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Technology Mastery Model A Two-Year Technology Strategy Process
● Explanation of the Technology Mastery Model
● A Two-Year Model for Developing an Effective Technology Strategy
● Creating a Rolling List of Projects to Take On
Overview
In order to maximize the productivity of all the layers of Digital Plumbing, every
organization needs to have a separate technology strategy as a part of the overall
organizational strategy. From what we see, companies that do not have a written
technology strategy specifying what improvements will be made – as well as when they
will be made, and by whom – often exist in a state of chaos. In addition, without a
written plan, there is no good way to measure the success of our technology employees
based on the amount of time that they keep the Digital Plumbing up and running. This
is important, but it fails to give them the inspiration that will make them want to
improve the plumbing in ways that support the organization’s business goals.
When setting out to create a written, agreed-upon technology strategy that involves
both IT people and the operational side of the organization, it is good to follow a model
that can be repeated each year. A technology strategy is not a one-time exercise. The
underlying tools in the tech world change and improve so quickly it is now a
requirement to update the strategy every twelve months.
We have developed a five-step process to help organizations develop a technology
strategy that takes full advantage of their Digital Plumbing. This process solves several
problems that organizations with misspent technology dollars face today. To execute
this two-year technology strategy correctly, you need to think about to different things:
Digital Plumbing structure and the levels of the Technology Mastery.
Digital Plumbing Structure
In order to get a good picture in your head, think of Digital Plumbing as a series of
layers, each built on the one below it.
The bottom layer is the Communication Layer. It connects computers so they can
communicate with each other – through bandwidth, routers, firewalls, switches, and the
network infrastructure. These are the pipes that connect systems to the internet or a
data center.
The next layer is the Hardware Layer – computers, servers, storage drives, backup
systems, and handhelds. This collection of gear provides the physical means of
managing and interacting with information, and it allows us to store massive amounts
of data.
The Database Layer stores the raw data that we create in data archives, image stores,
and transactional data stores. This
layer is critical because it also gives us
tools to create new views and reports
by mining the data we have gathered.
The next level up is the Application
Layer, with its PC-based software,
web-based software, and
server-distributed software. Applications are the visual interfaces we see on our
screens every day. They allow everyday users to do something meaningful with
information stored in the layers below.
The top layer is the Business Intelligence Layer, including dashboarding systems,
data analysis software, and data mining applications. This is the least understood and
least utilized layer at the moment but its value cannot be overestimated. In this layer
we build tools to analyze our data and information and represent it in real-time
dashboards that give people a useful glimpse into the performance of an organization.
Technology Mastery Model
The Technology Mastery Model is something we developed for organizations to use in
thinking about technology strategies holistically. Each of the six levels of the model
plays an integral role in the overall technology strategy. Each level is distinct, but they
all work together and intersect. All of the levels are important; this isn’t something
where you should pick one or two levels to focus on, but rather you should build and
improve each of these levels as evenly as you can. Focusing on five levels and
neglecting one level will still leave you with gaps that need correcting and a strategy
that is less than world class.
Technology Guideposts
Technology Guideposts are technology-related goals that your organization sets and
works toward. They are mandatory because they focus the organization on a few
critical, technology-driven deliverables. They are like lighthouses that help you
navigate to an industry-leading position with how you operate. These guideposts
are the longer-range, big concepts that dictate the more detailed elements of how
you execute with technology on a day-to-day basis.
Changes and improvements in each of the other five levels of the Technology
Mastery Model should refer back to your Guideposts so that the decisions you make
are always navigating you toward your goals. This is critical because technology is
complicated, it’s changing all the time, and there is always more that can be done.
Guideposts will help you stay focused on what’s truly important.
Technology Augmented Culture
One aspect we always evaluate is the organizational culture that has been created
and how adaptable it is to new technology introduction. This is critical because
technology sophistication thrives or chokes in different cultures.
This is a variable that should be given a lot of thought, and any adjustments that
need to be made will have to be driven by the leaders in the organization. If the
culture does not readily adapt to change it will become toxic to technology growth.
Technology Team
You can have the world’s best strategy, but it’s hard to implement without a great
team to act on it. This means not only having the right number of people, but also
putting them in the right places and making sure they have the skills necessary to
do the job well. Sometimes you can have the right number of people but have skill
levels that are lacking.
Generally, companies don’t do a good job of matching their technology needs and
opportunities with the human resources that they have. Usually this results in not
having enough technologists who could be creating value for the company.
Even when you have the right number of people with good skills, another concern
can be cultural impediments that hamper performance levels and block progress.
