1. Remote Work
The global pandemic has substantially forced the advancement of the gig economy and remote working arrangements. On the one hand, most workers expect such options to be made available by employers. On the other hand, many firms may have to use the global workforce pool due to the scarcity of highly skilled specialists in their areas.
While most of these problems can be addressed through a well-designed system, you need to develop it right from the start. Otherwise, you will not be prepared for any emerging technological challenges associated with remote work.
2. Scaling Up
From a technological standpoint, this means that your systems must be capable of scaling up efficiently up to the size of a medium enterprise employing up to 150-250 people. This includes knowledge management systems, internal wikis, project management systems, scheduling solutions, accounting systems, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and marketing practices.
If possible, plan these elements in advance to ensure that you have sufficient time for refining them afterwards. This will prepare you for the scaling-up phase where you will only need to distribute the formulated guidelines among your new workers and monitor compliance.
3. Software Choices
Let us face it, most startups are cash-strapped and are focused on producing a marketable output of their activities until their venture capital runs dry. However, this may create a major barrier to growth in the future if you apply excessive cost-cutting to the software dimension of your business. Many startups try to use free products or products offered by small companies that have low subscription costs or purchase prices. This is extremely convenient for a new company looking to minimise its expenses in a short-term perspective.
4. Hardware Costs
Similar to software, hardware procurement is a major challenge faced by most startups. As the prices of motherboards, CPUs, laptops, and other similar items are growing due to the global semiconductor crisis, many owners encounter one of the following questions:
Most of these questions are determined by the fact that purchasing separate desktop and laptop equipment for every startup founder and employee may be a costly endeavour. While this ensures homogeneity and the highest control over cybersecurity aspects, this may not be affordable to most new companies. Depending on your desired risk profile, you may choose some middle-of-the-road option allowing you to develop a centralised ecosystem and grant access to it to remote employees via secured channels that are continuously monitored by your tech staff.
5. Cybersecurity
If there is one thing that terrifies any startup owner, it is industrial espionage. If you are working on innovative ideas that may become disruptive innovations in the future, you may be raising the interest of both major corporations and smaller direct competitors. In the world of remote work and increasing numbers of hacking attacks, you have to be 100% sure that your sensitive information does not fall into wrong hands.
Here are some ideas that may help you achieve this goal:
These measures are especially important during your initial phases preceding the development of your know-how. Make sure that all founders fully commit to strict cybersecurity policies and do not work from their home devices or shared devices.
Also, make sure that you procure the same models of hardware items. This allows you to use economies of scale by:
The post Top 5 Technological Challenges Your Startup Will Face in 2023 appeared first on The Startup Magazine.