It’s already time to start thinking about:
- Next Year’s Budget
- Organizing Case Studies
- Finding Quick Wins
- Starting the Preparation to Secure Funding for the Next Fiscal Year
- Pairing Funding with the Company’s Vision, strategy, direction and goals.
As a business leader, I’ve always found it to be a challenge to couple our business goals and objectives with technology. For instance, human resources wants this service, operations wants a different widget and as you have probably surmised, finance desires something totally different.
At this point, we’re back to the A – B – C’s of business, asking: What are the Requirements? Is their Commonality Between departments? Custom or Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS)? The list of questions can be endless. However, my staff’s responsibilities continue supporting me in identifying new technology solutions that will help accelerate the business.
And here is where the fun begins! My technicians are the best money can buy. They know their technology and I would pair them against anyone, but technicians want cool, cutting edge and sometimes bleeding edge stuff. Their input is valuable to the business but it is very common that their recommendations won’t fully align with the business. Their recommendations always require parsing to a point where the cream surfaces and I am able to truly find value for the business.
With that, I’ll leave you where I started. Never let technology professionals that work within your company, make the technology decisions for your business. You may end up with a lot of neat technology, but it may never truly help your business move forward.
