Rural rising: technology is bridging the digital divide

rural, farmers

No business – irrespective of size, industry or location – is immune to the current crisis. From large enterprises with thousands of employees in Sydney to micro-businesses with only two in regional Queensland, the ongoing pandemic has caused immediate damage and ongoing uncertainty, forcing businesses of all sizes to adapt, or even pivot entirely.

What has stood out over this period is the resilience of regional small businesses. Over the last 12 months alone, business owners in non-metropolitan areas have faced a string of hardships including floods, bushfires and pandemic. Although these setbacks take their toll, the majority of business owners in these areas still prefer to remain rural. According to Zoho research, 75 per cent of rural business owners say being based outside capital cities improves their lifestyle, while half believe that people are more productive in smaller workgroups or rural communities. By embracing technology, rural businesses can thrive and even serve urban and global customers. If you run a rural business, here are some considerations.

Size is not a constraint

Advanced technology is no longer the prerogative of large enterprises with thousands of employees. Companies no longer need to make large upfront investments; maintain, manage and provision software and hardware; or hire IT professionals and departments just to be in the game. All that burden has shifted to the software provider. This means smaller businesses can use highly sophisticated technology without breaking the bank.

In fact, technology can not only empower small businesses but also help them grow. Adopting cloud services creates agility, enables rapid innovation, and allows companies to learn from the experiences of others through connections and communities. Adopting the right software also allows small businesses to increase their footprint. In a matter of clicks, a small business located in rural Australia can appear to have departments, processes, and capabilities, similar to a much larger competitor operating from a metro area. Operational efficiencies, at affordable costs, drive competitive advantage.

The time is now

Technology will be the most important foundation for surviving the impact of the pandemic. Thankfully, with technology now more affordable, accessible, and flexible than ever before, there has never been a better time to adopt it. Lower operational costs are the norm. Businesses avoid upfront costs in exchange for subscription payment models that allow them to pay-as-they-go.

Usage limits based on size are also a thing of the past. Users can now scale up and purchase additional capabilities as demanded by actual growth. Seasonal businesses and those with rapid fluctuations can easily scale up as needed, and back down again as demand cools off. This is the essence of business flexibility.

Rural empowerment

There is a misconception that entrepreneurship is nurtured primarily in large cities. In fact, technology is helping unleash the immense, and long under-appreciated, regional potential. Business owners can now live where they desire, yet build highly-successful companies. In months, work has quickly evolved from a place you go to something you do, and technology has bridged the digital divide to make geography almost irrelevant.

Even as businesses choose to work rurally, technology and policy have a role to play. Three in five Aussies agree, saying technology can help with rural development by allowing people to work from anywhere, while more than half say that governments must figure out immigration policies that help populate rural areas with migrants.

The digital divide was the consequence of uneven, perhaps even unfair, access to communication and information technology that discriminated based on wealth and geography. Ironically, it may be technology itself that becomes the ultimate leveller.

Vijay Sundaram, Chief Strategy Officer, Zoho