Idealog – July 26, 2019

Idealog.co.nz | The Transformation Issue

077

F

or most local businesses, the big technology

changes that are already beginning to transform

industries around the world, from automation,

robotics and machine learning, to drones,

autonomous vehicles and the internet of things,

were fairly low on the register.

In reality, though, their effects are already

being felt in New Zealand, and according to MYOB

country manager Ingrid Cronin-Knight, businesses will see

fundamental change in the next two decades.

“In ten to twenty years’ time, the basics of business

will be the same. A business will still be designed to serve

a customer, you’ll need to balance the books to ensure you

have enough cashflow to cover expenses, and keep records

of what you do.

Everything else – how you find and interact with that

customer, the products and services you sell them, how you

transact and even the nature of money – will all change.

Even with significant change so close, it’s not

surprising most business operators aren’t spending a lot of

time keeping up with the latest technology.

With so much to be across when you’re running a

business, unless it’s a real passion or they depend on it for

their business, the majority of business operators don’t

devote a lot of time to monitoring the trends that will affect

them, even in the next two or three years’ time.

However, a number of really transformative

technologies are probably already changing the way they

do business – it’s just that they are largely happening

‘under the hood’.

Artificial Intelligence (AI), in its current sense, is a

good example. As a technology provider, MYOB’s focus

When MYOB asked more than one thousand local small and medium-sized

business operators which of the big technology trends were likely to impact their

industry in the coming years, nearly a quarter (23 percent) were pinning their hopes

on a better internet connection. The next largest group – over 20 percent – predicted

their industry would remain unaffected by any kind of technological change.

F

has been to introduce more automation in business

management and accounting software – to remove the

boring bits and improve the overall experience.

What that’s done is given business better insights to

enable them to make smarter decisions, including near

MYOB NZ country

manager Ingrid

Cronin-Knight.

»

idealog/MYOB