Building Your Tech Roadmap — Part 1: Technology

In our Business Problem Series, we tackle challenges big and small with proactive technical solutions. Today, we’re talking about the importance of a technology roadmap.

The Problem

While many business owners understand the importance of a tech strategy, they may not have a plan in place for the next four or five years, or even the next 12 months. Unfortunately, that leads to a reactive approach to technology.

If your network is not secure, if your network’s not functioning well and you’re having all sorts of issues (slow Wi-Fi, inability to connect to the internet, Outlook is freezing) it really interrupts your business and keeps it from running effectively.

And that leads to more problems, unexpected surprises, and wasted money. Companies can then fall behind the competition — losing customers and talented employees.

The Solution

There are really three parts to an effective technology strategy: technology, productivity and security. In Part One of this three-part series, we’re going to talk about technology.

So what is technology? It’s the hardware and the software, the cloud services to run your businesses. And while it isn’t very sexy, it’s critical to the success of your business. You need to have that strategy to have a predictable budget, and a predictable result.

And that’s why it’s important to have that regular roadmap. As part of that tech roadmap, consider:

When do computers, servers and network equipment need to be upgraded?
When do software licenses need to be renewed?

These are all predictable outcomes, and with the right technology roadmap, you can predict all of this out years into the future. And knowing what it will cost each year, knowing what’s coming down the pipe, makes things a lot easier.

That’s how you go from reactive IT support to Intelligent Technology.