Today, almost every business uses some form of technology in its operation. As we head into 2023 now is a good time to plan and organize your technological acquisitions.
What is a Strategic Technology Plan?
In basic terms, a technology plan addresses your organization’s data and technical needs to enable the organization to achieve its strategic objectives. It comes down to:
- A vision of how data and technology enable strategic outcomes
- A roadmap and platform architecture that becomes a blueprint for future capabilities
- A short-term action plan that delivers near-term value
- A plan to streamline and automate processes in line with technology investment
- A resources plan that aligns skills, functional capabilities, and structures with planned investments
An effective technology plan is not only about encompassing future needs based on your current framework. It must also accommodate the future needs for revenue growth and the direction of your business.
Three Steps to Creating an Effective Technology Plan
You’ll likely need a master plan and several smaller function-specific plans for key strategic investments. Here are three steps to creating an effective plan:
- Analyze Your Current Technology – Make sure you have the experience and expertise to conduct an assessment in-house or enlist a third party. Any third-party vendor should be able to demonstrate their depth of knowledge. Focus on data architecture and life-cycle management, technology operations playbooks and processes, compliance, and contracted third-party services portfolio processes and costs.
- Develop Your Roadmap – Identify any gaps between your future business strategy and your company’s current technology. Quantify the costs in technology to address prioritized investments. Include engineering costs, software licensing, cloud expenses, and third-party consulting. Make your plan forward-looking, scalable, and ensure it addresses compliance and security.
- Manage Implementation – Put a small team in place to manage the implementation of the plan. If outsourced, key staff should be involved. The team will define opinions and create a phased schedule. Adopt an agile approach with success measured in short, manageable sprints.
Keeping needs in mind, as well as business imperatives is key. When budgeting, deciding on which functions you want to run, grow, and transform will help you allocate spending in a way that will keep your current operations running smoothly while finding new revenue and staying current with today’s fast-changing technology.
About Allied
Allied Business Solutions is a leader in digital business solutions with offices in Idaho, Oregon and Utah. Allied’s stack of services includes Managed Print, Document Management, Managed IT and Security and Unified Communications. Technology products include Office Printers, MFPs and Digital Copiers, Production Printing Systems, Wide Format Printers, Computer Hardware/Software, Mailing Systems and SMART Boards.
For the latest industry trends and technology insights visit Allied’s Resources page.