CIO — I’ve been in the technology arena for about 17 years. In that time, I’ve seen innumerable technology success stories, but I have also witnessed and experienced technology failures firsthand. One of the most baffling things I see is the detrimental cycle of adopting technology without a strategy and without formally identifying and validating business requirements. Such requirements must be customer-focused whether the customer is internal, external or both. The positive effect on the customer and other collateral benefits must also be plainly quantifiable. Surprisingly, such basic justifications are missing from many technology initiatives. Worse, when a particular technology is adopted that doesn’t live up to its potential, it gets cast aside in favor of the next savior technology?and the cycle continues. This is like playing technology bingo. If by chance all the technologies finally align, someone yells bingo! and declares success.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Effectively adopting any technology should not be a random activity. In the many engagements that involve helping clients select, implement and optimize technology, one thing is certain: There is no magic wand for achieving success. You can, however, mitigate much of the risk and maximize the benefits by using some fundamentals.
Steps to Success
The first step is the most basic: Align your technology strategy with your business strategy. If you don’t have both, stop and address those critical strategic issues before you do anything else.
Then, it’s necessary to take stock by looking at your previous technology implementations. Which ones went well and why? Which ones crashed and burned, and why?
Next, find out the practical capabilities and limitations of the technology you are considering; its specifications may be one thing, but its real-world applications may be something less.
Once you know the capabilities of the technology, it’s necessary to understand and quantify the effect the technology will have on your business processes. What will improve and by how much? What must change (processes, systems integration issues, regulatory matters, even facilities considerations) as a result of implementing the technology? Who will design and implement those changes?
Develop a solid implementation plan with granular accountability. Both the technology owners and the business owners should have responsibility for incremental and overall successes.
On a related note, it helps to establish a revision framework before the system goes live. Even exhaustive testing won’t uncover every exceptional scenario, so be prepared to mainstream minor tweaks in near real-time.
Continuous Improvements
After implementation, continuously measure and report the effectiveness of the technology. If it isn’t delivering on its promise, drill down and find out why. Even subtle changes after implementation can make a big difference.
