With new technologies emerging, companies can streamline anything from workflow management to client communications. Presented with all these solutions, how can you plan to integrate new options while updating current tools? To achieve the full benefits that business IT has to offer, creating a technology roadmap is the best place to start.
Technology Roadmap Explained
A technology roadmap is a flexible tool that helps you strategically align your organization’s short-term and long-term technology goals. Through this plan, you not only map out what technologies you need, but also lay out the current hardware in your infrastructure. Establishing the gaps and essential technologies for your business gives you an idea of how to coordinate, integrate, alter, or adapt technologies into your work structure now and for the future.
Creating a smart and effective technology roadmap offers several benefits, including:
- Providing transparency on your company’s current IT infrastructure capabilities and limitations to all stakeholders and IT personnel.
- Eliminate outdated applications and technologies.
- Improve productivity, cybersecurity, and costs by resolving vulnerabilities in your network.
- Better align immediate priorities and business goals with a concrete, sustainable plan for digital transformation.
5 Steps to Creating an Effective Technology Roadmap
Making a clear, flexible plan of the technology solutions you need to meet your objectives is critical to creating a comprehensive IT system for your organization. To create an effective technology roadmap, consider the following steps:
1. Identify areas to improve your current IT strategy
Before creating your technology roadmap, take the time to review your current IT devices and tools. Taking inventory of your existing equipment will help you mark the areas that need to be updated, replaced, or removed from your system.
2. Carefully budget and coordinate the necessary resources needed to maximize the roadmap’s value
Technology upgrades and replacements don’t come cheap. In fact, most businesses don’t anticipate the amount of expenses, time, energy, or workers needed to integrate advanced tools within their current system. That’s why it's important to forecast how much will need to be invested to onboard essential tools. Proactive research and cost-estimates on your roadmap projects can help your business prepare for additional and/or unexpected costs.
Businesses need to strategically budget the amount of resources needed to implement their technology roadmap.
3. Sufficiently and efficiently train IT personnel to support new systems.
Training your employees should take priority before integrating a new piece of hardware into your business. No matter how much your technology roadmap changes over time, training should always be included, since your personnel will be managing printers, copiers, fax machines, and other internal devices firsthand.
4. Assess risk factors to your technology roadmap and incorporate disaster recovery planning to mitigate issues.
New strains of malware and cyberattacks can delay or limit your ability to meet crucial business goals. So, take the time to consider what risks outdated technology poses to your business beforehand, such as potential vulnerabilities in the software. For the best recovery, establishing a disaster recovery plan to respond to sudden attacks or data breaches can help get your IT services up and running.
5. Leverage guidance from an IT provider on which investments will best meet your goals
Seeking IT expertise and guidance from an outsourced provider can help relieve the stress of planning a technology roadmap all alone. Following expert advice helps prevent mistakes, improve work performance, and ensure investments yield the best return value.
Develop Your Business IT with Copy Systems
Technology is a critical business tool requiring proactive management, planning, and examination of your company goals. By creating a technology roadmap, you can expand your technology capabilities, stay competitive, and adapt your organization as it grows. At Copy Systems, our IT experts understand how important technology is to small businesses, and thus offer netSMART solutions such as vCIO to help guide your technological development in a cost-effective way. Interested in learning more about our solutions? Visit our vCIO service page!
