Back in 2021, when everyone in the industry was flush with money from the incredible (and unforeseen) levels of production, no one was even thinking about tech spend, cutting expenses, or being more efficient – you know, eliminating redundancy.
Everyone was out there, chasing the latest buzzword and technology, haphazardly implementing those “shiny new objects” that were being dangled in front of their dazzled and glazed eyes.
The “SNO” Effect.
Everyone was doing it.
Money was no object, and no one was thinking about the future.
Fast forward a mere 12 months and it’s a completely different story.
EVERYONE’s focus now is on reducing expenses, on increasing efficiency / eliminating redundancy, and on improving productivity – doing more with less.
And the outcome? Massive layoffs across the industry and the tech space as companies try to “right size” – another buzz phrase that every company and industry analyst are throwing around as if that explains why lives are being turned upside down because of misguided decision-making.
There I said it! Haters are going to hate BUT the truth is the truth and so I am putting it out there. Decisions were made back in 2021 and early 2022 without any long-term, forward looking strategic planning.
As so you may ask yourself, “What now? What’s the solution? How do we move forward from here?”.
Let’s be clear on one thing – the mess we are in is our ugly baby and we have to wrap our hands around it, accept it, and (gulp!) love it. It is what it is – the economy and current market conditions dictate that companies have to “right size” or become irrelevant.
I’ve written a number of blog articles about the need to innovate now so your company is positioned for growth and long-term success. It’s not rocket science, but companies that want to be around in 2024 and beyond have to be intentional and strategic about the direction they take and the road map they implement. Furthermore, companies have to accept that project success has two sides: the technical side (which everyone focuses on) and the people side (which almost everyone ignores):
So, as you begin to “right-size” your company, one of the first steps you should also be taking is to review and evaluate your current tech stack.
But just what IS a tech stack? Well, a tech stack is a group of tools, technologies, processes, software, and/or services that work together in your ecosystem – together being the operative word here and where many organizations have failed in the past because these tools and technologies are siloed – so nothing speaks to anything else in the ecosystem and redundancy abounds as multiple unnecessary touchpoints and repeated entry of the same data INSTEAD OF these systems and tools being directly integrated or linked to allow for data sharing across multiple platforms.
Another way that companies have failed in the past is by not fully understanding or adopting the functionality of the current tech stack they implemented. By never taking the time to fully understand the capabilities of these systems and platforms, nor investing in training of their employees to ensure full adoption of these tools, companies fail to realize the full potential or the return on their investment. They set these tools aside and go after the next SNO that will, somehow miraculously, solve all their problems.
Honestly, there is no pixie dust or secret sauce to solving this problem.
Shocker, right?
What there is, is intentional, forward-thinking, strategic, and meaningful work ahead that aligns all the business units with the goals of the company. This iterative evaluation process should always include front-line users because they KNOW the challenges and understand what needs to get done. In this evaluation, companies should be considering their current tech stack state with an eye on the future to ensure that tech stack is scalable, eliminates unnecessary or duplicated steps across the process AND that it will be able to leverage and ingest new technologies that will surely become available in years to come.
We are here to help through this evaluation process and to make sure that what you have implemented is necessary, adopted, integrated, streamlined, aligned with your business goals, and here’s the kicker – enhances your customer experience.
Let’s chat: https://calendly.com/suhabeidaszehl/client-discovery-call