Doing Your 2021 Tech Planning Right

We are almost three months into 2021 and a lot of you might not have had your technology plan set up for your business.

Don’t worry, you are not alone.

Last year was so bad for a lot of us that it is quite OK for you to have forgotten to plan for 2021. But it’s not too late. This is also a period when proactive companies who did their technology planning for 2021 late last year are making adjustments. If you ask us, now is the best time for you to make your plan for the rest of the year.

But what should you consider when making a technological plan? What should you prioritize for the year? We’ll try to break down the important points in technology planning and some important factors to consider for 2021.

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What Should I Consider When Creating A Technological Plan?

A plan is only as good as your understanding of a certain idea. A person with zero knowledge or background information on IT will have a hard time creating a technological plan. So here are a couple of tips so you can create a robust technological plan for your business in 2021.

Know Your IT Goals

What is your plan for? What do you want to achieve? What’s your goal? Without setting a proper IT goal, you will find it hard to start creating your technological plan. Do you want to improve the customer experience? Maybe to increase productivity in the workplace? These goals will affect what kinds of IT strategies you should prioritize for the year. You should sit down with your team and discuss what you would like to achieve for the year before starting with your IT plan.

Understand the Trends in Your Industry

The year 2020 was a year where the flexibility of businesses was challenged. It was a year when businesses experienced the “worst-case scenario” and they had to adjust. To make a more effective technological plan, you should understand certain trends and drivers that can affect your business.

Disruptions in your industry are normal all thanks to technology. You just have to choose where you sit – the ones causing the disruption or the one misplaced?

Your IT plan should have some flexibility in it to allow for changes or adaptations. After all, you never really know when something big will happen next – for better or worse.

Find a Trusted 3rd Party IT Partner

While it may sound like creating a plan for your business should be an internal thing, getting a third-party might do you good. First off, a third-party can offer expertise in IT that you may not have. For example, getting an IT service provider as a partner can help shed light on certain IT solutions you may have missed. Also, a third-party will have the ability to see gaps in your plan that an internal team might miss. Their unbiased view will be essential in creating strategies that will benefit your business in the long run.

Tips for Technological Planning in 2021

Before you get started on your IT plan for 2021, let us impart with you a couple more tips you might want to read up on first.

Change the Dial from Survive to Thrive

2020 was a very special year but not exactly in a good way. Challenges came left and right for businesses and it tested workflows and processes. But by the end of the year, some businesses got their bearings and found a way to handle the situation. While the whole of 2020 was about making sure your business survives, this year should focus on making sure you thrive.

By saying “thriving”, this means focusing on a business model that works and perfecting it instead of trying to improvise and transforming. This is especially true for small-and-medium-sized businesses. So instead of changing what you are selling, just improve and perfect how you are currently selling your service or product.

Stay Away From Making Big Moves

This year might look like a year where you can fill in certain gaps in your industry left behind by businesses that have closed last year but that might not be a good idea. This year will be the year of small changes. These small changes will focus on improving your business and making it more resistant to sudden changes – like a pandemic.

These changes might seem trivial from reassessing your supply chain to reskilling workers but they will create the difference when things readjust in the future. One good example is small retail chains and restaurants improving their online presence to serve customers who choose not to go out as often. When you try to think about this, this change is small and requires a few man-hours to execute but could spell the success of your business in 2021.

Focus on Adapting to The New Normal

If your business still hasn’t adapted to the new normal then you should be focusing on that by now. Sure, you might have given your employees the option to work from home but are you sure they have everything they need?

Start by making sure they have the right tools in place to work productively in a remote setting. You should also have effective communication channels in place for your whole organization. Lastly, is your business taking security seriously? Your remote workers might be a security breach waiting to happen without the proper precautions.

The year might not be as scary as 2020 but it will still be full of challenges for business. The good thing is that technology has always been there to bail us out. Technological planning will help you and your business find the right technological solutions to answer all your needs.

If you need help with your technological planning then you might need the expertise of Sydney Technology Solutions. Sydney Technology Solutions is the #1 rated IT support company in Sydney with over 20 years of service to businesses both big and small. Call us today and schedule an IT support consultation where we show you how we can help you create a plan for your company for 2021 and the future.