Adopting New Technologies in your Business

The technology adoption lifecycle is a sociological model, originally developed by Joe M. Bohlen and George M. Beal in 1957 at Iowa State College.^[1] Its purpose was to track the purchase patterns of hybrid seed corn by farmers. Approximately six years later Everett Rogers broadened the use of this model in his book, Diffusion of Innovations.

The technology adoption life cycle model describes the adoption or acceptance of a new product or innovation, according to the demographic and psychological characteristics of defined adopter groups. The process of adoption over time is typically illustrated as a classical normal distribution or "bell curve." The model indicates that the first group of people to use a new product is called "innovators," followed by "early adopters." Next come the early and late majority, and the last group to eventually adopt a product are called "laggards."

Source: Wikipedia

When does your company typically adopt a new technology?

If you’re an Early Adopter, you are willing to take calculated risks and place bets on new technology. This approach can prove to be very beneficial if you focus on software that is core to the operation of your business and is something that you feel can be a competitive differentiator. The ideal scenario for small business with limited resources is to find technologies that can be tested with low up-front costs. The evolution of the Saas model of software deployment has made it more feasible than ever before to take the approach of the Early Adopter in an effort to get a jump on the competition.

Small Business is more nimble

Cheryl Currid, president of Currid and Company, a Houston-based IT consultancy, was quoted as saying “SMBs usually take the lead in adopting new technologies simply because there are not many management layers to slow down decision making.”  Some SMB owners, Currid pointed out, are very technology-savvy, see the immediate benefit in a technology, and are able to move quickly to adopt it.

In fact, Currid added, early adopters can win big with customer service applications, as long as they use the technology as a business tool and don't simply become enamored of it for its own sake. On the other hand, Currid warned, as time goes on late adopters will risk losing customers because they can't keep up with competitors. But, if it has a loyal customer base, a late adopter can sometimes get away without offering a new technology, Currid added.

Challenge: Gaining quick adoption within your company

The successful implementation of your new technology is ultimately determined by end-user acceptance. The best technology is doomed to fail unless end users use it.

How do you implement a new technology in your business, with as little cost as possible, and realize widespread adoption as quickly as possible?

Most technology that is robust enough to deliver meaningful solutions for your business is also difficult to learn. Couple this learning curve, with short attention spans and little spare time, and you have a formula for another application headed to the graveyard.

At Big Contacts we have worked very hard to address all of these challenges.

• We have developed a Web-based Contact Management and Sales Force Automation solution that will deliver the low cost implementation and maintenance of a Saas platform.

• We have developed a very robust platform that can make a real impact in the way you manage your business.

• We made this platform very intuitive and easy to use.

Couple all of this with an entire set of training videos that demonstrate every feature within our system, our ongoing “Best Practices” web demonstrations, and you have a platform that you can get up and running in your business very quickly, with low cost and ahead of your competition!