Bringing It All Together: Strategy First
Technology transformation is a significant investment of resources and time. The senior nonprofit leaders driving these changes are staking their organizational capital on these important decisions. The potential payoffs of technology transformations are significant. The right combination of tools and solutions, configured in a thoughtful way, can transform your business and propel your organization into the future.
But we have also seen digitals implementations fail to meet expectations when quick fixes do not operate well within the context of other organizational tools. With rushed transitions, tools are not configured to meet organizational needs leaving expensive technologies underutilized. The failure to manage through change and train staff is another contributing factor.
We understand how much is at stake for your organization and your mission and wholeheartedly believe that most of the risk factors can be managed and mitigated. There are a few basic principles we apply to our projects that are essential to success:
- Strategy First Approach. What are your organization’s strategic goals? Start there. Decisions about tools and solutions must be driven by business objectives – technology is the means to an end.
- Imagine the Future. Think beyond the immediate needs. What will your business look like a year from now? Five years or even ten years into the future? Will your technology support growth? While you may not bring your vision to fruition all at once, with an overarching framework, all the pieces will work more seamlessly together.
- Inclusive Process. Engage stakeholders across the organization early and often to illuminate potential blind spots and to create a more cohesive ecosystem.
- Prioritize User Adoption. Many would-be successful implementations can fall flat due to lack of user adoption. Managing change is about building the buy-in, bringing everyone along, and dedicating real time to training.
Planning the future of your technology takes imagination. This is a bold step of envisioning what the future looks like and mapping out a digital ecosystem that will help you get there.
Most organizations do not stand up their entire technology ecosystem overnight. The initial technology strategy planning process will help you ensure that tools and solutions you put in place over time support your business objectives, integrate with each other, and take in consideration the needs of different business units across the organization.
What are the benefits of a digital roadmap?
One size does not fit all. Unless you are a very small organization or have very modest and typical technology requirements, odds are you will be building an ecosystem of tools, applications, and solutions. It is important that those solutions operate in a holistic way and are built to be scalable for the future to allow your organization to grow and flourish.
● Having a digital roadmap will help you make the best possible decisions for your organization to support your mission delivery, marketing, and operations.
● Tools that adequately solve the challenges today may not be enough to support your evolving business. Having a blueprint helps you look beyond the immediate needs to envision and anticipate the future state and what technology will be required to support it.
● Planning saves organizations money by ensuring that you are investing in technologies and configurations that work together.
● Disconnected tools can create data silos impacting both your constituents’ experience and potentially creating privacy and compliance challenges.
● Planning is an opportunity to bring your stakeholders together, to consider the needs across the organization, and to build buy-in. A defined roadmap will provide you with guidance for a more cohesive ecosystem.
What does a planning process look like?
STEP 1
Discovery
Experts will take the time to audit your current technologies, meet with stakeholders, and ask questions to understand challenges and desired outcomes.
STEP 2
Identify the Gaps
Based on the information we gather and with your strategic objectives in mind, experts will identify gaps and help you anticipate where new needs are likely to emerge.
STEP 3
Define & Prioritize Requirements
Implementations do not happen all at once and we often have to make trade-offs. We want to help you get the most value out of your investment.
STEP 4
Develop a Digital Roadmap
We will help you imagine the future state and translate that vision into concrete recommendations. The typical roadmap includes:
● Technology recommendations to help you in your selection process with consideration of your existing tools
● Budgeting that includes coordination and integration costs
● Recommendations for solutions design and configurations
● A plan for how your data fits together
● Necessary processes to support the new ecosystem and to optimize your work
● Implementation plan