Technology Processes
Processes make success repeatable. Today, it is absolutely critical to have mature
processes that align technology needs with business priorities. This includes
processes to maximize the productivity of hardware, software, Digital Marketing,
uptime, and security.
Technology implementation is not going to get easier as you continue to grow, it
will only become more complicated. Technology is a relatively new variable,
therefore most organizations simply have not developed the systems to build it,
implement it, and manage it well.
Critical Digital Marketing and Digital Plumbing Tasks
When looking at technology tasks we divide them into two categories:
● Digital Marketing - outreach and connection tools, techniques and concepts
● Digital Plumbing – infrastructure
We find it helpful to analyze these two categories separately.
Measurements and Analytics
What gets measured gets done. When you measure progress you gain visibility into
what works and what doesn’t. This allows you to constantly improve your
technology performance.
Too many companies try to do technology without really measuring the outcomes in
any formal, consistent way. We want you to be disciplined about what you measure
and how often you evaluate it. It’s been pretty clear to us that people who measure
well seem to face the truths that the measurements reveal and improve. Those who
do not measure live in a fantasy world where they think they are okay, or they
simply don’t measure because they’re embarrassed with the results they know they
will see.
Goals
There are several goals that come with implementing a two-year technology
strategy. For one, creating a world-class Digital Plumbing system can add
tremendous value to an organization. Properly spent IT dollars and help stop you
from wasting money on unnecessary technology projects. It can also help you to
become more efficient and productive, in some cases increasing top-line revenue
while lowering back-office costs. Secondly, by going through the process of
mapping out the layers of your Digital Plumbing, you’re creating a way for leaders
to have a clearer picture of their organization and the make better decisions
because of that visibility. Executives that previously were unfamiliar with the
organization’s technology platforms can suddenly become active participants in
debates about their improvement for the future.
These maps, or blueprints, are also valuable by helping you create a project list of
pieces of your system that need upgrades over the next year or two. You can follow
the progress of your current-state maps all the way through to the future-state
maps that you create to represent what you hope your Digital Plumbing will look
like in two years. By repeating this process each year, you move the organization to
a state of constant improvement.
Process Description
This process has been reduced to five steps that can be completed by an
organization of any size. The larger the entity, the more complicated each step
might be to complete, yet this formula works for everyone.
Step One: Create a “Today” Map that Shows the Current State of Your Digital
Plumbing
First, draw a map that graphically represents each of the layers in your Digital
Plumbing and describes how each of the elements in each layer are organized. Be
sure to include each of the five layers – Communication, Hardware, Database,
Application, and Business Intelligence. These maps should be color coded so that,
for example, dysfunctional areas are represented in red and areas that work are in
blue. These maps serve as a visual representation of how the plumbing is organized
today.
One way to create this map is to have the IT department draw a diagram that
shows all the databases in the company and what data they hold. Then, have them
draw lines between the ones that communicate with each other. With this map laid
out in front of you, start looking for places where data is being entered by hand and
also where it is duplicated across databases. Start asking yourself questions: Could
we use existing data to populate other databases to ensure that everything is
consistent? Can we share data between databases rather than duplicating it? Can
we collapse databases together into larger databases that will allow us to improve
quality and services (and maybe cut IT costs)?
Then start asking questions around reporting: What can’t we do because certain
data exists in a separate database? What reporting could be improved if we
collapsed or connected two different databases? This type of mapping and
questioning is easy to do, but is rarely asked for. It gives a quick picture to a
non-technical person of both how broken plumbing is impacting the organization
and what improvements must be made. Remember, it got this complicated because
you slowly brought many different software applications into your business without
giving enough thought to how all the pieces would fit together. Now is the time to
reevaluate.
Next you’ll need to map your data storage, and there are two different issues to
examine. The first is making sure that data is backed up in ways that ensure it is
never lost. Executives need to sit down with IT people and have them draw out the
entire backup strategy and show in pictures how all data is protected.
The other important thing to be aware of as you examine your map is the need to
standardize your technological tools. Just as the traditional plumbing systems have
standards – the size of pipes, the construction of toilets and sinks – Digital
Plumbing also has standards. For example, people have fought over whether they
should use Linux or Microsoft operating systems, or whether they should program
in the Visual Basic or C Languages. It’s frustrating to be in a situation where IT
people want a decision on which standard to use when the executive has no idea
which way to go. There is no good advice on how to resolve debates on
standardization other than to listen carefully to the motives behind each debate and
make sure the decisions are being made based on which technology standard is
best for the organization in the long term and not just what is easiest, perhaps
because the staff is already familiar with one option.
The most important message about standards is that more is better. In other
words, when you look around an organization, the more you can standardize – the
laptops you use, the personal software you deploy, the operating systems you put
in place, the programming platforms you maintain – the smoother the overall
plumbing will operate.
