So What Does It Mean to "Leverage Technology"?

Technology for technology's sake is pointless. Why purchase expensive laptops for your sales team if your company doesn't have the support staff to keep the systems running smoothly? Why outfit your engineering team with the latest personal digital assistants if you aren't going to mandate that they bring those devices to their project meetings and keep relevant design and development information stored on them? Why upgrade your corporate networking hardware to support the new wireless specification if most of your employees use desktop computers at fixed, physical locations rather than laptops in a flexible workspace area? Why purchase technology unless you intend to use it and intend to leverage it?

The Problem:

For the average-sized company, technology purchases are big ticket items and require budget justification. It's surprising that, quite often, a newly purchased technology (that took months to justify) sits on a shelf in someone's office gathering dust. Or, in many cases, the hardware, software, telecommunications equipment, etc. is handed out to employees without a clear description of why the technology is needed in the first place. I'm sure you can name several examples in your own business.

Some Examples:

Did you buy a customer relationship management system with all of the bells and whistles (but six months after the purchase, no one uses a single bell or whistle)? Did you upgrade everyone's copy of XYZ Software Suite in the past six months even though half the staff never uses it (and, most others, if asked, would say the previous version had more than enough features)? Did you hand out corporate cell phones or pagers to your employees without usage guidelines and without first updating the corporate contact information directory? Insert your own technology purchase horror story here.

Why Does This Happen?:

Part of the problem is that we believe the hype that we read in the trade journals: "This is a must-have upgrade.", etc. The top technology companies have very good salesman (and a large marketing staff with a very large advertising budget). No one claims to be selling you "shelfware". And, in most cases, it's not shelfware when it arrives in your corporate mailroom. What you receive is (usually) a very reasonable product that does a specific thing fairly well. A technology is turned into shelfware when we don't do our pre-purchase homework and our expectations are simply set too high.

Technology (especially software) isn't perfect. New technology or updated technology usually fixes older problems (that we've already figured out how to do without or work around). Often times, new technology introduces as many (new) problems as it solves.

To make matters worse, many technologies require you and your team to work in a significantly different way. Change can be difficult. And, change (and the training that is required) can often be very expensive.

Is The Purchase Really Necessary? OK, Prove It:

We need a strong technology purchase proposal, but, first, we need to determine the "technology leverage points" for the project. A technology leverage point is an aspect or feature of the technology (Eg., a new 2-way pager) that enables you to increase new business opportunities (Eg., get last minute sales projection data during the taxi ride to the merger meeting), dramatically reduce costs (Eg., eliminate costly phone tag when at a remote site), cut time-to-market (Eg., decisions can be made very quickly without the need to conference call), or provide additional products or services (Eg., you can now offer your customers 24/7 support and your team can still be on the road).

By identifying one or more technology leverage points, we can begin the creation of the technology purchase proposal. The proposal should have the following components:

1. A detailed return-on-investment analysis. This should include (at a minimum) a clear and thorough description of the problem that you are trying to solve, the costs incurred if the problem is ignored, and the expenses projected to solve the problem. The technology leverage points for the project should be listed along with the upside potential for each point.
2. A phased deployment plan. Not everyone needs the technology right now. Some need it before others. Some may never need it. Some technology is simply too expensive to distribute to everyone. New technology should be put into the hands of those who will use it the most and benefit the most. These employees will be your "first users" and will set the tone for your organization. Through their efforts and discoveries (and frustrations) they will help determine the likelihood of harvesting one or more of the key technology leverage points within your particular organization.
3. A realistic training schedule. Training is critical for successful technology adoption. Often times, training costs exceed the cost of the technology. In some cases the cost of training alone is more than the potential benefit of the technology. Consider using different levels of training. Break your staff into functional groups and determine which groups need basic training and which need specialized training. Consider peer training where the first phase adoption group trains the second phase, etc.
4. A timely feedback mechanism. Is the technology solving the original problem? Has it introduced new problems? Has the training been successful? Are you leveraging the new technology and seeing the greater gains in the bigger picture?
5. The budget and time necessary for iterative adjustments. Would one or two small changes to the deployment plan, training schedule, feedback approach, etc. make a big difference to the success of the technology? Would a small adjustment increase your leverage and result in a bigger overall return-on-investment? Budgeting the time and money to make these iterative changes will make a big difference in the overall success and company-wide acceptance of the technology.

Closing Thoughts:

When faced with a large technology purchase decision it is usually better to walk than to run. Identify the technology leverage points and create a purchase proposal to harvest them. Then, do the return-on-investment analysis. If you consider the long-term deployment plan, commit to the training and feedback mechanism, and leave sufficient money in the budget and time in the schedule for iterative adjustments, you'll be much more successful at leveraging your technology and spend a lot less time stacking shelfware. Good luck.

About the Author:

Dom Virgilio is a veteran technologist and software consultant. He founded Creative Software Solutions, Inc. in 1993 and is the creator of the ieQ^TM, or Internet Excellence Quotient^TM, and the 1-Goal-1^TM methodologies. When he's not designing and developing technology, he's teaching it, or writing about it in his Leveraging \ Tech column.

About Creative Software Solutions, Inc.:

Creative Software Solutions, Inc. provides software and website design, development, and consulting services to companies throughout the United States. For more information about Creative Software Solutions, Inc. visit http://www.creativsoft.com/

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