September 28, 2007

Conducting A Technology Assessment

An annual technology assessment is one of the best things you can do for your business. You'll find that from year to year several things happen in your business:

Your business grows and old technology does not work as well as it once did

New technology is available that could help your business grow

Your business is doing new things and needs technology to help it along

A technology assessment gives your business an "inventory" of what it has and what it needs to get where it wants to go.

The Law Technology Today (LTT) blog gives one of the BEST overviews of a technology assessment that I've seen.

Software

Consider the software and the licenses of the software.

LTT writes The whole purpose of gathering software information is to determine what your firm currently uses. You'll probably find there are several versions of the same product. For example, you may have several versions of Microsoft Word or several versions of Corel WordPerfect. That may be OK - you don't need to worry about that right now. After all, this is an assessment of the software.

Servers are an important part of your company as well. Make sure you include the date, writes LTT. I input my Dell computers in Dell's inventory tool on their web site to easily keep track of warranty and support options for each Dell computer.

Computers and servers are of course a vital part of your technology assessment. Make sure you get rid of old technology. LTT writes Slow downs and lock ups are probably experienced more by the users having the older desktop workstations. These will become apparent in the desktop assessment.

Training is such an important part of your company's growth. Having great technology is no good if no one can use it and use it effectively. LTT writes By increasing their training resources and providing incentives to get attorneys to training, law firms can provide the necessary training to become more efficient and more productive.

I highly encourage you to read this entire article.

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