How Business Owners Can Stay Competitive with Technology in 2025

you're listening to stimulus Tech talk a conversation-based podcast created by stimulus technologies that covers a range of topics related to Business and Technology welcome to stimulus Tech talk I'm Sher lip the marketing manager at stimulus Technologies and I am here with Nathan WHUR stimulus technology CEO and today we're going to be talking about keeping your Tech tools for your business up to date and keeping up with all of that welcome Nathan thanks Sher and thanks everybody for being here as always what uh Nathan need Jump Right In what do you think uh business owners feel most overwhelmed by when we come when we're talking about their technology tools I think you know business owners as we often talk about in the podcast want to focus on delivering the product or services that they offer and you know don't want to think about I guess call it the ingredients that go into the cake that provides the technology Services you know they're more worried about making sure that their customers are taken care of their bottom line is taken care of they you know they're delivering the services that they want to do and so I think most business owners we talk to probably don't care too much about what tools are being used to deliver service as long as they work um you know maybe there's some you know questions about line of business applications so if in their industry if they're using you know a certain product to prepare tax returns if they're a CPA firm or you know they're going to invest in research in you know their dealership management software if they're car dealership but you know whether or not they're using you know X antivirus or why you know anti-spam solution not as much concerned about that but they just want it to work and keep them safe I think that's the end end goal now for uh you know somebody that's in charge of it like a CTO or CIO that's in charge of you know making sure those tools are working that you know they have to look at it and make those decisions each day but the business owners they just want this stuff to work I mean that those are the comments I generally get and what do you think um what why is it important that they should uh think about it a little more and keep these tools up to date well let me talk first about line of business applications and why it's important to review these periodically uh one you know certain companies especially in the software as a service space they're getting acquired by private Equity firms there's a lot of consolidation and through mergers and Acquisitions in the software space and what we see that often happens is a PE firm comes in and or two companies merge together that might have similar products and and maybe one of the two products in that scenario or a private Equity Firm decides that they're not going to do as many updates or significant updates to their systems as they had before and so what happens is over time um the the software gets outdated maybe they're not implementing security Pat in the software maybe they're not implementing latest features and so compared to other applications uh in their space they might not have the latest features or latest security and um because the owners maybe a PE firm or you know maybe the two owners come together of different software packages aren't making those Investments they just want you know the money out of this reoccurring software or the software products that they purchase I think a great example of this uh in the industry uh we've talked about it before is cdk global that purchased this dealership management system from ADP a few years ago and you know they this private Equity Firm came in bought up the company and really just made very little investments in that software and infrastructure it was I mean honestly like a lot of it was console based text based and it just just not modern anymore which led them to be susceptible to uh a Cyber attack um which took down all their customers for weeks on end and so that's the concern that you I think all of us have to have is you know if we're sticking with a piece of software that's outdated whether it's a line of business application or a tool that is being used to secure your infrastructure um are are the tools you're using the most current and valid or are they falling behind the industry and that's that's a question that we wanted to discuss today and what is the the easiest way for business owners like how what do you tell business owners are feeling overwhelmed by updates how do you how do you tell them or help them to be stay on top of it well I think from just a general update perspective it's essential to make sure that you are if you are stuck on a vendor or you have a specific vendor you're applying the patches and updates regularly uh to that software I I always recommend to business owners that they have you know software maintenance agreements on all their all their systems so that they're getting the latest updates uh for that but let's so that's on existing software that you have it's ensuring that you're on the latest version you're staying up to date um that you're keeping things patched there's constant security issues that are you know always happening on all kinds of different softwares out there uh we have a big one coming up I'll just briefly uh talk about this Microsoft uh is not going to offer security updates for Windows 10 um after next fall and so anybody that's still running Windows 10 on their systems is going to have to update their um Windows environment to Windows 11 um to stay current uh for security patches we go through this with every version of Windows um um you know every you know five to eight years um it seems like it's been forever since you know Windows 10 came out or it seems like it came out yesterday why are we updating it now but it's been out for almost 10 years now which is which is interesting um it seems like we just went through this with Windows 7 I was gonna say isn't this the quickest update they've done but apparently not no no it's not I mean and they uh you know they've La Windows 10 um they they're doing these interim um they used to call them service packs but they're doing these major updates that are keeping the system up to dat and and for most systems that were capable of going to Windows 11 you got a free upgrade from Windows 10 to Windows 11 but there's a lot of machines out there that aren't compatible with Windows 11 so you do have to do a hardware refresh to get Windows 11 at this point for a lot of customers but let's talk about you know deciding line of business applications or other tools I think you know it's important especially talking about line of business applications that you're up to date on what offerings are out there there's all kinds of new players coming into um your environments and how you learn about those different software packages is going to you know industry conferences uh maybe um looking at industry magazines newsletters things like that to stay up to date on what what's happening in the environment and and and looking at them periodically so um shifting to us you know we're we're an IT provider and so our line of business applications are the tools that we use to deliver services to our clients and so we are