David and Goliath came to mind when I was watching the series called Rome on BBC TV. You probably have a general idea about the years around Julius Caesar and his successors, and what are portrayed as the excesses of a huge and successful culture.

In the end Rome did eventually fall, and it comes to mind that it was small entrepreneurs such as Hannibal, who shook the roots of what had become a might empire. It set me thinking about modern business and the Giants of this world, and whether a similar charge might be levelled against them. Do they use the same 'brute force' excesses to get their way in the marketplace and are there a few Hannibals out there to make a difference?

I did some research and it seems that a lot of Small to Medium Sized business owners are not taking up the challenge and adopting new technology. However, the marketplace is confusing because as fast as you look at one product or service, another pops up over the horizon, which threatens to make earlier technology obsolete!

Some SMEs have already taken the plunge and have capitalised on technologies such as VOIP and WIFI and by careful integration with their existing equipment have benefited from some of the following:-

WIFI is simple to deploy across an SME's environment
WIFI can be made secure using encryption
WIFI prevents the disruption of laying cables
WIFI helps growing companies to expand quickly because people can be added and removed from the network easily and with little disruption.
WIFI is so widespread that you can offer a part of your bandwidth safely to visitors and guests
WIFI enables employees to take their laptop anywhere that they can get it and allows them to continue working.

VOIP can be up and running very quickly.
VOIP lowers the cost of international calls.
VOIP providers often offer free local and national calls.
VOIP is easier to expand than the Public Network.
VOIP is cheap for teleconferencing
VOIP is digital, and helps you to combine voice recording when sending by e-mail.

Large organisations are not as swift to exploit new technology in this manner because their Goliath stature weighs against rapid transformations that demand a change in the culture, the protocols, regulations and rituals that govern it.

Increasing mobility and communication helps your business to react much quicker than any large organisation. Because your workforce can work anywhere you can look at options for remote working thus saving office costs. Your workforce will have the capability to communicate and teleconference at any time that will help your organisation react quickly

Make your business into a Hannibal, adopt new technology and benefit from a quicker response time,  lower costs and you might just level the playing field.

Author:Rob Wendes Msc in Internet Technology (with distinction)

Bio: For the last 20 years Rob Wendes has been helping Business owners and professionals to improve their software development.