What Your Small Business Can Do Now

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The good news is that your IT team, more than any of your departments, is probably full of relative Agile experts, since Agile and Scrum (the Agile framework) started out as a way to organize software development projects.

However, if you are not using Agile, you should start learning and following its methodology right now.

To be clear, this shouldn't be limited to your technical team. "Business Agile" involves the entire business, so everyone needs to learn to follow its processes.

Bonus: Getting everyone to use the same project management methodology can help encourage collaborative projects and make them run more smoothly.

3. IT will become more customer-focused.
The increased use of cloud and software-as-a-service key features of office 365 database technologies means that IT departments don't have to focus as much on internal development and architecture - another reason to get them out of the basement.

Instead, the IT department will be more customer-focused, with an emphasis on deepening knowledge of user experience (UX), user interfaces (UI), and design.

The IT department structures IT with a customer focus
Gone are the days when IT professionals could simply tell people to turn it off and then back on again (via GIPHY)

UX, UI, and design will involve some basic business knowledge (how customers interact with your site and what they're looking for when they're on it), as well as cross-team communication with your product, marketing, and sales departments—to name a few—to determine how to implement best practices in a digital format.

What Your Small Business Can Do Now
If you haven't already, put your tech team in the room with sales, marketing, etc. to convey what those customer-facing departments see from customers in terms of their wants and needs.

You can also have a random group of employees test your site regularly to get feedback on the UX. There are also companies that provide user testing services if you don’t want to add another task to your employees’ to-do lists.

Whatever the feedback from your UX testing method, it will involve focusing on your customer, as well as collaboration between IT and other teams to create a product that meets all needs and standards.

THIS is not going anywhere
The point is that until a zombie apocalypse occurs and civilization as we know it completely collapses, advances in technology will likely remain the primary focus of business.

And until we're all using AI bots to manage our every thought, your small business will likely need someone on hand to make sure you're using technology to its full potential.

Don't get stuck in an outdated IT department structure. Use the flexibility you already have as a small business to modernize how your IT team works together and with the rest of your organization.

What is your experience with small business IT? How does your IT team help your business run smoothly? Do you have any predictions of your own about what IT department responsibilities we might see in the future as technology continues to evolve? Let me know in the comments below.

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1 About the Gartner Top Technology Trends for SMBs Survey

Gartner conducted this survey in April and May 2017 among 699 small and midsize businesses in the United States with more than 10 employees and annual revenues of less than $100 million. Not-for-profit organizations were not included in the survey. Qualified respondents are decision makers or have significant influence over technology acquisition decisions for their organization.

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