probably wondering how you can use big data to grow your revenue. Start with what you know: your customers and their purchase profile, marketing that brings response, and how potential buyers interact with your website. Use your Customer Relationship Management (CRM), accounting, email marketing and website analytics to get a deeper understanding of how you interact with current and future customers. Over the next year, we will see many Cloud applications that offer to aggregate and analyze data for the small company. 

Antivirus Is Not Enough Protection - Threats to your data, computers and security are constantly changing. Protecting against modern threats requires a new way of thinking. Detecting malicious behavior, verifying web reputation, implementing isolation and encryption tools should be a large part of your cyber security strategy. Heuristic analysis or looking for suspicious behavior is effective against quickly morphing threats like Crypto attacks. Most antivirus software has added features for advanced threats. Make sure you stay up-to-date and vigilant.

Digital Marketing - We have all seen it - the "Sponsored" label. With the latest innovations in digital marketing, it is getting harder and harder to tell ads from the content resulting from your browser search. Digital marketing isn't only sponsored or "native" ads, but these ads are getting the lion's share of attention, probably because they are so noticeable. Many users will catch on and stop clicking on obvious ads, or perhaps they will click just to make a point.

Drones - If you can do anything with drones in your business, this is your year.

Beyond military uses for drones, there is so much that an "eye in the sky" can do for business. From farm and land management to movie filming to surveillance, drones are being used for many commercial applications. You may have heard about Google's "secret" plans to deliver 5G from solar-powered drones.  No doubt this technology will change our world as innovators find new ways to use drone technology. Keep in mind that drone use is regulated. So if you find a great application for drones in your business, be sure to keep up with federal, state and local regulations and safety restrictions.

  

Disclaimer: Like horoscopes, our predictions for the Top IT Trends of 2016 are general in nature but they are intended to help you grow your business and profit from technology advances.