(This post originally appeared on Forbes)
Here are five things in technology that happened this past week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them?
1 — A startup is making customized harassment training software.
Ethena—a software startup—is making it easier to customize sexual harassment training for employees. The company is aiming to make the delicate topic of sexual harassment training more engaging and less uncomfortable for both employees and executives. Ethena will cater the training to be presented in short segments that will be customized based on what employees already know about workplace sexual harassment. Once the software is more widely distributed, the startup plans to make training customizable based off of specific industries as well. (Source: Tech Crunch)
Why this is important for your business:
In response to the #MeToo movement, states like California and New York are now requiring employers to provide training on discrimination and harassment and I expect this trend to expand nationwide. Many of my clients are looking for training resources and technologies like the software offered by Ethena to help them better handle these situations. I’m betting more applications like this will be hitting the market over the next year.
2 — Adobe digital experience platform is adding small business offerings.
Adobe is making improvements to its marketing software offerings that include Magento Commerce, Marketo Engage, Adobe Analytics Foundation, Adobe Sign for Small Business, Creative Cloud for Teams, and more. The addition of each of these products will allow for small and medium sized businesses to be more flexible, agile, and scale more efficiently while saving time and money. (Source: Search Customer Experience).
Why this is important for your business:
These applications were previously mostly suitable for much larger companies, even though many small businesses have the same needs (but not the same budgets) for these tools. The good news it that companies like Adobe are waking up to this opportunity.
3 — Shopify launched a new e-mail marketing tool for SMBs.
Speaking of marketing tools for small companies, E-commerce platform Shopify announced new email marketing tools for its small business customers. Shopify Email is designed to help merchants who are new to the concept of business marketing and will help them design e-mail campaigns while assisting with running and tracking them as well. In addition to providing e-mail templates that merchants can customize, Shopify Email will also provide an analytics tool that tracks when e-mails are opened and read, while also tracking products that are added to shopping carts and which products are bought. (Source: ZDNet)
Why this is important for your business:
Two things for small companies to note here. The first is that e-mail continues to dominate as the primary communication too for businesses, which is why companies like Shopify are investing more in building email tools for their customers to use. Secondly is that e-commerce providers like Shopify are taking aggressive steps to help their customers with marketing and other communications which I think will ultimately turn into their own versions of customer relationship management software. We’ll see….
4 — Microsoft Teams is getting Outlook integration, tasks support, and more.
This past week, Microsoft has announced several new features for clients using Microsoft Teams. One of the most prominent features being added is the Outlook integration, which will make it possible for users to share and move an e-mail—including all of the attachments—into a specific chat channel. In addition to the Outlook integration, Microsoft Teams will now provide some more vital improvements through a task pane that will include the ability to see and monitor personal and team tasks, customize charts, lists, schedules, and more. (Source: The Verge)
Why this is important for your business:
Microsoft is clearly going after rival Slack here. So which is better for your business? The answer is actually not too difficult and I give my reasons here. (My company, The Marks Group PC, is a Microsoft partner.)
5— According to J.D. Power, small business banking customers are finally embracing mobile, and customer satisfaction has surged.
A new study—released by J.D. Power—has revealed that 61% of small business customers are actively using the mobile apps for their banks, which is a significant increase from 53% of users who used banking mobile apps last year. The study also detailed that banking customers who use their bank’s mobile app are happier with their banks as compared to those who choose not to use their bank’s mobile app. Additionally, small business customers who use their banking mobile apps are 67% more likely to stay with their bank for future transactions, in contrast with 53% of small business customers who do not use mobile services offered by their banks. (Source: Yahoo Finance)
Why this is important for your business:
This is not a surprise. But what is a surprise is how many smaller, independent and community banks are not keeping up. As I wrote here: “They’re still behaving as they did decades before. They’re way, way behind in adopting the fintech tools – like the ones I’ve mentioned above – that could make a life-or-death difference to a small company. Many of my clients are starting to realize this and are frustrated that their own banks don’t provide them with these tools like their competitors get from their larger counterparts.”
