Discuss 

why you should have a technological plan for your Business and what 4-
common business needs you will utilize technology to manage. (Additional resource:
Lecture 9 Slides and the recommended books)
A technology plan is a thorough strategy to account for, implement, and to utilize technology
more effectively and efficiently. It helps a business be able to identify all the technology have
in use and to understand its technological needs and also be able to predict any future
resource need. Furthermore, the technology plan requires business owners to create a funding
strategy to facilitate the present and future technological needs of the business. Also, it
provides a schedule for implementing the technology plan i.e.it allows the management to
rollout the technology to grow with the company.
The technology plan must have clear goals and objectives, a realistic budget, and a strategy to
implement the plan.

Where do you Begin?

All of that is great, but where do you begin when you decide to tackle the technology plan?
Honestly, you approach to your technology plan can be achieved in four, easy-to-manage
steps.

1. Identify how technology fits into your overall business strategy. Will that evolve
overtime and does the existing structure cater to your company’s needs?
2. Look at the requirements of your company and how the technology is and will be
used.
3. Work with a professional to design and develop your technology and any necessary
purchases that you identified before.
4. When you decide to implement and rollout the technology, make sure it is done so on
a managed and realistic schedule. Everyone involved must be aware of the plan, trained
to use any of its features, and evolve with the technology plan as changes and strategies
adjust over time.

What are the Benefits of a Technology Plan?

We can all agree that a plan for anything is beneficial, but it is ineffective if those involved in
your company do not adhere to it. Once your company establishes a technology plan, your
company will benefit in three notable ways:

1. The plan pays for itself

The benefits outweigh the costs of implementing an effective technology strategy. Instead of
using ineffective technology, the plan requires companies to implement technology and
hardware that saves money in the long-run. The budgeting and implementing process allows
companies to acquire technology overtime so the process does not stress the budget. The plan
provides businesses with a clear list of hardware and infrastructure to protect the company’s
assets as well.

2. Goals are identified and accomplished

The technology plan provides businesses with a clear, tangible plan to achieve its goals. The
plan provides businesses with a plan of action of technology and communications that aligns
with the overall goals to improve productivity, production, the customer experience, and
software development.

3. Efficient operations

Technology that caters to your specific operations and the company’s goals is an efficient
system. This permits owners and employees to work better and to increase production. It also
boosts the customer’s experience when he/she does business with your outfit. The operation
meets customers’ demands and employees’ expectations, which results in long-term success.

1. As your business grows, a plan ensures you have the technology infrastructure to
support it.

Some companies make technology decisions in the moment without considering how the
decision will impact them over the long term. For example, it’s possible to purchase a server
based on your present needs without evaluating long-term business requirements. You’re
right to ask these questions:

 What type of applications will we run?

 How much power and memory do we require?
 Does it support virtualization?
 Will we need to connect remotely?

But it’s also right to ask these same questions followed by “in five years.” Without planning,
the result may be a costly upgrade in a few years, which a good technology plan can
circumvent.

2. Lower capital costs.

Any good strategic IT plan should include a hardware and software replacement schedule,
which tracks warranty expirations, software licenses, and server and computers requiring
 updates or replacement, so you can phase out old hardware before it dies. This schedule
ensures you replace your assets in a logical order, you maximize your return on investment,
lower your overall capital-equipment spending, and improve uptime and productivity.

3. Simple and accurate budgeting.

You don’t want to be surprised by technology costs; unforeseen technology breakdowns,

license renewals, and new purchase requirements can quickly eat up the budget that you’ve
dedicated to other business initiatives. A technology budget simplifies the process by
foreseeing future costs before – not as – you incur them.

4. Technology integration on a micro and macro level

Without a strategic technology plan, you may experience a mish-mash of systems, which
overlap in functionality, and don’t integrate properly. A strategic technology plan allows you
to make decisions in consideration of your specific needs within the overall technology
environment.

Part Two

1. Bring teammates near and far closer together with communication software

We all know that effective communication is crucial for team productivity. At the same time,
some companies are often on the fence about investing their time and efforts into software
that improves team communication. That’s resulted in whopping losses for business owners
— companies with 100 employees throw to the wind an average of $420,000 per
year because of miscommunication.

Luckily, the market offers many advanced technological solutions for businesses of all sizes:
team messengers, video conferencing apps, and everything in between that can dramatically
boost internal communication and — as a result — team productivity. Here are a few.

Chanty

When choosing a messenger for your team, give Chanty a try. Chanty is an easy-to-use team
chat focused on ramping up business processes for small and medium teams through artificial
intelligence. It helps your teammates become more productive by featuring:

 real-time messaging with an unlimited searchable history

 AI that identifies and gather important information and key takeaways from chats
 plenty of storage space
 robust file sharing
 audio and video calls
 uniting notifications from multiple software services in a single place.

