How do technology obsessions hurt your organization?
In today’s modern workplace, it’s surprising to think that an obsession with technology would be anything but great – after all, why not embrace that which is making your organization better? But, like many obsessions out there, your obsession with technology may be more hinderance than help.
The top three technology obsessions for 2019 are:
1) Artificial Intelligence
2) Productivity and Collaboration Tools
3) Data
Are these things that your team seems to be focused on? The rest of this blog will go over these three technology obsessions in detail and what you can do about them. But the number one tip from us is to think “big picture”.
The tech industry is constantly generating new buzzwords and introducing the next “cool thing”. Without considering your organization’s bigger picture – what your objectives are and how these new technologies and tools will integrate with each other – the technology you implement to help you can actually end up hindering you instead.
An IT Roadmap can help you see that “big picture” – the connection between the technology you have been thinking about and your business objectives. Watch our IT Roadmap On-Demand Webinar to learn in detail about it and see a sample report.
Technology Obsession #1: Artificial Intelligence
There’s no question that Artificial Intelligence is one of the major buzzwords flying around the tech industry today. With the advancements that have been made in AI, from natural language understanding, speech recognition, image understanding, and machine learning, to more advanced AI, like Sophia, AI is being given the spotlight on the world technology stage.
But while every day Artificial Intelligence, like chatbots, can help organizations automate responses to frequently asked questions and improve employee productivity, AI hasn’t been designed to be the solution to every single problem.
What Can You Do?
Artificial Intelligence has the potential to do so much in your organization. However, like other major investments, this one should be approached with some caution. Think about what you want to achieve with AI. What are your objectives? How will you measure the success or return on your investment in AI? And, rather than investing heavily in Artificial Intelligence from the get-go, try a few pilot projects first to get started before diving head-first into the world of AI.
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Technology Obsession #2: Productivity and Collaboration Tools
Productivity and collaboration tools are another big trend in the past few years. Communication, especially when so much emphasis is being placed on remote workers, is the key ingredient in any relationship. So, it’s no wonder that organizations are implementing more and more productivity and collaboration tools, like Microsoft Teams, Yammer, Slack, or Workplace by Facebook. These tools have a number of key benefits that go along with implementing them.
However, when these great productivity and communication tools aren’t implemented correctly, they go from help to hinderance, fast. Using too many productivity or collaboration tools can lead to a decrease in productivity - the very thing you had hoped to get help with by implementing the tool in the first place!
What Can You Do?
When implementing a tool, keep these three tips in mind:
- Pick a tool (or tools) that have integration with your current IT environment, and with each other. Messages and feeds aren’t of any use if you have to sort through various tools to find the important conversations you’re having.
- Structure and governance are necessary when implementing a productivity or collaboration tool. By neglecting to put any structure or governance around the use of the tool you want to implement, your employees will end up getting too bogged down in the actual tool itself, and won’t be able to be as efficient or as effective as they need to be.
- Research is Key! There are so many collaboration and productivity tools on the market today – make sure that you’re picking the one that’s right for your organization. Not all tools are created equal – depending on what you’re currently using in-house, one might definitely be more suited to your needs than others.
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Technology Obsession #3: Data
There’s an almost insatiable appetite for organizations to gather as much corporate data as they can, and who can blame them? Data drives almost every single business decision – from products going to market, to filling your sales funnel with the most appropriate leads, executives are recognizing just how important data is.
But what happens when the pursuit of this data puts your organization into “analysis paralysis”? What happens when you spend so much time collecting the data that you have no time left to analyze it? Collecting data without a plan for how you’re going to use it is, in a way, worse than not collecting the data in the first place. It’s like mining a diamond, but deciding to leave it uncut – the value of that diamond diminishes significantly when it hasn’t been refined into the brilliant, beautiful gem it’s supposed to be.
What Can You Do?
Be more selective with what you’re actually collecting. If you’re a cereal manufacturer, do you really need to know the last kind of car your consumer bought? Probably not. So, zero in on the data that’s more relevant to your organization’s needs and wants, and stop over-collecting data.
Also, think about why you are collecting what you are collecting and what you are trying to achieve. The more you know about your objectives, the more useful your data will be. Need some help? Our data experts will be happy to assist!
Having Trouble With These Technology Obsessions?
Are you having trouble with one (or more) of these four technology obsessions in your organization? At ProServeIT, we help our clients understand technology every day. Give us a shout – we love talking tech and we’ll be happy to help you, too! We believe that, to set your business up for long-term success in the digital era and avoid falling into these technology obsessions, you need to review and measure two aspects of your business: its needs and its IT capabilities. An IT Roadmap can help you understand how to leverage IT as a critical business advantage, avoiding the “new toy” pitfalls of technology while adequately planning for your future. Sign up for our on-demand webinar today and watch it at your convenience.
