Technology is changing the way companies interact with clients. Rather than relying on the occasional communication via phone or email, you can now utilise a range of tech tools to give your clients timely updates, transmit important files, and further develop the client relationship—all through secure channels.

The exact interprofessional collaboration (IC) definition depends on whom you ask. But with the help of several healthcare professionals who contributed to this article, we put together this statement on IC:

During no other epoch did technology advance at as quick a pace as it does in today’s world. The lives we live today will only leave behind just the merest of traces of the technology that we will be using fifty years from now. Even a tour of leading tech companies will demonstrate that there is a vast disparity between how major IT companies and SMEs function.

It will come as no shock to SMEs that data continue show a consistent pattern of neglect, if not outright hostility, by High Street banks toward small businesses. Figures from sources as varied as the British Bankers Association, alternative lenders, and the government show that the trend has only been downward. For instance, lending platform FundingOptions report an overall 37% decline in SME overdraft financing from 2011 to end of September 2016.

Those who fall into the category of Generation Z have just begun to enter the workforce. While every person is unique, each generation is thought to share an ethos that is pervasive among members of that generation.

Small and medium-sized enterprises need all the tools in their utility belts to optimise efficiency and grow. With a small taskforce the work of every employee is magnified. This being the case it’s vital that each member of a team is not only satisfying their role but excelling in their position. To do this, companies need to be using the best available tools and on the market.

Project management tools offer teams effective ways to collaborate on projects, quickly communicate and see deadlines and work assignments. Instant chat can do away with those cumbersome email chains, while a large pool of talent from all over the world can be brought in to achieve high levels of productivity now that your processes and file sharing are cloud-based.

We all know it by now: cloud-based solutions are here to stay. With the choice we have today, it would be questionable to say the least not to take advantage of what the cloud has to offer. As a small to medium-size business, the path is already well beaten, and the fact of money being saved by using the cloud not even debatable.

Perhaps the greatest challenge for any organisation is change. People have a tendency to get set in their ways, and when something new enters the playing field it’s often met with resistance.

Our jobs are getting more complicated. The parameters of our jobs can no longer be clearly defined, and from one day to the next it’s possible for us to be assigned new tasks that we have to adapt to very quickly. This is because companies depend on an ever-changing software industry to improve efficiency. Our changing job roles are an inevitable consequence of the digital age.