2024 has been dubbed the Year of ‘Technology Democratization’ by Gartner as enterprises adopt a bottom-up approach to choosing technology solutions. According to Gartner, 74% of small and medium-sized businesses no longer rely solely on IT departments when purchasing tech as this decision affects everyone. Hence, the major advantage of democratizing technology choices is the inclusion of everyone who may use the chosen solution to manage everyday operations. But what happens when the knowledge base of your employees concerning technology is limited?
Developing a comprehensive checklist will ensure everyone is adequately prepared to contribute to the decision-making process. Here is a template you can adopt to simplify the decision-making process.
Provide Research Materials
Having decided on the process or operation that needs to be optimized by technology, ensuring decision-makers can provide adequate insight is the next step. Consequently, providing research materials discussing the capabilities and application of the chosen technology will help educate employees. Whitepapers, case studies, and blogs discussing the application of targeted solutions will help in refining decision-making. Other research avenues include:
- Speaking with colleagues or members of relevant trade associations who have digitized similar processes.
- Speak with experienced service providers to gain insight into the application of specific technologies in the real world.
- Compile experiences shared by end-users across forums such as Reddit, Quora, and LinkedIn.
Result: The research materials provide your entire team with the understanding required to choose a technology type and create a shortlist of applicable service providers to purchase from.
Determine Budgetary Requirements
The average SMB is expected to work around its financial restrictions or capabilities to achieve its goals. These financial restrictions apply when choosing the best technological solution to meet your business’s operational objectives. Hence, highlighting how much is available to invest in new technologies and their maintenance must be clearly stated as it affects decision-making. Insight into your enterprise’s budget helps with:
- Avoiding shiny objects or the current thing which everyone uses but may not be relevant to your business situation.
- Aligning your digitalization goals with your current financial capabilities.
- Classify the features you need using the ‘MoSCoW classification – the must-haves, the should haves, the could haves, and the won’t haves at this time.
Result: Defining your budget helps with reducing the number of shortlisted service providers to include solutions that fall within your business’s financial capacity.
Create and Send an RFP/RFI
Building partnerships with managed service providers is a sure way to ensure your enterprise gets the round-the-clock support it needs when onboarding new technological processes. One way to determine the level of response you can expect from a service provider is by sending out a request for proposals or a request for information to shortlisted candidates. The number of replies you receive from your RFI should be a factor for further reducing your shortlist. The RFI should include:
- Your business’s challenges within its industrial niche.
- Why you’re considering the shortlisted candidate and
- Answers to how their solution can help you eliminate challenges or optimize processes.
Result: Shortlisted candidates who respond are more likely to take customer requests and the provision of after-sales support services seriously. It is important to remember that your business will encounter challenges when using new technologies and expert assistance reduces these challenges.
Evaluate Potential Technology Partner
At this stage, you should be down to the top two or three candidates on your shortlist. You can whittle your list by evaluating what each prospective partner brings to the table by requesting a demo. Remember, as an SMB, it is in your financial interest to get things right the first time because any monetary loss may lead to irrecoverable damages. A demo that is tailored to fit your specific situation will help with understanding the value-added advantages of choosing a specific service provider. The demo could leverage your company data or processes to create a presentation everyone in your organization understands. Other evaluatory parameters to consider include:
- Evaluating referrals to gain insight into the service provider’s understanding of your industry.
- The partner’s capacity to fill in for any technological gaps your team may have.
- The security parameters put in place to ensure the technology is capable of functioning optimally in today’s dynamic cybersecurity environment.
Result: A targeted demonstration provides you with specific insight into the ease of using the technology and its impact on your business processes. SMBs should focus on choosing plug-and-play solutions that do not require extensive configuration, onboarding, or maintenance. This ensures the technology can be used without having to build an IT department from scratch or dedicate money to hire a professional.
Good Luck!!
Once you’ve researched vendors and applied the checklist outlined here, you must have reduced your prospective partners to one or two who tick all the right boxes. At this stage, the choice you make is most likely the perfect one for your business. Your final responsibilities will be to monitor the application process to ensure it helps with reaching your stated business goals. Finally, implement an iterative evaluation process to continuously evaluate the effect of the technology your business utilizes so that, you can update your choices to match new operational realities.