As customer expectations and operating environments continue to evolve and disrupt businesses, strengthening the underlying technology infrastructure has become imperative to the success of software product firms. Today, technology is not just a tool to improve efficiency, but a key lever to drive growth. However, despite realizing the importance of adopting and implementing modern technology, most software product organizations lack a well-defined, enterprise-wide technology strategy and end up making investments that do not share common goals.
A recent mid-market benchmarking study conducted by the Everest Group and Synoptek revealed the different strategies Pinnacle software product companies use to strengthen their tech infrastructure. Read on as we uncover the top ways in which you can make your technology strong enough to overcome challenges.
The Key Tech Adoption Challenges Faced by Software Product Companies
The survey evaluated how companies across different industries use technology to drive growth. While a few enterprises seem to have cracked the code to achieve superior business outcomes through advanced technology capabilities, many others lacked key enablers. Although software product companies surpass other industries when it comes to the overall outcomes achieved from IT transformation initiatives, when it comes to improving their competitive positioning and delivering a superior customer experience using technology, they face plenty of challenges. These include:
- Internal talent scarcity makes it difficult to implement the right technology innovations or maximize value.
- Organizational resistance to change- stemming from rigid hierarchies and traditional ways of working
- A non-conducive funding model that is a result of poor communication and coordination between business and IT leaders
- Lack of vision for the digital journey causes tech implementation to be carried out in an ad-hoc and reactive manner
- Sheer lack of executive support as technology is still looked at as a cost center and not as a strategic differentiator that can drive growth
Best Practices For Strengthening Your Tech Infrastructure
As you navigate the process of strengthening your tech infrastructure, challenges such as persistent talent scarcity or inadequate internal resources that are needed to meet the skill requirements for technology transformation are sure to come your way. This may directly or indirectly impact the success of your technology transformation initiatives. With tech investments not yielding the desired returns, Pinnacle software product companies tend to embrace certain best practices to achieve desired outcomes and drive investments in a way that enables the greatest speed and impact. Let’s discuss the tactics that you must implement for success:
- Have a Strong Technology Vision in Place: Technology adoption is not just about implementing a handful of systems. For tech investments to result in long-term success, you need a strong vision and a robust IT strategy. Begin your tech adoption journey by understanding your organization’s vision and build a tech adoption strategy that works hand-in-hand with your business strategy. Make sure to evaluate the digital readiness of your business and consequently plan for investments that will drive the most value.
- Understand Your Organization’s Culture: A strong tech infrastructure is as much about technology as it is about the people using that technology. Therefore, it is important to recognize employee concerns and apprehensions regarding new ways of working and educate and train them accordingly. Set up resilient change management processes in place, so legacy system modernization and new technology adoption can all happen in a simplified and streamlined manner.
- Ensure a Decent Budget: No technology implementation is possible without a decent budget. Therefore, before you decide on bringing about the latest innovations, make sure to assess your technology investment budget. If you lack in-house expertise, gauge the option of outsourcing. Look at options at how you can fund your technology investments by brainstorming with key stakeholders and choosing an implementation strategy that best fits the needs of your business. In addition, learn ways in which you can get more out of your tech investment within your budget.
- Embrace the Right Tools: Another important aspect of the tech adoption journey is to embrace the right tools. Understanding and evaluating your legacy infrastructure can increase investment in tech endeavors and help you in implementing next-generation technologies such as AI, blockchain, and IoT that will go a long way in maturing your technology landscape.
- Bring in the Right Talent: Talent plays a great role in ensuring your tech investments lead to the intended ROI and results. To ensure the technologies you implement work well for specific use cases, it is important to bring in the right people on board who can enable well-structured skill development, and training and drive high levels of employee engagement.
- Don’t Ignore Governance: With modern technology comes great responsibility, so make sure you set up necessary governance policies. Agree on which teams or which partners will have decision-making authority regarding technology investments and build a governance structure that aligns with the high-level plan. Also, track KPIs as you go along the tech adoption journey to identify and bridge bottlenecks in time.
- Build a Strong Partner Ecosystem: Successful tech implementations are never a one-man show. They are the combined efforts of several partners, vendors, and suppliers who constantly work towards a common goal of driving value through technology. Building a strong partner ecosystem of cloud vendors, specialist partners, system integrators, and consulting partners is a great way to get the support and guidance you need to flourish on your tech journey.
As software product companies look to improve their cybersecurity posture, optimize operations and costs, facilitate digital experiences for customers and enable remote working at scale, they need to consider strategy considerations and solution levers to achieve the desired outcomes.
Whether you want to make incremental changes to your tech infrastructure or drive major transformations, Synoptek can help you leverage technology as a strategic differentiator and help guide you to success. Contact us today!
