If you’re running a business, you need to know that every decision you make will be a good investment. In reality, this is difficult to do, but if you don’t nail the big decisions, your business can suffer significantly. When facing a challenge to your business, it can be easy to think that new tech can be your saviour. Still, a tech solution that is right for your business needs in a variety of situations, that complements your other tech solutions, and that fits your budget can be complicated indeed. With significant advances in cloud computing, AI, big data, and more, you must spend your money only on the tech that’s right for you.
There’s an easy cheat to this problem – just get an IT consultant. Consultants like Kortek Solutions can guide businesses on how to spend their money on tech. They allow a business to save money by letting them know exactly what they should be paying for their solution, as well as guiding them through implementation and letting them know how to use the system securely. Going to a consultant straight away can save a lot of time, as well as money, but many small businesses might not have room for them in their budget.
If you’re embarking on a quest for technology unaided, you will need to do a careful analysis. This is for one simple reason: you need to know where your company is going wrong – where it has bottlenecks that are costing you time and money. Technology should be applied to the worst of those bottlenecks for you to improve your efficiency the most. No point choosing tech focuses on improving customer service if your major bottleneck lies in customer acquisition. A careful analysis of the process flows of your business will allow you to map the areas where technology could significantly help. You should then work from the bottom up, investing first in the areas that have the most significant efficiency repercussions. You should have an idea of what sort of returns that technology can give you, comparing the ROI of different solutions and obviously choosing the one that has the best value.
Some pieces of technology will be able to solve your issues completely… but only if you have additional highly specialised employees. Many technologies require additional training (which can be cheaper in the long run), but you need to factor in the skills that your employees already have with the technologies that are on offer. You should have a clear idea about the additional skills that are required to manage or use the technology – enough information to incorporate the skill acquisition costs into your financial model. If the tech involves additional staff, you need to be extra careful. A significant decrease in process costs will become far less significant if you factor in well-paid staff – your financial model should incorporate all hidden costs associated with the technology, so speak to existing customers and users of the tech if you can!
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