Something that often gets lost in the conversation is how much technology is still a tool.

Tools need to be wielded and deployed by people. True success will depend on the technology wielder’s intentions, motivations, and knowledge. Until the day when artificial intelligence takes regular decision-making control over business operations, people’s actions are the determining factor in whether a technology strategy will be effective (or ineffective) for an organisation.

What are the two most common reasons why people misuse technology within an organisation?

Insufficient Knowledge, Experience, and Skill on Your Team

The success of a technology strategy has many dependencies and is often measured by the “weakest link in the chain”. Effective recruitment, interviewing, and technical personnel evaluation have never been more important.

If the people you have executing your technology strategy lack the expertise to do it effectively, the business will certainly struggle with inefficiency, and in the worst case, catastrophic issues due to misdirection will occur.

Your most important personnel evaluation is the designer of your technology strategy. Having the wrong person design your technology strategy will lead to initiatives being wasteful in both time and cost.

Misaligned Technology Vision with Business Goals

Having skilled and competent people doesn’t guarantee success; technology is a tool that ultimately needs a purpose and an outcome. If actions are not leading you towards your intended goals, then why are you doing them?

Large organisations in particular suffer from this disconnect, their teams and departments are very diverse and specialised. It’s easy to forget the original intentions of why you’re doing what you’re doing.

A business culture that prioritises keeping employees well-informed, articulating clear business objectives, and demonstrating the relevance of their tasks ensures an alignment between actions and strategic goals.

Maintaining alignment among team members can be a challenge, particularly in the absence of structured processes focused on regular communication and consistent retrospectives. However, it often comes down to the personnel adopting and embracing those processes to achieve effectiveness.

Distinguishing individuals who align with your business culture and goals from those who do not is crucial for the successful implementation of the technology strategy.

Conclusion

People continue to be the main reason why technology succeeds (or fails) to benefit an organisation.

Businesses should take great care of who they entrust to manage their technology - it could be a significant waste of time and money to the organisation if chosen unwisely.

Adopting a culture of regular retrospection and reviews is difficult but necessary to ensure that technology consistently aligns with business goals. Performing regular audits on technology use and technical personnel is a healthy way of ensuring technology is providing the best results for your business.

Our Intrepid Technology Auditing offering is ideal for discovering any issues with the behaviours of your technical personnel. We have a dedicated section of our audit process that evaluates if your personnel is competent enough and if their actions align with business outcomes appropriately.

If you’d like to hear more about Intrepid Technology Auditing and Intrepid Advisory Services then please reach out to sales@beintrepid.co.uk to set up a free consultation and Q&A session about what types of technology evaluations you’d like to conduct.