Top tech trends for business in 2011

The beautiful thing about research is that it takes time for new technologies to come to market when all is said and done most of the obvious trends are already then established. The key insights come from understanding how these will affect the way we in fact work and how these will support our New Year resolutions and intentions. How will we work smarter? How can we get a bit ahead of the competition? How can we grow the business without spending furthermore time at work? How can we remain competitive in a rapidly changing business landscape? How do we make sure we don't get left behind?

Look at my top 10 business research trends for 2011

So let's have a look at my top 10 business research trends for 2011. All of these technologies exist already nevertheless 2011 will see them become part of the normal way for a SME to do business.

Social Media: A more level headed and post hype understanding of how social media can help business gain clients will emerge. We'll move from experimentation and learning to a more focused and pragmatic use of social media as a normal part of marketing. It will no longer be cool to be on social media, it'll just be necessary.

Faster Broadband will by degree enable many of the already available capabilities. Like any new highway our patterns of use will evolve as we come to see the greater efficiencies the NBN will provide.

Smart phones: Smart phones will become an important supporter of buying decisions. The internet is nevertheless in our pocket. Some 37% of all smart phone users have made a purchase on their phone in the last 6 months. A massive 61% of smart phone users looked up information about an intended purchase during in store last year. This will grow in 2011.

Tablet computers: The Apple iPad is the first in a huge wave of media tablets focused largely on content consumption, and communications. We'll read books, update social media and look up products and services on the fly. We'll become furthermore reliant on the internet in our pocket, purse or backpack.

Managing multiple web properties: More businesses will want to integrate all their web presences into one site. Bringing in social media, a shopping cart, a Google map and a payment gateway are just some of the capabilities businesses will want to see on their primary web site while all in all developing data and commentary on other web properties.

Cloud Computing: SME interest, awareness and gradual adoption of software as a service and cloud solutions has started. Sharing views of the business data between business owners, trusted advisors, clients and suppliers will be enabled with cloud computing. Putting the business data in the cloud and connecting this with the people that matter most to the business will become mainstream this year. Most small business do not have an IT person so the challenge for small business owners will be to acquire this capability ready-made.

Collaboration: When the data is shared from the cloud, when there is simple, clean integration to other user interfaces we'll want to see real business benefits. Expect to see your accountant dealing with your real time data and helping you with your business in other words than dealing with your historical data. Expect to see your bookkeeper working from their office on your data, completing tasks without charging travel time.

Hybrid Innovation: The best solutions for 2011 will use the best of both worlds. Expect to see business desktop applications connect with data in the cloud. Even as small businesses embrace cloud computing, they will continue to use packaged applications that are working just fine. A hybrid approach with a rich desktop lets business owners get the benefits of the cloud during continuing to work in the business as normal. For the foreseeable future, most small businesses will need to combine on-premise and cloud solutions in a hybrid computing model. A pragmatic and practical approach.

App stores for businesses, based around the leading platforms will start to become important and will start to let small business owners buy additional applications that tightly match the business's special requirements.

The top 10 innovation list for SMEs for 2011

So that's the top 10 innovation list for SMEs for 2011. If we were to stretch our over-the-horizon view even furthermore into the future the predictions seem much more disconnected from today. For instance Gartner - a innovation firm predicts that by 2014 10% of our online friends will not be human. Let's save that thought for straightway year, or even our 2013 predictions!

Tim Molloy is an Online Evangelist for MYOB. Prior to this, in 2007, Tim was owner and CEO of Exonet, a business software company.

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