Technology had the great effect to massive decrease the amount of investment needed to start or expand your business.
Tools such as ERP, CRM, WMS required absurd amounts of time, investment and resources and most of all - precious energy form your team that would be better invested in making your business grow.
In a great article about computer simulations for the Harvard Business Review, the author compares the cost of simulating a product or shop floor layout in a computer versus 20 years ago and the difference is astonishing - 1Million USD than vs 500 USD now [I strongly recommend you to read the article - it's very educative]. All these software solutions mentioned earlier in this text are available to be deployed in days, not months, with no infrastructure needed, paying a monthly fee according to the number of users and with no strings attached - if not happy you can just move on to another solution that fits you best.
The good news is that you can use all this in your favour to expand your business, grow to other markets or launch a new business line with much less effort and investment. The implication is, however, that another potential competitor can rise form the ashes and challenge you in your markets with speed and agility, as these set-up costs acted as a moat to defend you from new competitors.
This is the new wold businesses are facing – faster changes, leveraged by technology and a savvy workforce that thinks differently and faces old challenges by a completely different angle.
Make a stand and embrace the advantages of this brave new world.