How the key tech trends of 2023 will impact upon small businesses

As I did last year, I’d like to kick off the new year by thinking about the tech trends that are likely to be most relevant to small businesses in 2023.

Continuing the move to cloud technology

Cloud tech is well established now and the shift to mobile working and hybrid working has accelerated its adoption over the last few years. This trend is likely to continue in 2023.

An even greater emphasis on cyber security

Small businesses are not immune from cyber threats – indeed they’re often targeted more regularly precisely because they are small and hence hackers perceive that they’re more likely to have holes in their security. A study by Barracuda Networks last year found that small businesses are on the receiving end of social engineering attacks 350% more times than large enterprises. I’ve written numerous times on this blog about cyber security as it relates to small businesses.

Never underestimate the ingenuity of rogue actors and their determination to compromise a company’s data. Once into a network the latest tactics are to sit and learn about the network, for days at a time if needed, and then strike when they can do the most damage. Possibly Friday nights so you don’t know anything has happened until Monday morning when everything is gone, or encrypted.

Give us a call if you’d like any help or advice in this area.

Sustainability within IT operations

Forbes has predicted that sustainability will become an important consideration when investing in IT in 2023. IT purchasing has typically been driven purely by utility and price but a growing concern for the environment amongst consumers means that companies will no longer be able to ignore the environmental impact of IT tools. This means thinking about things like where the raw materials needed to make hardware originate, whether the tools you’re using are energy efficient or not, and how recyclable products are once they reach the end of their life.

Growth of 5G

5G networks are likely to grow in scope and reliability over the next year, feeding further into the trend for remote and hybrid working as organisations will be able to hire remote team members in a wider range of locations and more people will have reliable high quality internet, improving communications and work quality.

Growth of social commerce

As the mobile internet grows so consumers are buying more products and services through social networks and these channels are developing more functional end-to-end ecommerce functionality. This means small businesses that sell online may need to investigate different channels for reaching a wider range of consumers.

Video content is becoming as or more important than text

The popularity of social channels such as TikTok, YouTube and Instagram shows how important video content is becoming to consumers. People spend more time on video pages than on text pages and video can communicate a great deal more than text, so if video isn’t already part of your web strategy then now is the time to give it some consideration.

Efficiency and the cost-of-living crisis

The world economy looks set to continue to be turbulent during 2023. There is likely to be a significant recession in many parts of the world, including the UK and the cost of living crisis continues with no immediate sign of improvement. This will have a further knock on effect on businesses who will need to keep close control on costs and achieve more efficiencies in IT just as in any other area of the business. Advice from a good independent IT company that is not tied to any one supplier can be invaluable here in helping organisations keep IT costs as low as possible, as I have written about before on this blog.

How we can help you

Give us a call if you’d like to talk more about any of the issues mentioned above and how they might be relevant to your organisation.