Implementing new technology

 Every organization tries to excel and surpass its competitors. Technology is rapidly emerging, companies always look for new ways to revolutionize their operations, to increase productivity. Therefore, they try to implement new technologies according to changing trends.

But implementing these technologies may create challenges, which if not addressed will result in problems for the organizations. In this article, we will look at some common challenges organizations face and how they can overcome them.

Why implement new technology?

In this competitive world, every organization tries to compete and outsmart its competitors. Implementing and integrating technology with their current operations can help organizations achieve a competitive edge in comparison to their competitors. The purpose behind implementing new technologies is to provide new solutions, increase productivity, outsmart competitors, and increase profits.

Challenges of Implementing New Technology

Implementing new technology required a lot of financial investment as well as a lot of work of Research and Development. Many times, organizations face the gap between the actual productivity of technology and the monetary value of technology. This gap occurs because organizations fail to implement technology in their operations. Therefore, they remain deprived of getting utility from these technologies.

Following are some of the challenges organizations face in technology implementation:

#1: Unable to create an effective strategy

One of the primary challenges organizations face is to make a strategy that creates collaboration between organization goals and technology. Sometimes organizations fail to analyze the working functionalities of technologies and how they will benefit the organization. This results in a loss of resources that will be utilized for implementing the technology.

To overcome this challenge, research new technology thoroughly, plan out how this can be used to help your business goals. Don’t just go for new technology for the sake of new, rather analyze if it can provide value for your business.

#2: Communication Gap

A lot of times organizations fail to communicate with their employees and customers about the utilization of technology. It is beneficial to remain transparent with your employees and customers about the use of technology. Communicate about the changing technology trends and implement technology to meet the objectives of the business. This will help employees work effectively with changing trends and technological use, which will eventually increase productivity.

#3: Unable to train staff

Every new technology or system you introduce in your organization will require training staff. Many organizations are reluctant to conduct training workshops because they are expensive. But avoiding training eventually causes more expenses and sometimes damage to the organization. Inexperienced and untrained won’t be able to utilize the new technology, therefore it is essential to bring them up to speed.

#4: Unable to incorporate with current systems

Extracting the benefits of new technology only is not enough. You have to incorporate new technology with previous working systems to increase its full potential. It is ideal to try and avoid the least disruption in operations of the business and integrate technology in your existing systems.

#5: Fail to meet with changing trends

Technology is changing rapidly. Every day new and more advanced technologies are added to the digital marketplace which provides more functionalities to the current working systems. It becomes hard for some organizations to change and update their systems to the latest trends.

#6: Security Vulnerabilities

Implementing new technologies goes through a maturity cycle. Not every new technology starts working on its full potential from day one. The early stage of implementing new technologies may pose security threats. Therefore, it is essential to create a learning culture in your organization to quickly respond to the changing trends.

#7: Measuring ROI:

One of the important challenges you will face when implementing new technology is measuring the rate of return. It means measuring whether that technology is working in favor of your organization or no change has occurred in the result. This requires keeping an eye on several metrics to identify the results, which may become difficult sometimes.

To measure your current performance before implementing technology. After a month or six months, measure the performance of the organization after some time to validate if technology has increased the desired objectives or not.

How to implement New technology effectively?

After mentioning the common challenges organizations face when implementing new technology. It is necessary to mention some ways to implement technology in a way it can work effectively. Here are some ways for an effective technology implementation process:

#1: Implement in phases:

Implementing new technology to your current system can become a daunting task. It causes difficulty for employees and customers to get up to speed with changing trends. Therefore, it is recommended to implement this pain-staking process step by step. Rather than changing the whole way to doing and conducting business operations. Start by adopting new technology to one department of the organization and then slowly and gradually move towards another. This will give employees time to adjust to the changing trends and allow them to identify any problems regarding new technology.

#2: Prioritize the phases

Keeping the upper point in mind, prioritize the process which is easy to implement initially. Keeping the previous scenario in mind, choose the department where it is easy to implement new technology. This will help employees learn new skills also motivate them to encourage the technology implementation process.

#3: Have patience

lastly, the most important way to implement new technologies is to have patience. New technologies won’t become operational and work perfectly from day one. It will take a reasonable amount of time for employees to learn to handle new technology or software. Customers will take time in getting used to new services of organizations. Therefore, it is a wise thing to do is to slowly implement the process, rather than expecting results overnight.

Wrapping up

The technological revolution is the future. Nobody can deny it. Eventually, every organization has to implement the latest technology to compete, grow and survive in the competitive world. With proper planning and careful administration, organizations can not only install and implement new technologies but also create a learning environment in the organization. Which would eventually help organizations cope with future changing trends and stand out to future challenges.