Five indicators you need a technology needs assessment.
Ever get in a situation when your business processes just don’t work, or at least work as well as you think they should. The convergence of the right technology and the right business processes does not happen automatically. The key is to know when you need to take a step back and evaluate your current business processes to ensure your technology aligns to the most efficient way to achieve your operational goals.
First let’s define what is a technology needs assessment.
A technology needs assessment is an evaluation of a company’s technology requirements used to conduct current business activities as well as the expected technology requirements essential for future growth.
An overview of a company’s technology has many benefits to the overall health of a company, such as streamlined processes, increased productivity, an understanding of company technology assets, an increase in customer satisfaction and a boost in employee morale.
What are some indicators it might be time for your company to conduct a technology needs assessment?
What are some indicators it might be time for your company to conduct a technology needs assessment?
1. Your spreadsheets have become an unwieldy mess.
We see this a lot with the use of spreadsheets. Spreadsheets are a wonderful tool, but at some point, as a business grows spreadsheets cannot scale like a technology system designed to collect, store and report data based on your industry or business need.
2. You are entering the same data into multiple systems.
Entering the same data into multiple systems adds an enormous amount of time to a business process. In addition, it lowers the morale of your employees. A technology needs assessment can document information that needs to flow between the applications so that you can either connect the information between applications via APIs or find the right system that combines current applications' functionality into one robust system. Not only does application integration save valuable time, but it also eliminates the opportunity for human error.
3. Your company relies on tribal knowledge rather than documentation
Too many times companies rely on one employee to conduct critical business activities with a technology that only that employee knows. Companies can use a technology needs assessment to document the processes used by the employee thus ensuring the knowledge is shared with others within the company.
4. Your software cost keeps going up, but you are not sure why
As companies grow the numbers of users and applications grow. A technology needs assessment will identify what technology applications you are using, who is using those applications, and how much it is costing the business.
5. You know you need new applications or systems but have no idea what you need, what software or systems are out on the market, or what it should cost.
Understanding how your current technology is being used and documenting your business processes is the number one reason most companies want a technology needs assessment. The value you get from the assessment are documenting your business processes as well as understanding the technology gaps with your current technology applications. This critical information allows you to make decisions concerning refining your business processes and determining the right technology that aligns to your business processes.
As if solving these challenges wasn't enough, it gets better. An overview of a company’s technology has many benefits to the overall health of a company, such as:
streamlined processes,
increased productivity,
an understanding of company technology assets,
an increase in customer satisfaction, and
a boost in employee morale.
Too many times, companies align their business process due to the technology that they are using rather than finding the correct technology that aligns to their business needs. Scalesology can conduct a technology needs assessment for the entire company or fine tune the assessment to deal with a particular problem that the organization needs to address. Contact us today, we can ensure your business scales with the right technology.