Science and technology are growing rapidly each day and are constantly making our lives easier in several aspects of the world. Being versatile as it may be, science has all it takes to make your business bloom. The question that remains is which technology is best for you and it can be a hectic process determining that! But don’t worry, that is exactly what we are going to discuss steps to evaluate new emerging technology.
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How To Evaluate New Emerging Technology?
Evaluating new software or technology before fully investing in it is one way to find new software or technology that will be a great fit for your business. Consider whether the technology is brand new to the market, or if it is already a well-established technology that is out for a while, but is new to your company. Both types have advantages and disadvantages.
If A Technology Is Brand New
Advantages
● They can provide your company with the opportunity to be the first to use new technology.
● Innovative technologies offer a wealth of unrealized potential for your company.
Disadvantages
● When determining how to maximize the tool’s potential, you may have limited resources.
● There could be several glitches in the technology that is yet to be discovered or resolved.
Technology That Has Been Around For A While
Advantages
● With an understanding of what to expect, your company can adopt new technology.
● There will almost certainly be many companies and businesses in your industry that have already embraced the technology. Take what they’ve learned and use user reviews to your advantage.
● Most of the errors or bugs should have been worked out by now If it’s been around for a while.
Disadvantages
● The technology you are investing in may already be outdated.
● You may feel bound by how your industry typically employs this technology, which makes it difficult to think creatively.
Scientific Method For Evaluation
The scientific method can be divided into 5 steps
STEP 1: Asking questions
Asking questions implies questions that can affect your business in any possible way. There are some model questions you should ask yourself before investing in any technology.
Question 1: How well does this technology meet our current needs?
While this question is frequently overlooked in nonprofit technology selection, it is critical because it outlines how well the technology or tool will deliver business value in the short-term and long-term, end-users ’ first impressions of the technology. To answer this question, divide it into three categories:
1. FEATURES: Does the technology include creative features that meet your needs? If not, can the configuration be used to fill the gaps?
List all of the necessities you can currently think of coming to grips with the new technology, grouping related ones and categorizing them into groups such as Automation, Analytics, and so on. Then, for each requirement, label it as ‘must-have’, ‘should-have,’ or ‘could-have,’ according to needs and make sure it’s mentioned specifically enough.
2. USER-FRIENDLINESS: How instinctive and simple are the user experience and user interface of the technology?
End users are best placed to evaluate this criterion even though you may have a strong opinion. It is critical to consider the user-friendliness of each technology. We frequently see user-friendliness evaluated solely from the perspective of end-users performing data collection or capture – while this is important, the technology’s friendliness for data management, data analysis, and data visualization may also be important.
3. SECURITY: Can you trust the technology to keep your data safe?
GDPR compliance in data protection is as much about your practices as it is about the technology you use. Instead, consider security both internally and externally.
In terms of internal security, consider how well you’ll be able to control users’ access and permissions with technology, ensuring that only the right people are able to access. . You’ll also need an audit trail to keep track of who made which changes. In terms of external security, you want to ensure that your system is secure and that only authorized users have access to it. You may require features such as two-factor verification, and the ability to impose password requirements. And, in case your data is stored in the cloud, you’ll want a technology provider with a solid reputation for maintaining its servers well digitally as well as physically.
Question 2: How well will technology meet our future needs?
This question is mostly more crucial than the first, but it is frequently overlooked during the selection process. Again, to answer this question, divide it into three categories:
1. FLEXIBILITY: How easily can the remedy evolve as your company and its needs grow? Consider the next 3 years: is the technology still giving new ideas and new ways of working, or is it struggling to catch pace as the organization evolves and matures?
2. INNOVATION: How much money and effort is being put into improving technology and increasing its adoption? How many new releases of technology are made each year, and how useful are the new releases?
3. ECOSYSTEM: How strong is the connection between the technology’s community of users and partners? How much information is available that will assist you in troubleshooting or improving your technology implementation?
Question 3: How well does the technology fit into your budget?
Depending on how your organization handles spending, it may be tempting to approach this question solely from the standpoint of “how do we minimize ongoing license fees?” Understanding the total cost of ownership of technology is critical to making a sound, strategic decision (TCO). TCO is divided into three parts: setup costs, license costs, and maintenance costs.
1. SETUP COST: How much will it cost us, both directly and indirectly, to develop, configure, and deploy this tool?
To begin, determine the initial investment required to get the tool up and running. A familiar tool that requires little configuration will require far less investment than a tool that requires months of a complex setup. Setup costs include consulting services for tailoring and training, and also internal team time to help design, check, and implement the tool.
2. LICENSE COST: How much will we have to pay each year to license this technology?
3. MAINTENANCE COSTS: What will it take and how much will it cost to maintain this technology?
The final and possibly most important aspect of answering the budget question is the cost of maintaining and aiding the technology after it has been launched.
STEP 2: Analyzing the questions
After having your questions researched thoroughly you can analyze and come up with a solution or a hypothesis.
What do you believe will occur?
You may even discover that you have multiple hypotheses, though it is generally best to work on one at a time to avoid overwhelming your team.
STEP 3: Testing hypothesis
It’s now time to put your experiment and research into action, following the steps you and your team laid out in the hypothesis. These steps will serve as a road map for your team, guiding them through the process to ensure the best results and boosting the confidence of the team when evaluating the new technology.
STEP 4: Conclusion
After your tests have been running for a few weeks, or however long your campaign lasts, you’ll want to collect the, analyze the results, and draw a conclusion.
Is your hypothesis supported by the data? Or does it leave room for interpretation?
You should have accounted for the next steps according to the process map your team created in previous steps if your hypothesis proved to be true or false.
After successful completion of tests, there can be a few scenarios that the result might imply:
Scenario 1: The results show that the technology did increase sales, just as you predicted.
Scenario 2: The results show that, contrary to what you predicted, the technology did not increase sales.
You and your team may be disheartened in Scenario B. Offer words of encouragement before collaborating to figure out what went wrong. Analyze the findings and identify areas that could be improved or approached differently. After that, you may want to repeat the experiment with a different strategy.
In either case, you should communicate your observations to stakeholders, be transparent, and be open to suggestions.
Final Thoughts
These are some of the crucial steps while evaluating new emerging technology. If you are looking at trying a technology for the first time, use this process to have a seamless onboarding and to make the most of it. To read more such intriguing content, read our article on Pricing a SaaS product here!
