After the excitement of the holidays, many may welcome the chance to slow down and plan for the year ahead. For business owners, this may mean reflecting on your business’s performance in 2016 and coming up with how to make 2017 a better year in terms of sales, customer satisfaction, and workplace management.

If businesses want to improve their performance, they should start with integrating their various technologies. With so many devices, apps, and POS systems, record amounts of data are being gathered at lightening speeds, including customer information, sales history, and payroll. But if your devices can’t communicate, if they can’t talk to each other and share this gathered data across systems, your business may lose time, money, and sales.

As more and more businesses turn to technology integration, they are quickly discovering the benefits that can be gained. Technology changes so rapidly, there always seems to be some new technology for your business. But even if you don’t implement augmented reality or 3D printing in your office or company as the Forbes article may suggest, traditional technologies will do a lot to improve your business’s performance, leading you to a much better 2017.

The biggest benefit of technology integration is the ability to increase your business’s efficiency and productivity, keeping you a step ahead of your competition. When all data is kept together, organized, accessible, and easily shared between platforms or software, it saves you time. There is no more need for manual data entry by your employees or even yourself from one device or software to another. Instead, make fewer errors and meet more deadlines by automatically sharing and updating data across systems.

This ability to increase productivity and efficiency is why so many businesses and companies are integrating their technology. Take online shopping, for example. Online, or  e-commerce, retailers exhibit the ideal method of system integration. On only one website sales, inventory, purchases, and varying customer accounts are all kept in one place. Prices are available to customers while customer credit cards and accounts are available to the retailer. Information is digitally updated and calculated and the product is automatically shipped, sometimes within minutes. Soon even the delivery itself may be done by technology, as Amazon continues to test its drone delivery services. Nothing needs to be done by hand, reducing the likelihood of error and also reducing the costs it takes to perform such a long and manual process.

Your excess time translates into the opportunity to focus on making better decisions to benefit your business’s future. When not pressed for time, it is easier for business owners to slow down and seriously think about the issues, questions, and possible advancements facing their business and industry as a whole. What is the company’s newest goal in terms of profit and how can that be achieved? How can the company better compete against its competitors? With more time to think, more accurate decisions can be made. Remember that every decision, no matter how seemingly small, may have lasting effects on your company. Use your time wisely.

On the other hand, technology integration also enables quicker decisions to be made as they are needed. Sometimes, decisions and information must be shared on-the-spot. Customers and clients appreciate quick turnaround and rapid feedback. When data is shared in real-time, decisions can also be made in real-time. Respond to customer and client inquiries faster. Share sales reports, accounting spreadsheets, and other valuable documents both externally and internally.

With technology integration, your devices are “talking to each other.” They’re sharing data and working together to analyze information. But your devices aren’t the only things with stronger communication skills. Integrating your technology also helps your employees and coworkers communicate better because information can be shared across devices easily and inexpensively.

Talking technologies can help different departments share info. Give your payroll department the opportunity to share data with your management department. Accounting and sales can pass spreadsheets between themselves for review and editing. Keep every department in-the-know and keep all of the latest data at their fingertips.

However, technology integration can also pass through global boundaries. If a business has offices around the world, technology can bring those individual offices together. No longer does every employee need to sit in a conference room (though technology may never be able to replace the benefits of face-to-face communication, discussion, and brainstorming). Instead, co-workers can chat on phone conferences while sharing computer screens over the many screen sharing applications now available.

It is possible for entire documents, including client contracts and proposals, to be written in a software that can be shared with an unlimited number of users. With apps available for both mobile and desktop, coworkers can edit the document whenever, wherever.

When you can make better decisions, when you can reflect on your business’s performance, when your employees can more easily share opinions and ideas, when your clients are satisfied by quick and transparent feedback, and when you have every piece of your company’s data in one convenient location, you have the perfect formula for rapid business growth.

So many small and medium-size businesses struggle because they do not embrace tech. They see it as a hurdle, when it should be seen as a benefit. Implementing the latest technologies, devices, and software and ensuring that these devices are integrated and communicating could end this conflict so many smaller, multi-generational businesses face.

The data integrated technologies provides will better help business owners see what they are doing well and what elements of their business need to be improved. The information is quick and more meaningful.

Integrated technologies also benefit businesses as they grow. Integrated technology can keep up with the business, providing a simple system instead of a complex web. As new departments are added, new clients on-boarded, and new employees hired, technology will ensure that all remain in-the-loop.

If you don’t know where to start with tech integration, Zoho is the perfect tool to help you. Zoho is the ultimate software for businesses looking to find solutions and solve problems to any issue they may face. From customer relationship management to reporting features for improved workflow and data collection, Zoho has the tools a business needs to keep its data in one convenient location.

Zoho helps businesses around the country thrive because of its ability to integrate with an abundance of existing technologies, software, and platforms. The program, used widely in the business world, offers a wide variety of integrations. For example, Zoho CRM, a customer engagement software, can connect businesses with their customers over the phone, email, social media, and even through live chat.

With dozens of integrations, from sales to finance to even social media engagement, CRM makes it possible for businesses to share their data and better serve their customers. For example, the MailChimp integration lets you import Zoho CRM contacts and track the effect of your email marketing campaigns. ClickDesk enables you to host live chats with Zoho CRM. Inventory gives you the ability to automate your entire business’s inventory management.

With so many ways to integrate your technology in Zoho, you are sure to improve your workflow, conducting business more efficiently, communicating more effectively, and growing more rapidly.

KDG has spent over 15 years helping small and medium-size businesses integrate their technologies and improve their workflow. The Zoho Creator and Zoho CRM developers at KDG are one of the only 100% U.S. based teams of certified developers in the nation. From developing a management software for various healthcare industries to creating project and task tracking applications for busy businesses, KDG has helped business owners around the country improve sales, customer satisfaction, and workplace management through technology integration.

If you are a business owner striving to improve business in 2017, let KDG help you integrate your technology and software so your business can consume data faster and make more accurate decisions. Save time and plan for the future of your business.