constantly looking at our tools and making sure that what we're using is the the best an industry standard so every year we we go through all our tools and look at them and say is this tool the most upto-date and current tool are they staying ahead of the game and We've ran into issues recently that I just mentioned that you know companies acquire other packages but they have now two or three of the same type of software and they only put the investments in one of the two or three applications that they have and if you're stuck on one of these older systems um you you're getting left behind on features and availability and so it's important to constantly look at you know these options out there so um there are you know uh companies that help evaluate um these Solutions um one that comes to mind is Gartner um is really big in our industry um looking at software packages and rating them um you know you could go and do a quick Google search online and and I don't recommend doing that because most of those are um you know just trying to their clickbait they're trying to sell ad revenue and so so um don't don't put in there to compare you know cdk versus uh techon or something like that I mean it's going to for car dealership it's going to just spit out you know marketing materials but there's companies like Gartner that do extensive research that look at the capabilities features updates you know compare um you know what is Best in Class who's up and coming um and you know they look at the financials of the company to make sure that they're stay and and that they can deliver a good service going forward um so it's important to you know to look at that often and us as a service provider we're doing that um for all our tools and if you're a CIO or CTO listening to this you know just because you're buying an antivirus that's been good for your environment for 10 years um is it the latest one are they doing these you know feature updates to you know use AI now uh to you know detect anomalies and you know is it um are there Integrations with other tools to monitor um you you know the entire system and way things are working and so there's just so much change in the tech space that happens constantly you know every year it's something different and so it's important to be up on it so you're saying you know keeping up to date is not just keeping your current software up to date but it's looking at what you might need that you could possibly need to change make a change yeah and sometimes it feels uncomfortable to make that change so you know we um as I mentioned we go through it all the time so let you know just Switching gears talk a little bit about stimulus um we've been using the same uh rmm tool um for 10 plus years rmm is a remote management tool that uh allows our technicians to collect data on all the systems that we monitor it also helps us um look at um and and enforce updates that are occurring on the system sends us alerts on outages um automation scripting things like that so it's it's a comprehensive tool it's kind of the Baseline of our tools and you know we you know about 10 years ago we switched from one product to another um because of an acquisition ironically um we weren't happy with the um the resulting product um post acquisition and so we switched over to a tool that we've been using for a long time which was uh touted as one of the best tools in the industry well that company again acquired a couple of other companies and and uh ended up you know having a couple of different tools that they had in their portfolio and ended up focusing on this this other tool not the one we were using and so over the years we found that there weren't very many updates that it was lagging behind and so we decided to do an extensive research and we chose a brand new tool that we've rolled out over the last few months um moving from our old tool over to uh one called ninja 1 which is actually a newer company um and they you know they soared because of these new products and features and things that they've done in development they soared from you know an upand Comer in what what Gartner does these four quadrants um to a Visionary and a leader in the industry so they ended up what's uh what they classify as a top right quadrant which is where you want to be so they're they're very Innovative they're now very stable the company is very successful and they went quickly up the up the chart and are now a leader in the industry and so you know it's it's important for us as a service provider to constantly look at that and look at what um be should become our best practices and we are constantly doing that and you know we do that in the protection of stimulus but also to ensure that we're delivering U the right services for our clients and um we can provide you know best in-class services using um the product that we do so very similarly you know for for our customers we recommend that you're doing the same thing with your line of business applications and we can help you in that process of evaluating what software is out there and what it would take to convert from you know one line of business application over to another to ensure that you're staying up to date um with the latest technology and to keep your company at the um at the Forefront with your competitors what types of um lines what what do you think businesses should be looking at the most closely for their business they're not an IT provider um as I said you know they're if they have primary applications that they're using um maybe it could be a CRM you know there's a lot of new crms that are out there um and some of them are incorporating you know again AI Technologies um so that's that's what one area that's constantly involving for your customer relationships um again I've mentioned line of business applications a ton so looking at you know what are the implications of the ones you're using currently right now and um are there better ones out there uh so you can deliver better service um you know there's uh certainly always reviewing your your core environments um you know it Microsoft 365 I think is a great example that in you know not so many short years in about 10 years it went from a product that we weren't recommending to our clients to a product that that's about exclusively what we sell uh and you know 10 years ago Google Apps was a better product than Microsoft 365 but Microsoft made this huge investment in it and just leap beyond what Google can do now there could be a new provider um that comes out that you know leaps Beyond Microsoft I don't know so you know it's up to us as a technology provider that's selling that to ensure that our customers are getting the best product available so you know again as I mentioned go to Industry conferences sign up for newsletters you know look at um what's available out there and you know sometimes the switching cost is painful um certainly we've made a big investment on switching our customers um from product to product it takes a lot of internal time and we don't charge our customers for making that change it's just part of our process um same thing with with businesses you know looking at what what systems they're using and ensuring that um you know that you're delivering the best service to your clients through whatever application