Businesses often rely on technology for their everyday business operations. Technology is used for many aspects of the business including sales, marketing, purchasing, accounting, finance, production, human resources. It doesn’t even matter where the business allocates most of their time either because it all comes back to a successful technology strategy.
What is a Technology Strategy?
A technology strategy is a plan that consists of different objectives, principles, and tactics as they relate to technology within a business or organization. These strategies focus more on the technology of the business and how that technology is managed.
Elements of a Technology Strategy
Many elements are involved in a technology strategy, and many of these are actionable items that can be used to help eliminate pitfalls you are experiencing while also keeping your budget in mind.
Business Alignment: this part of the strategy helps a business fulfill their needs
Roadmap: this shows how the business can go from point A to point B and shows how to reach their goals
Long–Term Timeframe: this allows the business to set up a more long-term plan for success with different milestones and objectives to hit along the way
Future Focused: this is when future technology needs are considered. You will need to think ahead into the future to come up with a strategy for improvement
Rationalized: every item included in your strategy has a specific purpose or goal
Business Needs: these refer to the specific goals and needs of the business
Balance Budget with Reality: the goals and methods used to achieve those goals need to stay within a specified budget, and a realistic outlook for the results should be maintained
Regular Updates: you will want to take another look at your strategy a couple of times each year to compensate for any updates or changes
Creating a Technology Strategy
To begin creating your technology strategy, you will want a clear understanding of your business, its needs, and the current state of technology being used. Where can you make improvements and what priorities should be set as you move forward?
When you can prioritize a list, you can then find better resource estimates, so you can better plan for the labor and costs that will be involved with the changes and improvements you will be making.
Plan for the Long Term
Finally, as briefly touched upon already, you will want to be sure to plan for the long term when you begin to formulate your technology strategy. Finalize your list of priorities, sit down and determine your budget and how many business cycles may be needed to reach your objectives, and then create your roadmap to show you how to get from point A to point B successfully.
When thinking long-term, think beyond just the next year. Stretch your strategy even further to make sure that you are covering all the important initiatives. Then you can begin to take a closer look at what technology will be most effective for your business and its specific needs and goals.