Organizations often paint themselves into a corner by giving little thought to these
internal standards, and they will sometimes end up with a hardware or software
investment that is not compatible with a new initiative, which results is failure to
reach the return on investment (ROI) they expected. Another way that
management needs to drive accountability in the IT department is by having them
present the list of standards each year and demonstrate why they make sense.
The final consideration in this step is deciding what part of the Digital Plumbing
should be mobile. Just about anything we can access from a computer at the office
we can now access from a handheld device. We have the ability to leverage mobile
technology in a bigger way, but doing so is often not at the top of IT’s “To-Do” list.
Because many road warriors and home-based workers carry laptops that can access
company data remotely, the need to drive applications to handheld devices has not
been a strong one. However, laptops don’t fit in a purse or on a belt, so they are
not handy at all times like a smartphone. Many organizations can see big
productivity gains from extending access to office data and applications to mobile
devices; determining the potential for increased mobile access at your organization
is an important element in mapping your Digital Plumbing.
Step Two: Upgrade the Today Maps to Show How the Digital Plumbing Should
Look in Two Years
Next, a second set of maps is created that depicts how you would like the plumbing
to be organized over a two-year timeline. Think of these maps as blueprints for
each of the layers. Even a non-architect can look at a blueprint and understand
what the plumbing might look like.
Step Three: Review the Maps
The technologists in the organization review the maps with the businesspeople –
first the current version of the maps and then the future version of them. As a
team, the technologists and business people adjust and improve the maps so that
everyone agrees on what the state of the plumbing is today and where the
problems lie. This way, all can agree on what improvements to focus on for the
future.
Step Four: Develop a Two-Year Written Strategy
From the feedback and ideas that come out of this meeting, a written two-year
technology strategy is developed and should include a list of specific improvements
for the first year and the second year. This way, everyone is clear on what the
expectations are for the coming year and has a vision of what might happen in year
two.
It should list the types of applications used and maybe even a few features that will
be brought online, but it should not go into such deep detail as to be unreadable. It
is important that many people across the institution are able to read it and have a
clear picture of the organization’s technological goals. This strategy document will
be central in guiding the improvements you will make to your Digital Plumbing, and
it will also include elements that would not be covered in the plumbing diagrams.
For example, areas like technology training, use of social technologies, online
marketing, and the connection of the plumbing to third parties are all areas that
might be covered in your two-year strategy document.
The plan should start with year one: list the improvements that are needed
immediately. The first year is usually the easiest to strategize; make sure that the
plan clearly states the exact elements to be installed in year one. Next, the
year-two strategy should be constructed, and it may incorporate innovations that
can’t be designed at the moment. The goal is to look for high-value additions that
can significantly impact the bottom line.
The leadership team, in coordination with the businesspeople and technologists,
then determines a budget for the improvements.
This plan will become a task list for the IT department. In reality, there will be lots
of little improvements made during the year that are not on the plan. This may
happen through new innovations that could not have been foreseen.
Once the strategy is written and agreed upon, you must have a process for
executing it; we suggest using our Core Team process.
Step Five: Review and Update Maps and Strategies Each Year
Once a year, the plan is reviewed and updated, including the plumbing maps. This
will allow you to create a rolling two-year plan that documents the improvements to
be made within the next twelve months, and IT people can then be held
accountable to meet these goals.
Expected Outcomes
After working through this process once, while continuing to review and update
your technology plans and maps, you will have added to your organization an
element of continual improvement. As you keep doing it, you will be building your
process of flagging problem areas, strategizing the fix, prioritizing the project, and
finally implementing the change. Doing this continually will put your organization on
the path toward technology mastery and a properly functioning Digital Plumbing
system. Also, understanding the layers of Digital Plumbing structure as well as the
levels of the Technology Mastery Model will provide you a framework for studying
your organization and finding parts that can or need to be improved.
By working through this process, you will develop maps – or blueprints – that can
create a lot of value for your organization’s leaders. These will be their keys for
understanding your Digital Plumbing better, and making good decisions regarding
it.
We hope the ultimate outcome is that you use the process to the fullest as you
mold your Digital Plumbing into a world-class system that saves you money
through efficiency, but also adds value to the organization through productivity and
Business Intelligence.
The tools are there for you to achieve all of these outcomes. It really comes down
to two areas though, mentioned in the Technology Mastery Model section;
processes make success repeatable, and what gets measured gets done. By going
through a structured process and measuring your results, you’ll be able to benefit
from each of these outcomes described.
For information on developing an effective technology strategy please contact us at
info@fpov.com or (405) 359-3910.
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