I attended a very nice panel discussion yesterday (Using Technology to Grow the Firm, sponsored by Creative Growth Group) and one of the topics that came up close to the end was adoption of new technology.  This is a topic that is near and dear to my heart so naturally, since it is on my mind, it is this week’s topic.

Technology that is under utilized or unused (shelf-ware) is the bane of every company.  What starts out as an well-intentioned investment in the firm becomes, well, a sinkhole for money and time.  We’ve all heard of the multi-year, multi-million dollar ERP or CRM projects that end up getting scrapped because no one in the company can or wants to use the system.

For a small business the lost investment might not reach the dollar size of a failed project for a huge company but the results can be devastating because the failure affects virtually everyone in the enterprise and proportionally the level of investment is usually much higher.  Entire books have been written about project failure, I won’t rehash all the gory details here.  Instead, here are a few questions for small businesses to keep in ask themselves when they are thinking about putting in new technology.

• Is this technology part of an overall technology plan that takes into consideration your overall business goals and objectives?  If it is not or you don’t have a plan you probably aren’t setting yourself up for success.
• Does this project have a well-defined adoption plan?  (Yes, on paper.  It isn’t really a plan if it isn’t written down.)  Just purchasing training, while hugely important, is NOT an adoption plan.
• Do your employees truly understand the value of this technology to the organization and their part in making the implementation a success?  If they aren’t bought into the change you can still be successful but it is much much harder.
• Does this new technology really provide something that makes your employees’ jobs easier and better?  Does it fit with the way they work?  Or is it just another thing to add to the long list of stuff they gotta do every day?  If it changes how they work significantly, has the new workflow or business process been identified and documented?
• Is someone truly accountable for making sure the technology is used and the investment is realized?  I recently heard a story about a dentist that spent tons of money on new software for his dental practice.  As part of the deal he got training credits and he made sure all the assistants and office employees went to training.  Then he never mentioned the system again…he wasn’t holding his employees accountable for using the new system nor did he delegate that accountability to anyone else.  So guess what?

Bringing in new technology is a huge investment of time and money for a small business.  It is important to take the time to think it through.  If you aren’t sure how to do that, get some help from a reputable consultant or technical advisor.    If it is truly worth doing, if it is going to help grow your business, isn’t it worth doing right?