Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have large potential of impacting MSMEs positively if used appropriately. These technologies have the benefits of enhancing access to and processing of information and of facilitating communication. To help us appreciate the facilitative role of ICTs, we need to understand the important place of both information and communication, both in our everyday lives as individuals but also in our businesses, communities, and societies at large.
Information is so important that without it we cannot be effectively functional in the communities and societies that we live and operate in. Without information, we cannot do effective business either. A few examples here will allow us to see the picture better: when you as an entrepreneur, get into business, you have to pass the information that you have started a business to other people before they and others can patronize your business. In your information package you have to say what product or service you have on offer, why you believe it is useful to your target audience, how it is used for optimal value and results, where and when it is available, what your charges are, and who will benefit most from it.
All the valuable information about your products and services, when effectively delivered (read communicated), sets the stage for the success of your enterprise. When this information is not articulated adequately with the necessary clarity, the business may not succeed as well as it should. So far as the communication component of ICTs, no matter how well the facts of the business are articulated and laid out, if they are not effectively communicated to the target audience, the business may still not succeed.
Even if you as an entrepreneur have the "perfect" product or service, your business will still not succeed until you articulate its information thoroughly and communicate that information effectively to the target audience. The technology in ICTs will allow the entrepreneur to package the information more effectively than otherwise. It will also allow the entrepreneur to communicate that information more effectively than otherwise. Technology allows us to capture, organize, manage, and disseminate our information in ways that make them more valuable. Probably the most common example today of how information and communication technology is able to help us capture, organize, and manage our information is the mobile telephone. No longer do we need pen and paper to write down phone numbers; nor do we need good memory capacity to remember those phone numbers since our electronic gadgets already do that for us. In fact many of us will confess that they do not know (off head) the phone number of even the best friend they talk to almost every evening. These devices also help us manage this valuable information by storing it in a specific order such as by date or in alphabetical order. The arrangement of electronic information can often be manipulated for ease of access, such as by sorting it in the desired order. The amount of time saved by having information appropriately sorted is tremendous.
The technology in ICTs will also allow an entrepreneur to communicate (disseminate) the information that has been captured, organized, and managed. Making a phone call, sending an SMS, sending an e-mail, accessing a website, and uploading and downloading internet content are some of the ways that we disseminate information and receive the information that has been disseminated by others. Many of us will agree that using these technologies, we are able to reach more people faster with more specific information than without them.
By posting information on your website about your products and services, for example, you as an entrepreneur are able to reach more people across the globe than you would have done otherwise, faster than would have been the case, and are able to provide that information more effectively using text, graphics, and sound. ICTs have indeed revolutionized the things we do and the way we do them. In fact, because of ICTs, an entrepreneur who uses them well is competing on the global market place with the entire world population as their potential target market.
