Assessing Your Technology Needs During Down Time
Watching, waiting, diligently plugging away… However you are spending time right now during the COVID-19 crisis, now is a great time to be assessing your technology to see where you have gaps and what is or isn’t performing. How can your organization make better decisions that will benefit you when you’re up and running at full capacity? How can you make your processes leaner, faster, and better? Here are some technology assessments you should consider making.
Legacy Software
If you’re dealing with legacy software that hasn’t been modernized, you are probably acutely aware of its restrictions right now. As the dynamics of “business as usual” change to adapt to the virtual or remote working world, your legacy system may not be cutting it.
According to Gartner, “Replacing legacy applications and systems with systems based on new and different technologies is one of the information systems (IS) professional’s most significant challenges.”
Are your systems and processes equipped to handle the changing environment, or are you struggling to keep up? These are signs that your legacy software needs to be modernized.
Learn more about legacy software modernization here.
Salesforce
Salesforce is a powerful tool designed to integrate marketing, sales, commerce, and service into a single, shared view to streamline processes, improve reporting, and ultimately help you make more sales. Is your Salesforce doing that for you? There are several signs that your Salesforce solution may be failing you. Your team may not be using it to its full potential, your data architecture and configurations may be off, or your business processes may need fine tuning. Reassessing your Salesforce can be eye opening and uncover a lot about your data, business processes, and initial Salesforce implementation.
Assessing your Salesforce technology can include
- Reviewing business processes and Salesforce implementation.
- Reviewing data requirements, data models, and classes.
- Reviewing security requirements, level of access, and permissions.
If Salesforce isn’t performing the way you’d hoped, it may be time for a “tune-up.”
Custom Software Applications
While you are assessing your technology, you might discover that it’s time to invest in a custom solution that can bring all of your businesses processes and data into one solution in the cloud or through an application.
Do you live and die by the cutting and pasting between a dozen apps? Every off-the-shelf application has its limitations. In fact, many industries don’t have off-the-shelf software that can meet their needs and accelerate workflow. A custom application can bring all of the functionality you need into a single place, so you can operate efficiently. Not sure if a custom software application is what you need? Check out our whitepaper.
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Customer Experience
Another important thing to assess with regards to business technology is the customer experience. This is especially true for businesses who are pivoting their service models to meet the demands of the virtual business world. For example, are you now offering online shopping or support versus the in-person experience your business was built on? Are you now offering shipping or delivery? These shifts are happening across the board and if you want to stand out from the competition, you’ll need to focus on the customer experience. User experience and design is as much art as it is science. Here are some things to consider when thinking about customer experience.
Assessing your technology now can make a huge impact on your business in the future. We aren’t going to be on lockdown forever, spend this time making adjustments and improvements and you will thank yourself when this is all over.