In my career I have seen large sums of money spent by organisations investing in new technology products. These investments come with promises of improved business performance, profitability or compliance etc. Yet in many of these scenarios many of the stated technology benefits never came to realisation.
The question is why does this happen so often and how can your organisation prevent this underforming investment in technology from happening?
If you’ve read any of my blog posts before, you would know that I use better known concepts to demystify technology. You may have also noticed that the construction industry seems to be my favourite analogy.
Unlike buying a house there is often no readily available checklist to ensure that your organisation is indeed investing in the correct technology. Moreover, there is seldom a one size fits all approach to technology procurement.
When preparing to buy that dream house you usually have a wish list of, for example, the location, the features and the number of rooms etc. You would also know why you need each feature and how you will use it.
Why should a technology purchase be treated any differently? Irrespective of the technology purchased your organisation must be clear on what it wants to gain and why it wants to make this investment.
Speak to staff that would be using the tech and understand what their needs are. Create a checklist of must haves and good to haves on both the functionality and technical aspects.
Coming back to the example of your dream home. You would typically not add features that will become a maintenance nightmare. An example would be unprotected steel products at the coast. It will rust in no time.
With your technology purchase make sure you understand the attached license, maintenance and support offering.
With more specialised construction projects you may need engineering and architecture expertise. You’ll have no issues doing this because you want to make sure your construction project realises your dreams and considers your safety.
Equally so for your investment in technology. The more complex the technology is we’d recommend recruiting the services of an experienced technology advisor.
Your technology advisor’s evaluation extends to the organisational system and its architectural requirements. For example, in some industries data may not leave the borders of a specific country. In other scenarios the prohibitive upfront capital required for technology infrastructure can be avoided by using a public Cloud service provider.
In closing technology procurement practices must be multi-disciplinary and aligned to the organisational objectives. Furthermore, it is advisable that technology sourcing professionals are consulted for more complex procurements.
Athdown IT Consulting is an experienced provider of technology sourcing consulting and training. Find out how we can help secure your next investment in technology.