Technology strategy is the overall plan which consists of objectives, principles and tactics relating to use of technologies within a particular organization.
Business owners and Companies need to use technology strategy to enhance their businesses
Here are 5-technology strategy to enhance your business.
Strategy 1 Have a good foundation.
Every good house has a solid foundation. The same goes for your business technology. Having your core infrastructure in place will allow your business to build and grow when technology needs expand.
A good backup and disaster recovery strategy.A solid backup plan will keep you resting easily at night .
A well-defined security plan. From antivirus to firewalls and everything in between making sure your critical data is protected from ransom, theft or leaks is more critical than ever.
Strategy 2 : Automate your business
Automation is important in business.It saves time and energy.
However, emailing your list by hand or following up after an order is placed would take time and resources. By automating your email marketing with an app like Hubspot or Infusion soft you will save time and money.
A good sales customer relationship management database (CRM) will make sure you are following up on those sales opportunities and automating your workflows in no time.
Collecting the information to bill, setting up the invoice, sending out the invoice, collecting the payment, and following up with past due invoices is a tedious process. Automating this process with an online system such as Xero.com, Quickbooks online and Fresh books is a great way to get paid as fast as possible.
Strategy 3: Aligning business goals and technology
So you have goals for the next 3-5 years that may include increased revenue, new customers, employee retention, reducing expenses and the list goes on. Technology can help you track those goals as well as helping you to efficiently accomplish them. Many companies struggle to maintain a tight relationship between their business and IT functions. By integrating your business and IT strategies, your organization will tend to perform better, increase revenues, and gain a competitive edge.
Project management and goal setting tools such as Trello, asana and click up can increase your ability to hit the milestones on time and within budget. Follow your projects from initiation, planning, execution to finalization.
Technology changes almost every day. By aligning your technology and business goals on a regular basis you will be able to keep up on the latest trends and industry
And this can give you a leg above your competition.
Strategy 4 : Communication
Technology is a great communication tool that extends from email to chat to project management mentioned above. Tools, strategies, and workflows can make any team more efficient and productive.
E-mail has rapidly replaced communication by phone, postal service, and fax. However, today’s newest employees coming into the workplace use email less than 6% of the time with chat and social being the go-to platforms of choice. Alternatives to email that have become popular are team chat platforms such as Slack , Google hang out and Skype. Each one typically allowing for images, video, documents, voice and more along with the basic categorizing of chat streams.
Sometimes the hardest part of communicating is coming up with a time. Technology can bridge this gap by providing easy ways for a team to sync up calendars or choose times that work best for them. Shared calendars from Google’s G-suite,Office365 or tools like Doodle or Calendly can help everyone get a time slot that works the best.
Yelp and Google reviews helping customers and clients give their thoughts on their last interaction with you. With the right tools, you can get ahead of these sometimes unpleasant posts about your company with a proper customer feedback loop. Sending a simple how are we doing email after the first interaction or purchase can proactively keep customers happy and positive reviews coming your way. Also making it super easy for customers to communicate with your team via social media and your website is a must in today’s fast-paced world.
Strategy 5: Resource planning
Just like having the right ingredients for a cake having the right resources for your company is very important. Having the right technology resources is even more.
If you are fortunate enough to have an IT team to plan your technology strategy then you are well on your way to having the right ingredients to your superhero pie. Make sure you have the correct skill sets for your team,so that they can support your business effectively. Usually, an experienced CTO or CIO in your organization will make sure your resources are allocated properly to the right projects as well as aligning the business goals with the needed technology.
For smaller businesses that a full-time on-site staff does not make financial sense having a technology partner to help with developing your IT strategy and keep your business running is important. You will want this partner to be involved in decisions with the business owner, president or CEO to make sure resources are allocated and proper planning can take place.