Slack
 Slack offers a huge number of handy features for team collaboration including group
channels and direct messages, file sharing, integrating third-party platforms (like
Salesforce, Dropbox, Stripe, etc.), video/audio calls, and other workflow improvers.

If you’re looking for an affordable team chat, Slack can be used for as long as you like at no
charge. Keep in mind that that free comes with some limitations in terms of message history,
integrations, file storage, and so on.

Flock

Flock is a team messenger linking up project collaboration and team communication. Here
you can:

 Schedule lightweight tasks while chatting with team members

 Invite business partners, freelancers, and vendors to chat
 Create multiple groups (each focused around a current project or task)
 Hold video meetings with up to eight teammates
 Use To-Do feature for task management and Rich Note Sharing feature to easily share
drafts/documents.

A bonus is that Flock features unlimited integrations in its free package.

Zoom

Having a reliable video conferencing tool will save you time and headaches. Zoom is a Video
conferencing service with screen sharing and recording features available on desktop and
mobile. Zoom makes remote/in-office team communication and collaboration easier by
simply sending a link that takes everyone from all around the world to a meeting. You can
conference with individuals without a Zoom account.

appear.in

Similar to Zoom, appear.in lets you create online meeting rooms via video calls with up to
eight people for free.  Appear.in is so simple to setup and use. The top features of include:

 Setting a custom background image for the room

 Blocking the room for private talks
 Texting in a chat during meetings
 Sharing your screen

Tribe

Using Tribe, you can start a group video call from your browser without any account. Just
create and send your own invite link to the teammates. Bonus: it’s free.

Tetra
 Never take call notes again and boost the productivity of your phone meetings with Tetra.
Tetra uses AI to take notes during your phone calls, so you can focus on the conversation and
remember everything later. Using this tool you will be able to:

 Turn phone conversations into text documents immediately after your call is over
 Never forget key details received during phone meetings, and quickly find necessary
information
 Make sure everyone’s on the same page sharing your notes with the teammates if
needed

2. Stay organized across workflows with cloud-based project or task management software

Have you ever had a project delayed while you desperately searched for a needed document?
Had a laptop crashed with all important files? Needed some assets sent but had a teammate
stuck working offline?

Having all your projects, assets and milestones in sync and easily accessible can significantly
improve overall team performance and be a bold competitive advantage. Therefore, there is
no surprise that today companies run 79 percent of their workloads in the cloud.

So, no matter what size or industry your business is related to, the project management tools
listed below will greatly enhance your team productivity and collaboration.

Wrike

Wrike is a powerful tool for managing and collaborating on projects. This software combines
simple design with efficient project management features. With Wrike, it’s easy to share and
assign tasks, project, and folders with team members.

It’s also a great tool while working with clients who want transparency into your company’s
process. You can permit them to see what you’re working on without allowing to make
changes or interrupt your process. To sum up, Wrike is the successful medium of great
collaborative features and easy-to-use interface.

Basecamp

Someone who has no knowledge of project management software may feel overwhelmed
about starting to use it. That is until they try Basecamp. Basecamp is a powerful and intuitive
platform for bringing a team together to get things done. Moreover, it takes only 10 minutes
to set up the app. Featuring a full stack of collaborative features including to-do lists, wiki-
style documents, file sharing, and messaging, Basecamp includes just about everything you
need to keep any project running smoothly.  

ALSO READ: Wrike vs Basecamp: A Project Management Software Comparison

Asana

How often have you heard the phrases like “I completely forgot about that” or “Sorry, I
missed that email” at the office? If that happens too often, it’s time to reconsider your
 workflow. And Asana, one of the most well-known project management tools, allows you to
refine the team collaboration and productivity.

You can assign tasks to other members, add stakeholders to projects, manage ongoing tasks
and monitor deadlines here. Asana may be also very useful as a to-do list or a calendar for
strategic planning. This app puts everything in context of a task or conversation, gives
complete transparency to who is doing what, but allows some privacy when necessary.

3. Make every second count using time tracking tools

If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. To increase your performance and productivity,
you must first understand your work clock. How much time do you waste during the workday
and on what distractions? What are naturally your most productive hours? How substantial is
your contribution to the company’s progress? All these questions can be precisely answered
with the help of time tracking tools. Using them, you will able to make the most of your time
and, as a consequence, become more efficient.

Toggl

Time tracking can solve issues of low productivity and procrastination. Toggl is an easy-to-
use tool that allows you to enter, start, and stop tracking tasks quickly. Every task can be
tagged with a specific word that will help you find needed information later. Some of its
features are listed below:

 Time tracking built in your web browser

 Managing workflow of the whole team
 Reporting on your budget spending
 Getting in-depth insights on your company profitability

Popular alternatives to Toggl are Harvest, RescueTime, and TimeCamp.

