An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Tech Strategy

Did you know the global eCommerce market is expected to be worth USD 27.15 trillion by 2027? That’s a lot of transactions, and companies need to have a strong tech strategy to ensure they can cope with demand. In addition, your staff need the right hardware and software to keep your business operational, provide customer services, and deal with inquiries.

Whether you run an online company, a brick-and-mortar store, or a combination of the two, this is an area you simply can’t ignore. 

But, what is a technology strategy, and how can it help your business? In essence, a tech strategy is an overall plan containing objectives and approaches to use technology to your advantage. It is a crucial part of your main business plan and can have a dramatic effect on just about every aspect of your company.

Read on to learn more about the importance of having a technology strategy.

Assess What You Already Have

Prepare an inventory of IT equipment you already own and decide what items are still fit for purpose. Ask your staff what would make their jobs easier from an IT perspective and make another list of what you need to meet those requests. Try to be thorough, you might not be able to afford all the equipment right now, but you may be able to buy some more items as you go along. 

Create Actionable Steps

Your technology strategy should be actionable and measurable. Assign different team members to accomplish various tasks and have regular meetings to ensure you stay on track. The process can be slow at times, but step by step, you can move closer to achieving your tech goals.

Partner with Experts

You can gain considerable benefits from working with professionals who provide tech strategy consulting. These experts can help future-proof your IT systems in a fast-moving digital world. It can be expensive if you buy hardware today, only to need to replace it in a year, so it makes sense to seek advice before purchasing.

At a more hands-on level, a managed IT service provider can keep your systems up and running, increase security, and free up your in-house IT team to get on with other tasks. This can be invaluable when you are short of time and need to focus on your clients.

Review and Adapt

No plan is perfect, and you may find you need to be flexible at times to get the best results. If one part of your IT strategy is going more slowly than expected, you can divert resources from another area that is moving along more quickly than planned.

Your business growth rate can also have a huge effect on your technology strategy, as you may need to scale your IT infrastructure on short notice to meet demand.

Be Flexible with Your Tech Strategy

Having a tech strategy can be the difference between building a viable company in a sustainable way or constantly having to firefight IT problems. While it’s a good idea to have a blueprint you can refer to at different stages, you should also be flexible and make changes when things are not going to plan.

Working with professionals can help keep you on the right track and develop your technology strategy as your business evolves.

If you’ve found this article informative, be sure to check out more great posts in our Technology section before you go.