Return on Tech Investment Focus of New Commentary (Tech Factor by Steven Hankins)

 

While working with businesses over the past years I’ve found that business owners and managers receive a lot of well intended, but bad, advice regarding technology.

Many times they feel pressured by their employees to buy technology to “stay current,” “save time,” “make our work easier,” or “keep up with the competition.”

Vendors regularly knock on the door claiming to have exactly what is needed to run the business more efficiently. Terms such as “broadband,” “bandwidth,” “RAID storage,” and “domain security” are tossed about as if greatly important. It can be very frustrating.

Many times the response to the frustration is to delegate technology oversight to anyone around the business that seems to have some understanding about it. This may be the owner’s brother-in-law, someone in the organization with a solid business role that had the misfortune of admitting they knew a bit about technology, or, my favorite, “Joe, the computer guy down the street.”

In taking this approach, most business owners are trying to keep their technology related spending to a minimum while keeping their workers satisfied. In many ways business owners and managers fit Bill Cosby’s description of fathers: “…not interested in justice, just quiet.”

Unfortunately, this approach seldom has the desired result. I have found that most small or medium size businesses spend more on some aspect of technology than needed. I have also found that businesses tend to own technology that they don’t understand and are not using.

Therein lies the purpose of this column. I want to help broaden the understanding of small and medium size business owner’s regarding technology investment decisions and management practices.

Don’t worry. You are not going to have to speak “geek” to understand this column. There will not be passages written in techno-babble. An acronym conversion chart will not be required. Our discussions will be as close to plain English as someone from Oil Trough, Ark., can make them.

You will find I do have a point of view. I believe technology spending should be viewed as an investment. As with any investment, you should expect a return. I do not believe in technology just for technology’s sake. Without a business purpose, technology is just an expensive toy that often distracts people from getting their work done.

I come at this from a unique perspective. I grew up in an entrepreneurial family with several active businesses.

Other than the time I spent in school, I’ve been going to work since I was 12. In college I was an accounting major working in computer labs.

I used the original VisiCalc on the first generation Apple II, still have my original diskette for Lotus 123, once used Windows 1.0, and once could program (not necessarily well) in a variety of now obsolete languages.

I am a CPA (inactive), was a cost accountant in the ’80s, and led Tyson’s information systems area in the ’90s to a ranking in ComputerWorld’s “Top 100 Users of Information Technology” and was featured on the cover of CIO magazine. Following that, I spent six years as chief financial officer of Tyson Foods.

I was one of the executives sought out and interviewed by Microsoft’s Robert McDowell for his book “In Search of Business Value: Ensuring a Return on Your Technology Investment” and did online educational work for Microsoft internal staff related to the book.

My plan is to cover the areas of technology that can make the most difference to the bottom line of your businesses. I’ll fill you in about “cloud computing” to the extent it matters to you. You’ll learn what “broadband” really means to your business. I will write about how Microsoft continues to get people to spend money on things they already own. I’ll try to educate on Google’s plot to destroy Microsoft and why this actually does matter to you. I’ll even help readers understand why the iPhone is the iceberg tip of a huge revolution.

I look forward to hearing from you whether or not you agree with my ideas and opinions. Send me topics you would like to see covered. Tell me when you think I’ve got it all right, but just as importantly, when I’ve got it all wrong.

(Steven Hankins is CEO and co-founder of Accio.US of Springdale, an outsource technology company for small- to medium-sized businesses. He may be reached at [email protected].)