Three-step strategy for making your tech investments work harder

Remaining competitive as an IT organisation is a task made more challenging when navigating a complex cloud environment. Speed is mission-critical when trying to keep up with new demand. However, the tech investments made intermittently along the way can become siloed and won’t always made financial sense. A convincing business case might be presented to you or the latest hype in the market may catch your eye, but sporadic artefacts accumulated over time usually results in IT budgets being stretched thin. Some gains might be made, but ultimately even a coherent investment strategy becomes sidelined. 

In a down market, it is essential that investment in technology solutions produces digital transformation that helps users, reduces pressure on IT teams and achieves more agility than what was had before. That’s how a significant competitive advantage will form, and re-introducing a holistic strategy is one way to get there. By reassessing the role of technology in helping the business achieve its most pressing goals, IT decision-makers can ensure their investments make the most sense. Step back, and take the time to address these three key questions that will help get your tech investment strategy in a better position. 

Is my IT infrastructure more complex than it needs to be? 

With the various IT platforms and solutions adopted by organisations come a string of tools that are also integrated along the way. Even though those tools aren’t essential to the performance of the platforms, they’re added on through iterations and updates which complicate the IT infrastructure unnecessarily. IT professionals will have a hard time of distinguishing what tech is adding value, what’s causing inefficiencies and realising the extent of the services they can deploy. As a result, organisations can find themselves purchasing additional software for multiple versions of the same product that was already providing the functionality they needed. 

I have a real-life example of this in a recent conversation with a customer. A well-recognised media firm was looking to build a sustainability dashboard for their IT operations, but what they didn’t know was that their existing VMware dashboard was capable of executing that work at the same cost. After having an active tender out for a year, they then learned how their current solution could work to get the most out of it. Don’t underestimate your existing IT infrastructure – the solution is often already in your tech stack. It just requires you to regularly look at your IT investments and view them holistically as one, integrated system. You may be surprised at how many tools you already own and how seamlessly they can operate.

Is a tailored tech stack necessary?

Technologist may be led to believe that building a bespoke tech stack is key to becoming differentiated. What they might not realise is that the tech investments made to become fully bespoke become siloed. These investments are focused on specific tools and products that are then joined together to make something completely different – which often don’t all work well together and require constant work from considerable-sized teams just to maintain.

Oftentimes simplification is the most effective way forward. You can capitalise on the solutions and platforms that are ready to be bought off the shelf - solutions that are industrialised, reliable and easily deployable. This route will help you to create a centralised development environment that quickly responds to customer needs and delivers on new requirements based on what customers ask for, in turn delivering greater value.

What is innovation truly defined by in my business?

Innovation can be associated with adopting the latest and greatest solutions, but are those technologies adding value and making a difference where it matters or simply keeping the lights on? Organisations might race to invest in public cloud networks or more recently generative AI tools, but why does innovation on-premises or a private cloud environment get underestimated? The latter options can produce the same level of agility but a better focus on cost, data sovereignty and security.

The right solution for your organisation might not require building your own cloud platforms. Rather it can involve adding layers of innovation and finding solutions with built-in resilience for continuous operations, threat prevention, and fast recovery from cyber threats. That’s where the real differentiation can be found.

Avoid getting swept up by what competitors are revealing and market trends are convincing you of. Getting the most from your tech investment starts by shifting to an innovation mindset. Use the questions we’ve covered above to understand your IT infrastructure and align your investments with your broader business objectives. You don’t need to create a tailored IT solution or acquire every new technology, instead, focus on building an environment that offers flexibility and agility through scalable and ready-to-go solutions. That’s how you can enable your business to deliver impactful innovation and revitalise your tech investment strategy.