Many business owners see technology as a neccessary evil that is a potential black hole of cost. You have to have a computer because your customer and vendors want to email you. Your books are electronic. Your employees need tools. But, the system is always down, there is always an update to buy and your IT people speak a different language.
Keep three priniciples in mind to manage your technology and your IT staff:
- Stability, are your systems secure and running as you need them?
- Predictability, when you make a change to the system, do you know how it will react?
- Exploitability, does technology give you a productivity gain?
There is a tendancy in IT to combat boredom by investing a different set of principles:
- Upgradeability, are we running the latest version or technology even if it is untested?
- Expandability, are we running the biggest and latest machines?
- Novelty, do we have the newest gadgets?
Technology is very seductive to those who are comfortable with it. What is cool and exciting is new and "bleeding edge". Unfortunately, it is also not fully tested nor bug free and creates a little too much excitement for a business environment. The reliable machines that will turn on, boot up and process your work are often a generation behind the suped up box that your network guys are tweaking at home. The software that doesn't crash and is resistant to hackers is an older version than the beta version that IT is "testing". There is a time to upgrade, expand and invest in the new, but these activities are in support of the first three principles of using technology for business.
1 comment:
Bang on Jason. I've seen this time and again since the beginning of my career. If you can get people to wait a few weeks before jumping head first into a new, pivotal, must-have technology, the irrational urgency and exuberance often evaporates.
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