What a Difference a Decade Can Make When It Comes to Technology

When it comes to information systems, a decade can feel much more than 10 years.

Over the holidays, I took some time to reflect on the last decade, what was different back in the early 2010s, how systems have improved today and what the future might hold for the next 10.

My thoughts gravitated towards my experience at a business which had disconnected applications, a less than desirable user experience, limited flexible connectivity to applications, and instability in keeping those applications available. Some of these experiences involved:

• Having to use a clunky Lotus Notes mail client on my desktop, which worked fine, but not so well on my mobile device.
• Servers running home-grown applications hosted in a building that experienced periodic power failures. (The business didn’t have a disaster recovery as a service)
• Creating and memorizing 20-30 usernames and passwords for different systems (no password stickies here).
• Limited remote access options using Terminal Server since we didn’t have a virtual desktop infrastructure solution and none of our applications were web-enabled.
• Aggregating data manually because systems didn’t talk to each other.
• Analyzing data meant relying on limited historical reports – there were no dashboards or interactive slicing capabilities for analytics.

Not sure if you’d agree, but that decade was plain annoying, uninspiring, and time-consuming. At this point, if I’m talking about a world that you’re still living in today, make 2021 the time to change that. Information systems don’t have to be that way – and shouldn’t.

Is Your Tech Stack Holding You Back?

By leveraging the latest technology, these archaic systems and experiences can be part of the past and stay there.

Leveraging your data to gain business insights and identify upcoming trends can help your business stay competitive. Optimizing how you and your team work is important to remain relevant in the marketplace, proactively serve your customers, reduce stress and maintain a balanced personal and work life. Ask yourself:

• What’s holding your business back from having a Cloud-optimized system that’s always there when you need it?
• Why am I not leveraging a centralized enterprise resource planning (ERP) application that has a viable business intelligence platform, and provides reliable devices for which you use to access these services?
• Why struggle when you can leverage a team who can support all of the above 24x7x365?

If your first response is cost, trust me, it’s not as expensive as you would think. There are endless opportunities for you to save in the long run. Of course, your mileage could vary, but consider lost opportunities from not having this experience.

Support: Anywhere, Anytime

With growing requirements for a remote workforce experience today, it’s tough to be stuck with systems from the 2010s versus just one or two years ago.

When you worked in an office (in a building, not your home), you probably walked over to the IT guy who was always eager to help. But today when you need tech help, is someone available to take your call?

In the 2020s, technology companies are no longer as siloed as they used to be, focusing on only one or a few specialties. Today, you can find technology firms who are not only managed services providers who “care and feed” the servers in your lives, but who can also manage, develop, and extend functionality in your home-grown applications, ERP system and business intelligence platform.

It’s much easier to work with a provider who can bring everyone together by leveraging subject matter experts with technical expertise and industry knowledge than to be directed to someone else if what you need doesn’t fit the mold.

It’s Time to Transform Your Business and Your Technology

Transforming your business is key to rising above your competition. It’s not just about changing bits and pieces so that your new system doesn’t look like the old one.

Instead, business transformation is about making holistic, life-altering and uplifting changes to your customer experience. If your systems are still in the 2010s, I challenge you to set a goal for Q1 2021 to reach out and pursue your options.

If you’re interested in modernizing your systems and building a lasting partnership to help you achieve your 2021 goals, I’d encourage you to reach out to our Enavate team. Our Cloud Services team can bring you the seamless experiences that I referenced above. Even if you don’t call us, dedicate time to explore what’s possible to transform your business and the lives of your customers.

Cheers to the next 10 years!