go about collecting data to improve my business?

Leadership & Strategy

How do I learn to become a better leader? How do I improve the communication in my business? How do I get staff interested in our vision and values? How can I reflect on my own strengths and weaknesses as a leader? How do I give my team autonomy and get better at delegating? As a leader, how do I learn to trust others within my organisation? How do I apply learnings from other businesses to my own company? How should my role as a business leader evolve with the company’s growth? How can I balance short-term needs with long-term targets? How do I get better at noticing and reacting to warning signs?

People & Team

How can I develop the skillsets of my workforce? How can I reduce employee turnover? How can I run a better appraisals process? How can I keep my best members of staff? How do I manage an effective remote workforce? How can I develop career paths for my staff? How can I increase staff engagement and motivation? How do I deal with a challenging member of staff? How can I improve my hiring and onboarding practices? How should I performance manage my staff?

Planning

How can I work out what required skillsets are missing in the business? How can I get staff interested in the financial situation? How can I define and communicate my vision for success? How do I ensure my business can navigate a dip in trading? How do I know when to scale up my business? How can I make my business more resilient to change? How do I better inform my business plans? How do I know when to invest in my business? How can I get better at looking internally at my business? How can I balance ambition with setting realistic goals?

Sales & Growth

How can we better serve our most loyal customers? How can I identify new customers to target? How do I create targets and KPIs for my staff? How can I get a better return on investment from my marketing? How do I make sure my team and processes are ready for growth? How do I develop a clear unique selling point? How do I financially plan for new opportunities? How do I build a network to support my business? How do I benchmark my business against competitors? How can we develop new products and services?