In a world where technology has become the glue that holds most businesses together, falling behind can lead to devastating outcomes. To rise above the competition, you need to keep up with the technology that can best improve your organization, and this is where working with a fractional CTO who can offer an objective point-of-view comes into use. Here’s what you need to know about keeping your tech in the game.
How Often Should A Company Re-Evaluate Its Systems?
Technology is constantly evolving, and as the world changes, it seems to expand faster. This makes it pertinent for businesses to re-evaluate technology and implement new strategies once a year. During the evaluation of your tech, think about the technology roadmap and everything from your core system to add-on software.
Some software have semi-annual updates. If this is the case for yours, you may want to re-evaluate some systems twice a year.
How Do You Choose Which Solutions To Upgrade?
Not every company has the budget to fix every issue they notice during the system re-evaluation. This is where prioritizing for the greatest return is key. You may notice 50 problems with your current system, but if you can tackle the 10 with the greatest return, that’s a big improvement. Some of those leftover 40 issues might be small or could wait a year until the budget resets.
Why Is the Thought Of Re-Evaluating Technology So Stressful?
Reviewing current systems and determining what’s working and what’s not, can be daunting. There are a lot of moving pieces to cover, and this gets overwhelming for some management teams.
But why? What’s so stressful about re-evaluating technology and systems?
Inexperience: If you don’t know the technology landscape, navigating gets confusing. It leads to a lot of extra research, which an experienced staff member may not need.
Improper delegation: The CEO of a company has a specific role, just as all upper-level management does. This is not where software and systems evaluations need to be resting. Delegating tasks to corresponding departments can minimize workloads and reduce unnecessary stress.
Not knowing the right questions: Asking the right questions is crucial to finding the best software for a company. If a business owner doesn’t know what to ask their provider, things could become more complex than they need to be.
Risks Of Using Outdated Technology
When technology becomes unsupported, you’re stuck with a system with no updates or patches. Should a problem arise, you’re on your own determining a solution, as there are no more support teams dedicated to that tool.
Similarly, if a piece of tech isn’t supported, it isn’t being properly protected. Security dwindles as systems are left to their own devices. For a business, this means important information could be at stake.
Risks Of The Latest And Greatest New Systems
Just as old systems come with risks, new systems aren’t always to be trusted. At Results Technology Group, we always recommend that our customers choose tech based on due diligence and peer review. It’s worth the costs and effort to select technology, which is tried and proven, so you don’t need to replace it again right away.
As we noted at the beginning of this post, to find the technology software and systems that work for your business likely requires working with a trusted tech leader from outside of your organization. You risk too much by taking the do-it-yourself approach.
Contact Results Technology Group
Results Technology Group provides technology services to our clients with best-in-class software selection, project management, and business technology leadership services.
To learn more about our fractional CTO expertise and capabilities, schedule a free 30-minute technology discussion. Visit our blog page for more content, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Comments