What is Tech-Stack?
Tech-stack is all the digital ‘arsenal’ a company possesses. This is a widely accepted term, however, if you want to go deeper and understand what tech-stack actually is or at the very least should be, we suggest another definition.
We define tech-stack as a pack of business technology that includes fit-for-purpose software solutions. Anything from simple Google Docs to state of the art, interconnected platform, can be part of your tech-stack if they serve your business’s goal.
How can Tech-Stack benefit your business?
- Mind-Saver
When businesses build up and grow, they put someone in charge (for example a CRO, or COO) of making the business work as a well-oiled machine, from bringing new clients to operationalizing business processes. This task becomes much easier if your tech-stack is prepared for such changes. A well-integrated tech-stack can be a great starting point for new things or provide a huge helping hand with data for decision-making.
- Money-Saver
Business automation is the first thing that comes to mind here. A business with a great tech-stack is one that can reduce costs, by having bots and systems do their work. Moreover, a decent CRM can help not only convert potential customers to paying and loyal ones faster, but also win lost customers back, up-sell, cross-sell, and keep revenues up.
- Productivity
These days, after the pandemic and dropping revenues, every business needs to have some sort of technology if they want to have any productivity at all. Investing into technology has been a matter of life and death for many businesses the past year, and that is only going to be more present in the future. From remote working to security, to business process automation, productivity tools exist, and we need to use them.
How do you measure the efficiency of your Tech-Stack?
- Usage
How many times have you been using the software you bought in the past week or so? Is the software you use vital for your work? If you answered those questions with “a lot” and “yes” respectively, then congrats, your tech-stack is efficient. The more you use something, the more useful that thing is. And if your software is not utilized, it was probably not the ideally designed stack.
- Conversion Rates
As most people come to realize, a decent tech-stack will help you see an increase in conversion rates – from leads to opportunities – to closed sales. That is something that usually comes mostly thanks to a good CRM system, but it can be even other things. As a rule of thumb, we can easily say that higher conversion rates indicate a good and healthy tech-stack.
- Revenue Growth
Revenue is important because without it we can’t pay our workers, can’t drive innovation… Seeing revenue growth after implementing some new software or something similar into your tech-stack, clearly means that it’s working, and you should keep doing it.
Tech-stack for small and medium businesses
Let us look at the tech-stack with a lens that focuses on small and medium businesses.
First, we want to reiterate something that we mentioned in the past. Business Technology or tech-stack in this instance, should not be your goal! Instead, you should view it as a tool that will help you achieve your goal.
Think of this quote from ‘Alice in the Wonderland’: “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there”. We always recommend knowing where you want to arrive, as otherwise, you are in danger of going in circles, and not finding the right solution.
Instead of just creating a tech-stack for the sake of it, try finding and using only the things that can help you reach your goals. If all you need is an excel spreadsheet, so be it. No need for anything else. Strategize first, buy later!
To help make this process of picking and choosing easier, here are our picks we like to focus on for small and medium businesses:
CRM – This is one of the most modern and powerful tools that a business can possibly have. Incorporating CRM into your tech-stack should be something all business owners consider.
Website and Email Marketing – The goal is to have a professional and converting website, on top of a well-crafted and personalized email marketing campaign. Both the website and the email marketing tools have to be connected to the CRM.
Analytical Software – The power of analytics is, unfortunately, undermined. Even something as simple as Google Analytics for traffic analysis is fine if it gives you transparency of your business. It is much better to have end-to-end analytical tools so that you could pull reports and build dashboards to keep track of what’s going on and make informed decisions.
Now that we have some of the main areas and activities, let us share with you our picks for the best software:
This can be answered in two main ways. The first is an answer that will probably make some business experts angry. We believe that internally every business should have a data-driven decision-making process. Now, what is the best software for that? A human being.
You see, the problem with data is that it can be hard and tricky to understand it. If you can afford to have an expert share the data, and help everyone understand them, that would be the perfect approach.
The second way is something wider. We base this advice on what we use ourselves and what has worked with our clients. In our experience, Zoho Cloud Platform is pretty much all any business needs for their tech-stack. Yes, it is that simple.
Endnote Advice about tech-stack
At the very end, we would like to leave you with a simple piece of advice that you can maybe chew on.
Do not let technology scare you. All the fancy words, and seemingly senseless jargon, might come off as overwhelming. Remember that, even if you are completely lost with this side of things, there are experts out there willing to help. Do not let technology be the hill you die on…
Source: https://www.linkedin.com/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:6773233936077352960/
