9. Work Book: Using Technology

Technology offers small business owners an opportunity to enhance the productivity of their firm, widen its marketing reach and significantly improve the level of control they have over information and communications within the company. The use of technology, particularly information communications technologies (ICT) by small businesses has grown significantly in recent decades. This is due to the proliferation of high performance, but relatively low-cost ICT and their enabling software. One of the main areas in which this technology use has manifested itself is in the area of online and ‘in-the-cloud’ business software for marketing, accounting, HRM and operations. This chapter examined the use of technology in SMEs such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationships management (CRM), and knowledge management systems (KMS). It also examines the use of e-commerce, e-business and e-marketing within the small business.