TimeBoy

TimeBoy is an user-friendly and feature-rich tracking app which helps you manage as many
workers and projects as you need. With TimeBoy you will be able to:

 Get a complete overview of team performance

 Generate and export productivity reports
 Learn how the work hours are actually spent
 Integrate with your project management software

4. Declutter your digital workspaces (and mind)

Work environment directly impacts team and personal productivity. Chaos can significantly
decrease the ability to focus on a job. Alternatively, a laptop screen, web browser, and work
tool stack that are streamlined can help you feel organized and calm. If you can’t recall the
last time when you felt that way, it’s time to put your digital environment in order with the
following tools.
Toby

Searching for various documents, links, or whatever else through all your work apps may be
a major pain for you and for the entire company. Toby s a smart manager that helps your
team organize, share, and collaborate with browser tabs.

With Toby, everything inside a shared tab collection is instantly available to every team
member. There’s no need to search through Google Drive, Dropbox, JIRA, Confluence,
Slack, and all of your other apps. By organizing your browser tabs with the help of Toby, you
can access important resources in one click instead of ten.

Magnet

Magnet is a handy window manager for MAC that keeps your workspace organized.

Having multiple windows aligned neatly side by side minimizes app switching and greatly
enhances multitasking, comparing, and copying. In other words, Magnet declutters your
screen by arranging windows into organized tiles.

Station

Station is a nicely organized workstation for all work tools. It’s designed to let you
seamlessly switch between your apps in one click and find what you need in a blink of an
eye. The unified search finds any information or page you have saved across all your apps.
The notification center allows you gain complete control over all your notifications across all
your tools.

5. Inject some fun stuff

Integrating fun into the workplace increases productivity and reduces stress. Moreover,
companies with ‘fun policies’ indicate greater job satisfaction and increased employee
loyalty. So don’t be afraid to inject some fun into your team workflow. That will only ramp
up the overall productivity, not kill it.

Brain.fm

Can 10 minutes of listening to music make your team more productive? Actually, according
to auditory neuroscientists, it can. Brain.fm is the only music composer that boosts attention,
reduces mind-wandering, and empowers human minds to achieve more. Why not test it out?
All you need is a pair of earphones.

Cat Room

Japanese researchers found that watching cute cat video boosts your productivity and
improve attention. It’s not a joke, that’s a real study. Test it yourself with the help of Cat
Room where you can create your own personal room with cute cats. Just be sure to use
your time tracking software too, so you don’t spend too much time with your digital furballs.
Productivity

1. Time tracking software is an excellent tool for mapping out where time is spent, by whom.
Such analysis when properly utilized is great for accountability, process improvement, and
productivity.

2. Streamline your work processes with digital dictation.

3. Use project management and task management tools to stay on top of your daily business
responsibilities.

4. Create a digital filing system to make it easier to sort, save, share and find documents.

5. Develop an efficient email management process that makes it easier to stay on top of the

flow of messages.

Financials

6. Use an online invoicing service to reduce the costs of collecting payment from customers.

7. Use online budget tracking to keep on top of—and reduce—your expenses.

8. File your taxes more efficiently online.

9. Create a new income stream by selling your products online.

10. Use a comprehensive accounting software to streamline your business finances.

11. Share digital files with your bookkeeper or accountant to improve your ongoing

bookkeeping processes.

12. Explore open source applications to replace some of the more costly "name brand"
alternatives

Marketing

13. Use software to create a marketing plan that you can edit, update and share with your
team.

14. Use social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, YouTube, etc. to
promote your business, products, and services.

15. Start a blog related to your business and target audience.

16. Collect email addresses through an opt-in form and start utilizing the power of email
marketing.
17. Use video marketing.

18. Promote your business with a website and/or online advertising.

Collaboration and Learning

19. Conduct teleconference calls to make sure team members in different locations are on the
same page.

20. Webinars or web conferences are great for keeping everyone in the loop with travel-free
face-to-face time.

21. Expand your knowledge and empower your team with online business training.

22. Share files and data with the cloud.

23. Set up an Intranet for local file sharing.

24. Communicate quickly and clearly with your team through team messaging.

Customer Service

25. Use social media to conduct customer service.

26. Set up an online help desk or ticket system to handle customer issues.

27. Allow clients to schedule appointments online at their convenience.

28. Use online surveys and questionnaires to get customer feedback.

Mobile Working and Telecommuting

29. Create a mobile office that allows you to work productively from anywhere.

30. Try a remote desktop application to access files on your office computer.

31. Go paperless to save money on supplies and storage in your office. Added bonus:
environmentally-sound choices are cool!

32. Get a virtual phone number and electronic fax line that you can take anywhere.

33. Use your smartphone and select apps that sync with the cloud to stay connected when
you're on the go.

For more technology tools for your small business, read about these 12 tech solutions that
won't break the bank.