Making Technology Work for Your Business

Making Technology Work for Your Business

Technology initiatives can be intimidating. They are often perceived as expensive and disruptive, with no guarantee of success. But companies that make smart, strategic investments in digital technologies can keep pace with the changing demands of their industry and customers and reap huge benefits. It’s a short-term pain for long-term gain.

A successful technology project starts by knowing which systems your company is using and how. Map out your critical business processes and identify the digital tools used at each step. Then, consider how you might make better use of your current systems— or implement new ones—to reduce effort, improve visibility and better serve your customers.

Make sure you don’t forget your employees as you implement your technology projects. Be open and transparent, and make sure they have training and support to get through the change. It will help set the groundwork for creating a culture of continuous improvement in your company and ensuring your team is on board to support you.

How to stay competitive in a digital age?

Digital technologies are disrupting every business sector and business function. From distribution and logistics,
to sales and marketing, production, finance, and HR, the digital revolution is creating new opportunities, changing
business models and requiring additional investments.

Yet many companies are slow to react. They still rely on manual processes and spreadsheets to compile data, for example. This results in key people becoming bottlenecks because they can’t find the information they need.
In other businesses still, technology solutions have been bought piecemeal by various departments. Software is often incompatible from one department to the other. Businesses try to compensate by doing manual data entry, increasing the likelihood of errors while wasting precious human resources.

Meanwhile, companies that use digital technologies effectively reported higher sales and profit growth and were more likely to export and innovate. To gain these advantages, businesses need to take a practical and structured approach to technology.

What is a technology strategy?

The traditional approach to business strategy saw IT as a function of the organization, carrying out operational
tasks that were separate from other functions. In this model, decisions are taken in siloes, leaving businesses
vulnerable to rapid technological change in their industry.

To counter this, entrepreneurs need to choose a technology strategy that bridges the gap between the overall business strategy and the tactics used by various departments. In this way, companies can prioritize technology initiatives that align with their business goals, connect and prioritize various projects across the company, and create a more customer-centric organization.

Align your technology goals with your business goals

• Know where you stand: To start creating your technology roadmap, you need a clear picture of how you compare to your peers.
• Reconfirm your business goals:
• Once you’ve assessed your current state, you need to reconfirm your major business goals.
• What are my strategic objectives and priorities?
• What would success look like five years from now?
• What do I need to get there and what role will technology play in helping me reach those goals?

Answers to these questions will ensure that your tech strategy is geared toward meeting your business objectives.

Complete a market scan

Finally, look at the technologies and processes changing your industry to help decide what you need to do.

Look for the main technologies that could give you a competitive edge.

• Ask if new technologies could improve your customer’s experience, help you reduce costs, or gain efficiencies.
• Look at what your competitors are doing.
• Identify disruptors, key technologies, risks, and new business models.

Identify where technology can improve your processes

Next, map out your processes, from the beginning to the end of the cycle. What activities need to be completed by employees and customers? Who does the work and what, if any, technology do they use?
The goal of this exercise should be to identify bottlenecks or areas for potential improvement. It should reveal what’s working and what’s not, how you use data and any gaps in competencies or resources.
It will also reveal areas where technology can come into play for greater efficiency. A great place to start is to reduce and eliminate, paper-based, manual processes.

Not only are these inefficient, prone to error, and a security risk, but they also complicate collaboration and information sharing when staff is not in the same office. The latter was especially noticed by companies during the most recent global pandemic, COVID-19.

Contact Musato Technologies to learn more about our ICT services and solutions that empower businesses technologically.