TM
"Do Good.
Make a Difference.
Fulfill a Mission."
"Do Good.
Make a Difference.
Fulfill a Mission."
What is Technology Assessments?
A technology assessment provides you with a snapshot of the computing environment in your organization. It also gives you a high-level perspective on your staff skills, budget, vendor relationships, procedures and policies. A technology inventory, on the other hand, is a more specific, low-level description of what you own and where it’s located. Your inventory might include details about when and where the technology was purchased, who provides tech support, warranty information and the number of licenses you own. The assessment and the inventory are often done at the same time and often included in the same report.
Why Do a Technology Assessment and Technology Inventory?
• An assessment lets you avoid duplicated effort. Perhaps someone in your IT department has been researching and testing client management software. Maybe someone wrote a computer use policy last year and then forgot to tell you about it.
• A good assessment lets you know if any critical procedures or policies are missing. For instance, what steps will you take if you find out that one of your servers has been hacked? Do you have a regular backup routine in place? Do you have a
disaster recovery plan?
• A good assessment lets you know where to spend your technology training dollars. Are staff lacking in email skills?
Word processing skills? Do they want to know more about Web 2.0 and cutting-edge technology? Also, what sorts of hard
IT skills do you have on staff?
How Amazing Traditions Can Help
While it is tempting to jump to the “answer” and get moving, you need to make sure you pursue the right technology to solve the right problems, the rightway. A technology assessment and planning process will ensure that you define your requirements, assess the ability of current technology to meet your requirements, develop a roadmap to fill the gaps and implement in a way that drives business value.
A formal assessment and planning process pursues the appropriate technology to fill your requirement gaps without buying more (or less!) than you need. It secures solutions that fit into your overall technology environment while delivering business value.
