After exploring your workflow environment, while pulling together data and key information from stakeholders and end-users alike, the sky opens up with new and unforeseen productivity possibilities.
Ever been stargazing in one of Arkansas’ beautiful National Parks? The experience can be equally awe-inspiring and overwhelming.
Even so, Astronomical discoveries are being made all the time, making more sense out of the endless sea of stars blanketing the night sky. Pulling together volumes of information and data, Astronomers can process information and develop new findings, often without even pulling out a telescope.
Finding a copier or printer is relatively easy. But finding the RIGHT office equipment — device or devices that fundamentally improve your unique business processes and maximizes your return on technology investment — involves a process. And that process shouldn’t be as measureless and incalculable as staring out into the night sky with a naked eye.
Your organization can benefit greatly from a business technology needs assessment. After exploring your workflow environment, while pulling together data and key information from stakeholders and end-users alike, the sky suddenly opens up with new and unforeseen productivity possibilities.
Why do You Need a Needs Assessment?
- Every organization handles, prints, and distributes documents a little differently.
- Every organization has workflow habits (productive or not), and bottlenecks. How might these improve?
- It’s important to know what size and type of documents you print regularly, and at what volumes, as well as identify potentially hidden print costs.
- Knowing your objectives as it pertains to the application of technology carries a lot of weight into a recommended solution.
- Buying “just a printer” is an easy way to ultimately gain little return on your technology investment.
1. Explore the Process: What is a Business Technology Needs Assessment, Really?
It’s a necessary first step.
Every organization deals with documents a little differently. This initial undertaking from a potential technology partner is an important first step to better understanding your business objectives, your industry, and the obstacles that are preventing you from achieving stated goals.
It’s a mindset.
All successful assessments should begin with the word RELEVANT – an emphatic acknowledgment that “it’s about a holistic approach to business needs discovery supported by useful, expert consultation – not about a quick quote.”
It’s a snapshot of current AND future needs.
Technology needs are fluid. The assessment process, through a series of targeted questions and interviews, details service performance, business objectives, technology utilization, etc., but also these key elements moving forward.
2. Discover the Strategy: What Makes a Relevant Business Technology Needs Assessment Successful?
A collaborative approach.
Solving problems and developing processes involve discussions and planning on both sides of the table. Without regular collaboration, it’s difficult to truly uncover real needs and challenges.
More often than not, solutions don’t fit in a box. Customers need a custom blend of products and services tailored specifically to their needs. A true partnership involves stepping across departmental aisles, across the organization, to develop cost-effective solutions.
A holistic approach.
In the business technology profession, a holistic approach to understanding a client’s workflow means assessing documents from their origin to their final destination: documents come from printers, printers connect to networks, and networks connect users.
Additionally, your “assessor” should holistically identify cost paint points on all levels of the organization, because they are different: A CFO may be less concerned with the soft costs related to fleet management than an IT manager does, while an end-user may simply cringe at walking across an office to pick up his or her printout.
A trusted approach.
Do you trust this potential vendor? People (end-users, executives alike) will not want to grow if they do not trust the person that is asking for potential changes to their day-to-day operations.
A Datamax Difference Maker: What Our Technology Specialists Can Do for You.
Prior to going deep into a technology initiative, we believe selecting the right partner is step one. Identifying and resolving technology pain is crucial — but Difference Makers deliver more. They reveal technology-driven solutions that bolster business productivity and ensure a solid return on technology investment.
That all begins with Datamax Discovery.™ We're ready to listen. We're prepared to develop thoughtful, relevant solutions. We'll be accountable for results. Are you ready to go deep, to maximize productivity and improve your total cost of technology ownership? Let's get started!
