By Richard Coates
It’s a question we get asked time and time again; ‘how can we design this so that we can future-proof our technology?’
The short answer is ‘we can’t effectively future-proof your technology’. However, we can plan and develop systems, software, and practices that will enable the evolution of the technology as much as possible.
This can be achieved with a mixed approach that considers the design and development of the technology, the implementation of the tech, and the maintenance of systems, as well as personnel. It can include areas such as the below:
1.The first and most important factor concerns putting a modern platform in place that will provide maximum flexibility. Technology that is modern, resilient, and can be scaled up or down to suit requirements.
2.Although ‘modern’, it also needs to be adequately established, tried, tested, and trusted to avoid potential performance issues down the line.
3.We don’t believe in reinventing the wheel and implementing all-new tech if that tech in question is not sufficiently established. It’s a risk and future-proofing is concerned with risk mitigation.
4.Understand your business now and aims for the future. How might things change? What will be different? It is useful to consider future scenarios and the requirements of different versions.
5.The technology needs to be buildable. We need to be able to develop existing tech and so the design needs to allow for this as well as the tech structure and system (considering point 4 above with this).
6.It is also important to think about technology implementation with employees and how you might you keep individuals trained and skills up-to-date. In some instances, tech can surpass the existing employee skills base. Having a learning and development plan that runs in parallel will help promote success.
7.Similarly, the IT dept needs to be equipped and skilled to support the new tech and have external support on hand for anything highly specialised so that any issues can be addressed with ease and without major downtime to operations.
8.Providing the right level of access is also important. Very often we see how key company skills and tech access sit with one or two individuals, inhibiting wider usage, potentially acting as a bottleneck, and ultimately proving to be a real issue should those individuals move on. Appropriate access and succession planning do play a part.
9.Suitable security! So often is security taken for granted within companies that have been using systems for some time. Every company should have a security policy, with processes to back up, protect and maintain. Consider tech review points and relevant upgrades to look after your company intel and assets.
10.Finally, ensure you are well-advised and can draw upon the advice from specialists in the field who can properly support and guide technology modifications.
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