systems you're using and what role does security play in all of this if we're I know obviously if we're not updating that's a major factor but also what what about in switching I I think that's a consideration that we should always make and going back to my initial example of cdk because they weren't staying up to date with the latest Technologies they weren't a leader in um the technologies that they ended up you know having that Cyber attack that occurred that took down all of their clients and so you know that's an important aspect of it to look look at your vendors and making sure that they're staying up to date with the latest Technologies so that they're protecting you as their customer so if you don't see updates coming from your vendors if they're not releasing you know every few months patches and updates and things then there's something wrong with their software because um hackers are constantly finding bugs in all software packages and it's essential that those systems are getting up toate um and so if you're not getting those updates if they're not staying current you know then that's a big issue from a security perspective I mean there's been a huge change you know let's talk you know about security software real quick uh me mentioned AI a lot um in security and hackers are using AI to do their research now you know there's better fishing attacks and and more sophisticated emails that are coming out and you know the reason that they're able to do that is because AI will gather all that information up for them and provide them you know much better content and much better um social engineering attacks and fishing attacks and things like that so it's incumbent upon the security providers to ensure that they're also incorporating these latest Technologies into their solutions to protect against these more advanced attacks that are coming out so you know if your um antivirus is not not you know moving towards you know an AI um detection system um with you know Advance Security it's you're out of date you know and so today implementing a EDR which is the endpoint detect and response in conjunction with a managed detect and response system that's incorporating these antivir or um artificial intelligence for you know Global detection of what's Happening um you're just left behind and and more vulnerable attack today than even six months ago so I I think across the board you know staying current with the latest Technologies is a way to keep a company safe yeah and I was going to say you know what what kinds of emerging technology I don't think we can we haven't done a podcast where we haven't mentioned AI in in quite some time because it's it's grown so fast and and gotten in everywhere so how do you how do you see that playing more and more of a factor it's obviously on the on the hacker side but on the business side how can business owners Embrace that well it's I mean I think AI is is certainly as we see with most Technologies as kind of a logarithmic growth you know there's there was this huge surge in the last two years because um it came down to the masses right so AI has been around for a long time but it became available to the masses with you know chat GPT open AI some of these um companies that have offered this type of technology and everybody's able to use it and incorporate it um and and it it was a huge surge but now we're seeing kind of a level off um and you know now we're seeing that this maturity of the technology going forward and so you know it's incorporating the the mature products that can help you do use your these tools and and make your business better um is what's essential going forward and so um yeah the AI obviously got to talk about it um but it's it's now the question is is AI making what you do better or is it just you know this this shiny new object to chase down and that's a question that we have to ask ourselves constantly um in in the industry is how is it making things better so you know certainly there's a lot of tools out there that claim to be AI it might just be basic automation it might be um just a branding thing um it the question is is is the tool is the software is this new application going to improve processes you know speed up um your uh you know your time um and productivity inside your company and those are questions that I think whatever technology you're implementing should be asked whether it's AI or a new application or new software package or um whatever it may be and a final thought on this what would you what would you advise somebody what what would you tell a business owner who to how to get started and assessing all their technology tools and and where they need to go so you know if you're currently using an outside it firm or have inside it which I I hope for most business owners you have some type of expert that's helping you with your with your technology I think an assessment is is a a way to get started you know stimulus offers uh a free assessment to review um your entire environment it's a questionnaire of what tools what systems you're using and that assessment gives you kind of a ground L groundwork A starting framework of where you're at and you know we're we're I think any provider shouldn't come in and say oh we got to rip out everything and start over from scratch it's it's incremental um and having a game plan going forward to help a business move forward um is essential so you know most businesses have certain amount of technology that they're incorporating today um it's how can we incrementally make it better uh and improve those things and the assessment is the way to start it so we've talked a ton about it you know like you don't go into a doctor and they suddenly write you a prescription even without talking to you um we're the same way in the the field is you know we we have to do diagnostics we have to send out blood work we have to you know look at the environment and once everything comes back then we can give a a recommendation and action plan of how to solve your problems and whether you have problems or not there's as I mentioned today is there there's we have to stay on top of things so you know doing these assessments periodically I mentioned every year I think you know analyzing all your systems uh every year is really important we're coming into we're well into Q4 at this point and um and Q4 for me brings uh Fall allergies here in Las Vegas so it's really windy today I'm a little nasly I apologize um but you know we're moving into the end of the year a lot of businesses do annual planning and this should be an agenda item is you know how do you budget for it what systems are you running are there better systems out there and um you know it should be a conversation that you're having with your IT professional um and it should be a business conversation not just you know what computers do you need to install or upgrade it's it's a business conversation hey we're trying to go this direction how can we get there and then doing the analysis also of the systems and Hardware um and software that you're using uh is an important at least annual discussion all right well thanks Nathan and thanks everybody for listening be sure to subscribe and share this with your colleagues thanks everybody thanks Sherry for hosting a

2024-12-05 18:09

Other news