Accommodate for the trip full of potholes. From our government to the economy, the volatility that surrounds our industry continues to stack. Last month, I explored the importance of strategic planning. and clear objectives (specific to your realistic situation) to build more resistant businesses.
But resilience and strategic plans are not enough. Companies need adequate tools and technology to accelerate that plan, advance ambitions and boost significant results faster.
The creation of a new technology is a great decision, with high price labels (in direct technology costs, together with important indirect costs, such as equipment management and supervision). But the great initiatives bear their fruits when they help make change and challenge in differentiation and profitable growth. The problem is that they must be the appropriate technological investments for their unique needs.
Let’s look at how to evaluate and prioritize technological projects to obtain greater impact and avoid expensive errors.
Technology must meet the objectives and results
Too often, the first question they ask me is: “What will the technological project cost?” Frankly, that is a myopic question without any context.
Instead, ask: What return (gain) will see? How long will it take? How sure can I be in the result? Will this technology solve my problem? Does my plan progress or fill the gaps? How will it differentiate me from competitors or products in the market? Write your answer to each question and share them with your internal team and external technology partners to document alignment and acceptance.
Common Errors Purchase Technology
In my experience, great digital investments generally have a lower performance in four ways, slowing down value time:
Budget for progress (yesterday needs, instead of tomorrow): Given the speed with which our market, customers and technology changes, do not budget the autopilot. Make sure your documented plan, defined results and prioritized technology investments are based on “Where the album will be, not where it has been “ To borrow Wayne Gretzky wisdom.
Overloaded Impact Teams: The new technology must improve efficiency for your equipment, not accumulate more on your plates or require a huge learning curve. The inefficiency of the team inflates operating costs and damages productivity: when your team is constantly playing up to date, they cannot be creative or proactive to advance.
Team capacity gaps to kill adoption: The new solution must increase or advance in the skills and skills of your team, or will not generate significant value. The best case here is that team members use a subset of the characteristics they pay, and the worst case will not use the tools, such as buying the Ferrari and never getting it out of the second march.
Duplicate and high cost of roii systems: The new solution must completely replace the expensive inherited tools and inefficient solutions. The oldest platforms naturally incur high costs to maintain over time, while their value for your business decreases. They face greater risks, security problems and even solution failure.
Consider these potholes and plan the risk of paying more for duplicate systems, fragmented data, inefficient workflows and overwhelmed equipment.
Consider the Rej frame for faster results
In Wareaware, we have adopted the rapid economic justification frame (REJ) to mitigate these challenges, reduce operating headaches and generate faster financial results. The Rej Marco supports the risks, benefits and costs of a solution to better understand the value and probability of the project to achieve commercial objectives. This is how it works:
Definition of the benefits of the solution and the economic approach: Each investment must make economic sense: solve real problems and avoid unnecessary costs. The Rej Marco helps him avoid the “brilliant object syndrome” and stay focused on its specific problems, whether cost reduction, market differentiation or improvement of customer experience.
MAPO OF TECHNOLOGICAL BENEFITS TO OBJECTIVES AND RESULTS: Rej helps it evaluate a solution against its objectives and respond proactively to questions such as: What challenges are we solving with this solution? How will experience improve our team and customers? What will cost and what existing expenses could replace? How soon can we expect to see the ROI?
When addressing and documenting these questions in advance, links the value of the solution directly to its unique circumstances and obtains alignment of the team about the plan and expectations.
Establish ROI expectations and estimate value time (TTV): Then, quantify the value of a solution, establishing realistic and measurable results. This step creates a safe commercial case for technological projects, a defined roadmap to achieve commercial results and an action -oriented measurement plan to get faster. With your aligned and excited team to use technology and solve known problems, you will see important faster victories.
Never forget that technology is not the end, only the media. Address technological projects with clear eyes and convert challenges into growth opportunities.
Eric Dean is the founder and CEO of With whoA digital experience consultancy. Supervises the initiatives of corporate vision, strategy and growth, focused on improving service offers, expanding to new markets and offering exceptional results of the client. He is also an executive consultant and commercial mentor.
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