Are you up to date with the current technology landscape? Do you have an idea of what it will look like in the next five to 10 years? Knowing this information is crucial as it can significantly impact your business. Tech acceleration is capitalizing on new or emerging technology to allow your business to increase capability or bolster efficiency.
The technology landscape is constantly evolving. Organizations must keep up with these developments to avoid being left behind by competitors and customers. This is where tech acceleration can come to the rescue. We define it as intelligently improving the technology that employees rely on in a way that considers the future and helps organizations achieve long-term goals.
Here are a few reasons why staying current with evolving technologies is important:
- Improved efficiency: By integrating all necessary tools, we can save time and reduce effort, resulting in increased efficiency.
- Enhanced productivity: Focusing on streamlining technology and processes can improve productivity and enhance the employee experience.
- Improved security: Retiring obsolete technologies that are no longer receiving critical security updates can help improve security.
Before implementing new technology solutions and products, it is important to consider their long-term benefits for tech acceleration.
Elements of effective tech acceleration
- Think long-term instead of mere rapid acceleration
Technology adoption has increased at a breakneck pace thanks to the onset of pandemic restrictions. These fast choices and implementations helped many organizations remain relatively unscathed by utilizing remote working and other collaborative solutions. However, now that we’ve had time to adapt to the “new normal,” it’s clear that brisk change isn’t always beneficial to the long-term success of an organization.
While these technology upgrades helped SMBs stay in business during the chaotic year that was 2020, they also resulted in several hiccups that ranged from integration challenges to limited long-term value. That’s why the time is ripe to prepare for the future by adopting smart tech acceleration. This requires a thorough examination and assessment to evaluate whether your present systems are advanced and integrated enough to support your business objectives over the next five to 10 years, and not just the present.
- Evaluate previous technology investments
Examine your tech acceleration investments from the previous year (if you have any) to identify where you need improvements. It’s critical to assess whether prior investments have served your long-term vision/goals. Only then will you be able to determine whether your acceleration is on the right track or not.
- Benchmarking
What is the status of your tech acceleration environment? If it isn’t meeting your expectations, find out what other firms are doing differently to achieve better results. Consider what changes you can make to improve your organization’s performance to align it closer to your vision.
The metric used to monitor the progress of your tech acceleration initiative should consider levels of cybersecurity, customer experience, employee experience, technology integration across the organization, backups, compliance and so on.
- Consider the total experience (TX)
Total experience can be defined as a blend of customer and employee experiences (CX and EX). By breaking down silos and integrating technology with the employees, customers and users, total experience improves the overall experience. It focuses on addressing customer/employee needs to produce better long-term and meaningful business outcomes.
Experts estimate that by 2026, 60% of large enterprises will use total experience (TX) to transform their business models in order to achieve world-class customer and employee advocacy levels.
- Committing to integration
Individually outstanding solutions that don’t integrate (or that your company doesn’t commit to integrating) will not serve you in the long run or help you scale. Systematic integration unifies the customer and employee experience, reducing the risk of error, increasing efficiency and providing the opportunity to automate repetitive operations, among other benefits.
Collaborate for success
If your organization doesn’t invest in smart tech acceleration, your competition could overtake you in the market. It’s time to say goodbye to short-term fixes that aren’t helping you achieve your goals and upgrade your IT ecosystem to help you achieve greater productivity and operational success for the long term.
An outsourced IT provider like ITNS Consulting can help you find, implement, fine-tune and manage your technology infrastructure to ensure it’s moving you towards your long-term goals and vision. Contact us today for a no-obligation consultation to see how we can bring smart tech acceleration to your business.
Additionally, to deep dive into the concept, download our eBook “Smart Tech Acceleration for SMBs: 5 Ways to Invest Wisely in Technology that Supports Long-Term Organizational Goals”.