By Lorna Hill

2nd November 2023 / Blog

Choosing the right technology solution can not only help you scale your business, but it can also help your team function more effectively in an ever-changing world. But in a rapidly evolving tech landscape, keeping up to date with the best solutions is a challenge. The fear of not being aware of the latest, most efficient tools can be daunting. Choosing the right solution can be a time consuming and costly process if the wrong solution is selected or it’s not implemented correctly…

So, how do you stay up to date with the latest technology and pick the right solution for you?

Keeping Up to Date

1. stay in the know:

Sir Francis Bacon once said, “Knowledge is Power”, and one of the greatest ways to stay in touch with new trends is to continue to grow that knowledge. Attend conferences or workshops, utilise networking platforms to follow tech firms sharing key solution offerings, or sign up to webinars and newsletter. Anything to keep up with the latest updates on products and services, as well as market insights and demos of platforms. Staying in the loop will help you to make informed decisions around what technology solution is right for you.

2. Build and encourage culture and innovation!

A strong organisational culture will encourage employees to share ideas, to continue to learn, and to embrace a desire to build on their skillset. Offer opportunities to attend training sessions or seminars to promote a culture of continuous improvement and learning. Encourage open conversations with your employees and build a culture that celebrates creativity. Developing an open and innovative culture helps idea sharing, gaining technological insights, and setting any future change programmes up for success.

3. Perform regular business reviews:

Even if a large digital transformation doesn’t form part of your strategic plan right now, by performing regular reviews of your business activity you will be able to implement change more easily. Be it technology stacks or business processes, performing a review will help to understand pain points, areas for improvement or further opportunities for development. Reviewing technical processes can help to drive change for good, refocus operations and feed into your strategic plan.

4. Embrace change:

Being open and flexible to change will enable businesses to remain adaptable, staying ahead of the competition. Don’t be afraid to challenge your current status quo and look to continuously improve or to try new technologies. Engage with vendors, explore demos, free trials and marketing material. Companies that resist change risk falling behind. Business transformation can help you to build a competitive edge whilst improving efficiency.

So, we’ve kept up to date with all of the latest trends and technologies… but how do we ensure we’re choosing the right technology solution for us?

Choosing the right technology solution:

There can be any number of variables to consider ahead of making a decision on the right solution or vendor. Here are some key considerations that may help you navigate finding the right solution for you.

1. Define your requirements:

Before embarking on any selection journey, it’s vital to understand your current situation and business needs, but also elements of technology or current processes that won’t benefit your business. Think about things like:

• Does this transformation align with the strategic plan? What will this solution help me to achieve?
• What are the current pain points?
• What are the opportunities for improvement?
• If we weren’t to embark on this technical transformation, what impact would that have for my organisation?

The key to success here is to start engagement with your teams early; bringing them on the transformation journey as soon as possible will help to establish buy-in later in the programme.

2. Future proof your solution:

Minimise your customisation and choose a scalable solution. Customisation allows optimal alignment across business processes, but a heavily customised solution can lead to limitations further down the line. As a result, you may consider that an “off the shelf” solution is better suited to your growth plans and could mean less disruptions along the journey.

Considerations for scalability:

• What are the global capabilities of this solution?
• What if I need to transact with businesses and users across multiple languages?
• How adaptable is the solution?
• Can I expand into different modules at a later date? How much more is this likely to cost my organisation?
• How well does the solution integrate with other interfaces/systems?
• Can the solution handle a large influx of additional users if my employee head count increases?

3. Consider your technical skillset:

Undertaking a technical transformation can require changes to many areas of the business, including process management, change management, data and reporting functionality.

Ask yourself:

• Do we have the internal capability to not only deliver this, but also the skillset to manage a system integrator?
• Do we have the internal capacity to complete tasks to ensure change lands effectively?
• Do we have the skills to develop SMEs and support our employees throughout this change management process?

It’s worthwhile considering external support; onboarding external, non-biased, consultancies can help. Working alongside your system integrator, consultancies can help to ensure a successful go-live that lands on-time, on-budget and meets your original business requirements.

4. Long term support:

Your business is about to embark on a long-term investment, so it’s important to look ahead and think about maintenance and on-going support. For example, if the solution were to be an on-premises installation, the support model may look different to that of a cloud-based solution. Think about any potential cost implications to your business if the system needed to go down for technical support and/or upgrades. Some things to think about could be:

• Are you planning on managing support in house, what resource might that require?
• Should we consider a vendor that offers a long-term support model?
• Does my chosen vendor have a basic support package?

5. Time to choose:

Once you get into vendor selection be sure to make the most of any demonstrations that are offered on the solutions you have narrowed down. Focus on any functionality that is relevant to your requirements. It’s always worth following up on references of other users or clients of the vendor, this will help you to determine vendor alignment to your organisation and confirm vendor reputation.

When comparing your vendors think about:

• Pricing and implementation costs – are these aligned to my expectations?
• Support options – does this fit with my long-term assumptions?
• Consider vendors with industry relevant experience – your organisation may be in a complex industry so a vendor with previous experience may be beneficial.
• Vendor Reputation & Cultural Alignment.
• Long term compatibility of the solution.

Choosing the right technology for your business can be daunting, time consuming, scary and challenging. If you’re feeling these emotions when considering technological change in your business then you are not alone. That’s exactly why we exist, to take that pain and anxiety away and you to deliver a smooth digital transformation process and set your business up for success. If you’ve got any questions or simply want to get the ball rolling then don’t hesitate to get in touch today.