What role does tech play in the next chapter of your business?

Canadian business leaders are facing a period of unique uncertainty. With so much in flux, this could be the right time to step back and think about your broader business strategy. What does the future hold for your industry and your business?

Technology will undoubtedly be a key part of your next chapter. How tech fits in will look different for every business. What is clear is that successfully adopting new technology can drive efficiency, create new opportunities, and differentiate your business from the competition. A word of caution, though: technology shouldn’t be implemented just for the sake of it. To be successful, it must align with your overall business objectives.

In this insight, we discuss four key steps to consider when integrating new technology into your business.

Step one: Build a plan

Every successful tech adoption begins with a comprehensive strategy tailored to business needs.

You will be tempted to explore all the powerful tools available and reverse engineer them into your organization. This is a trap, and it will lead to significant cost overruns and many failed implementations.  The best approach is to evaluate your business challenges and rank each in order of priority.

Look at the core functions of your business. Does your team fill their days with repetitive tasks, manage projects via email threads, or lean heavily on spreadsheets to manage finances? These are clear indicators that implementing productivity technology could help your organization operate more efficiently.

This can also be a time to look ahead and think about the big picture. For example, does e-commerce fit your long-term strategy? If your organization typically has not used e-commerce and you are seeing competitors increasingly adopt online shopping tools, this might be the right place to start.

The bottom line is that technology should help you solve problems. Establishing a comprehensive strategy tailored to your unique needs positions your organization to increase profitability, create continuous growth, and improve resilience.

Step two: Identifying and implementing tools

Once you’ve built a strategy for what problems you need to solve, you can explore what tools or solutions are right for your organization. You’ll have a range of software and platforms to choose from, each offering unique benefits. You can explore your options independently, but beware: researching the different solutions and services and navigating the sales/demonstration process is time-intensive and can get very technical, very quickly.

After you’ve identified the right solution, turn your attention to implementation. Depending on the tool you choose, implementation could involve migrating data, setting up the platform to meet your custom requirements, and training your staff on the system (as well as any ongoing updates to the solution). The amount of time and resources required to ramp up and integrate will depend on the scale and complexity of your business and the solution you choose.

Implementation is a critical step. Rushing this process to minimize disruption could reduce the impact of the technology, impair adoption, or backfire and create more problems.

Working with experienced advisors can help create a smooth tech adoption journey from sourcing through integration. With experience across business challenges and industries, they know what solutions to use and how to efficiently implement technology into an organization with minimal friction/downtime, and maximum employee adoption.

Step three: Protect what you’ve built from cyber attacks

Small and medium-sized businesses are vulnerable to cyber attacks. Media coverage tends to focus on those targeting major organizations, which can create a false sense of security for leaders of smaller businesses. Still, 43 percent of all cyber attacks target small businesses.

Everyone is vulnerable to cyber crime; even more so if you adopt technology without verifying your security practices.

A comprehensive protection plan depends on your specific situation, but there are some best practices to follow:

1. Provide cybersecurity training to your team — This basic step can help protect you against some of the most common cyber attacks, like phishing scams. It’s important to do this training on an ongoing basis as your team changes and the types of attacks evolve.
2. Create a cyber incident response plan — This should allow you to respond quickly and mitigate damage if an attack occurs.
3. Conduct regular security audits — Pressure test your training, policies and practices, technical controls (e.g., firewalls), and response plan to ensure all are functioning as they should, especially as you adopt new technology.

Adopting new technology without enhancing your cybersecurity plan introduces significant risk. These two steps are intertwined and should be a part of your decision-making process.

Step four: Elevate and manage your IT investments

Once your new tech is set up and implemented, you need to focus on measuring performance and continuously looking for areas of improvement. If you don’t measure, you can’t verify if you’re getting the return on investment you expected when you started this journey.

In the early days of adoption, you could measure usage stats for the new technology. Is your team using the platform as intended? If not, you may need to offer extra training or onboarding, which is easier and often cheaper to provide before new habits are formed or they resist the technology outright.

If that sounds like a burden because you’re already short on time, you’re not alone. That’s why business leaders are increasingly outsourcing their IT needs. Using a managed IT services team is a flexible way to access comprehensive IT support and scale as required without needing to bring on a full-time team member.

Start building your digital strategy

Technology is a core component for the future of Canadian business. But it’s an ever-evolving landscape. Getting started can be the biggest hurdle. That’s why MNP Digital has built right-sized solutions specifically for small and medium businesses.

To learn more about how our advisors can support your tech journey, contact Souyma Ghosh.