Technology is evolving fast, and there’s a fear for many business owners that they will be left behind their competitors if they don’t keep up. But good technology management is about more than just staying ahead of your competitors and replacing your technology every year in search of the next big thing. It’s about aligning the tech you use with your business’ ambitions, and when it’s carried out well, it can help your business succeed.
Technology management is essential for businesses of all sizes, but for small businesses especially, it can help you to grow quicker and with a clearer vision.
What does tech management look like?
As with any form of management, technology and IT service management involves a host of different responsibilities. From planning and organisation to monitoring, evaluating and implementing different tools and services, tech management is primarily focused on strategy and forecasting. It’s the best way to use scarce IT resources as efficiently as possible, encompassing all tools and services that the company uses.
Tech solution experts Clearvision explain that “IT Service Management (ITSM) is about the delivery of IT as a service. Rather than IT systems, ITSM focuses on customer needs, stressing the importance of continuous improvement. ITSM aligns an IT team’s goals with the broader objectives of a business and ensures that their actions support the overall mission.”
Having a strategy in place helps organisations understand how technology will aid business growth and improve on previously implemented tools. This form of road-mapping identifies the technologies that will be most useful to the business and how they fit in with the short and long-term goals of the company.
Tech is integral to IT processes and it needs to be managed to improve efficiencies across the whole organisation, such as through incident management, problem detection and resolution, scheduling and planning infrastructure changes and capabilities, and pinpointing weaknesses so corrective action can be taken.
The benefits of tech management
More businesses than ever are dependent on technology in our increasingly digital world, especially since the pandemic which expedited our tech adoption. But this also increases the need for effective tech management and results in better alignment within the business, which is particularly important for start-ups and small businesses looking to expand quickly.
Tech management today needs to focus on the how, where and why behind a host of different tools, from AI and IoT to cloud computing and big data. Every new tool and technology that comes onto the market is marketed as a game changer for the industry, leading SMEs to worry that they’re missing out if they’re not jumping on board straight away.
But how often do start-ups stop to question whether the ‘next big thing’ is actually beneficial to their company and business objectives? So often, the people responsible for funding new technology, those using it and those responsible for business objectives aren’t on the same page, which can cause issues when it comes to tech management.
The answer to the problem isn’t necessarily being a tech-savvier business but a company that communicates more effectively, so that everyone in the business is working to the same goals. A clear strategy is far more important than simply throwing money at new tech that may or may not help your business achieve its goals or work well with the processes you have in place.
Increased operational efficiency
One of the major benefits to tech management is that it increases operational efficiency and productivity. There never seems to be enough time to do it all, whatever the size of your business, but if you can harness the tech you use, you can maximize the value it offers and improve workflows. Asset management, for example, optimises the lifecycle of IT devices and streamlines resources and expenses by managing the tools you have more efficiently.
Reduced spending
Cost-reduction is a benefit of tech management that often gets overlooked, but for a lot of businesses, IT infrastructure is responsible for a huge percentage of spending. And this only increases as the business grows and expands, as the IT services and tools needed are no longer sufficient for their needs. Automating processes with better management and carefully chosen tools will help to reduce reliance on employee functions and frees up staff to work on other areas of the business.
Better customer experience
As a small business, customer satisfaction is everything. IT management helps you to deliver faster responses and results in fewer interruptions in your business. Each device and IT service used has a purpose when your IT systems are well managed, with no surplus in processes that could slow your team down. This means you have more time to devote to your customers and can deliver a quick response to questions and tickets, to enhance the overall experience.
Greater incident response processes
When your operations are all running smoothly, you’ll see a greater improvement in productivity within teams.This in turn enhances profits in the business and helps you deliver a better service to your customers, while also reducing interruptions from mistakes and faults. IT management helps you and your IT team to measure the effectiveness of individual team members, but also the performance of different services you’re using, so you can make changes where necessary. It provides you with a clearer incident response practice, to reduce the time needed to recover from a service interruption and lower the incident response time itself.
Minimizing risk
Implementing changes in a business, especially as a smaller organisation, comes with risk, especially if it’s not planned or communication is poor. Service management reduces the risk of a costly mistake, because you’ll have formalized policies and processes in place which delivers stronger communication to stakeholders and customers where necessary.
Tech is essential to almost all business functions today, so whether you’re marketing a business, sending messages to clients or liaising with suppliers, technology sits at the heart of everything we do. Tech management can help to streamline the technology your business uses so you can maximise efficiency and revenue, when it’s optimised to your business’ needs.
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