Trust us: many companies are struggling to find their competitive edge when leveraging new capabilities such as Microservices, CICD, Generative AI, and Blockchain, and that’s just the tip of the trendy iceberg. Gartner’s Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies provides a visual and often sobering take on the maturity of various technologies that will likely influence industries and companies for years.
For business and technology leaders, jumping into a new investment in an emerging technology can feel risky. It’s critical to ensure these projects deliver their intended value without going over budgets or disrupting ongoing business operations. How do you cultivate an environment that encourages innovation while managing these risks?
In this article, we’ll share key approaches we’re seeing have a positive impact and tips to ensure your strategy is sound to maximize the results and encourage user adoption for your investments in emerging technology.
Staying competitive demands awareness of trends that shape the ever-evolving technology landscape. Emerging technology can open the door to significant advancements, resulting in cost savings, improved agility, enhanced resiliency, and better productivity. Done properly this can become an engine of growth for a business.
However, building out the expertise in emerging technology is challenging for teams who are likely already managing full workloads. This is why there has been a noticeable increase in demand for consultants and experts who understand transformative technology such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud Native Applications, Advanced Cybersecurity, and Software Engineering.
This makes sense: these are some of the most common emerging technology areas that companies are building into their roadmaps. Referring back to Gartner’s Hype Cycle, these technologies are in the innovation trigger and peak of inflated expectations categories, where innovation happens quickly and carries high expectations.
For many companies, these projects are more than they can handle, and they end up with investments that fail or don’t live up to expectations. This is why emerging technology consulting is critical to helping businesses make the most of their plans and investments. This can be as simple as getting roadmap advice to capture clear objectives and navigate potential setbacks. Or it could be much more involved in helping support every stage of deployment and ongoing support and enhancements to ensure continued value. This approach will help ensure that the investment in emerging technology delivers the desired business growth by harnessing its capabilities and putting it to work for your company.
The need to leverage emerging technology has increased demand for project leaders who can successfully drive technology initiatives while dealing with highly uncertain scenarios. Agile consulting methods, which prioritize stakeholder involvement and continuous learning, are also increasingly favored. These two skills help with \new technology adoption by ensuring that your investment has long-term value and immediate adoption by your employees.
Strategic Planning: Involves aligning technology initiatives with the broader goals of the business. Effective strategic planning helps prioritize technology investments to drive the desired outcomes, including achieving competitive advantages.
Stakeholder Involvement and Adoption: Active participation from stakeholders ensures that the technology implementation addresses the real needs and challenges of the business. This often requires coaching and support of stakeholders to achieve buy-in and long-term commitment to the project. This is also key to ensuring rapid user adoption when the new technology rolls out.
Continuous Learning: Creating a culture that rewards employees for regularly updating their skills and knowledge needs to be cultivated. It requires thinking through project leadership encompassing onboarding through agile roadmap adjustments. This results in people who can better leverage technology and transform their business with measurable impact.
When adopting emerging technologies, it is crucial to have a thorough understanding of the associated risks, both known and yet-to-be-encountered. Failing to do so can lead to unforeseen challenges that hinder progress. Below are key risks to consider which the right technology consulting firm will not only uncover but also mitigate:
Resource Drain: Pursuing the latest technology can drain resources without guaranteed returns. For instance, research shows that 70% of digital transformation projects fail due to misallocated resources and a lack of clear strategy, as reported by McKinsey.
Integration Challenges: Introducing new technologies can create integration hurdles with existing systems and processes, potentially disrupting operations and erasing benefits.
Security Concerns: Emerging technologies can bring additional security concerns that require careful management. Implementing unproven technologies may expose businesses to vulnerabilities with severe repercussions.
"Sometimes being an early adopter comes with a huge cost. A technology consulting company can help you think through risks very pragmatically.”
- John Trembley, CMO, CorSource
When companies understand these types of risks, they can make informed decisions, ensuring their technology investments deliver the intended value and support their overall business objectives. Engaging emerging technology consultants can be pivotal in navigating these complexities, helping businesses mitigate risks, and achieving successful technology-based outcomes.
Business Needs First: Before adopting any emerging technology, it’s essential to ensure that it aligns with the overall goals and strategic objectives of the business. This involves understanding the specific problems the technology aims to solve and how it fits into the company's long-term vision.
ROI Analysis: Evaluating the potential return on investment (ROI) is crucial to justify the adoption of new technology. This analysis helps understand the financial benefits and efficiency gains the technology will bring compared to its costs and risks.
Pilot Projects: Before fully implementing a new technology, starting with pilot projects can help gauge its effectiveness and impact. This approach can identify potential issues, gather user feedback, and highlight necessary adjustments before a full-scale rollout.
Technology Readiness: It’s important to evaluate the maturity of the technology to avoid adopting products and services still in experimental stages or heavily hyped by vendors without proven real-world success. A proper assessment ensures the technology is reliable and can deliver the expected benefits.
Licensing Considerations: Different technologies have various licensing models, which can significantly impact costs and operational complexities. Understanding these models and their implications helps make informed decisions and avoid hidden or unexpected costs that could arise post-implementation. This is especially important with new technology, where vendors might still be thinking through various licensing models.
By leveraging emerging technology consulting, business and technology leaders can focus and develop a practical approach. This approach will ensure that technology investments are aligned with business goals, provide tangible returns, and support innovation. As a result, companies can reduce risks and maximize the benefits of emerging technologies.
For more insights on leveraging technology consulting, explore CorSource's Source AQ or visit our Technology Consulting Services page.
