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💼Intro to Business Unit 13 Review

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13.4 Technology Management and Planning

💼Intro to Business
Unit 13 Review

13.4 Technology Management and Planning

Written by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated September 2025
Written by the Fiveable Content Team • Last updated September 2025
💼Intro to Business
Unit & Topic Study Guides

Technology management is crucial for modern businesses. It enables automation, enhances communication, and optimizes processes. By leveraging tech, companies can boost efficiency, improve decision-making, and tackle organizational challenges head-on.

Effective tech management involves regular audits, strategic roadmaps, and smart integration. It's about aligning tech with business goals, fostering adoption, and creating a culture of innovation. This approach helps companies stay competitive and agile in today's fast-paced business world.

Technology Management and Planning

Automation, Communication, Optimization, Challenges

  • Technology enables automation of repetitive tasks like data entry, report generation, and workflow management, reducing manual effort and human error while improving efficiency and productivity
  • Technology facilitates communication and collaboration by enabling real-time information sharing across geographically dispersed teams (virtual meetings, instant messaging) and enhancing decision-making through access to up-to-date data (dashboards, analytics)
  • Technology supports process optimization by identifying bottlenecks and inefficiencies through data analysis (process mining, performance metrics) and enabling continuous improvement and streamlining of workflows (workflow automation, lean principles)
  • Technology helps address organizational challenges by providing scalable solutions for managing growth and complexity (cloud computing, modular architectures) and enabling agility and adaptability in response to changing market conditions (low-code platforms, rapid prototyping)

Audits, Roadmaps, Integration, Governance, Adoption

  • Conduct a technology audit to assess current systems and capabilities, identifying underutilized or redundant technologies (legacy systems, duplicate functionalities) and determining gaps in functionality or performance (outdated software, limited scalability)
  • Develop a technology roadmap aligned with business objectives, prioritizing investments based on strategic impact and ROI (cost-benefit analysis, portfolio management) and planning for incremental improvements and phased implementations (agile methodology, iterative development)
  • Implement integration strategies to connect disparate systems, leveraging APIs and middleware to enable data exchange (web services, enterprise service bus) and ensuring compatibility and interoperability between technologies (standards compliance, vendor partnerships)
  • Establish governance frameworks for technology management, defining policies and procedures for system access, security, and maintenance (access controls, data protection) and assigning roles and responsibilities for technology oversight and decision-making (IT steering committee, change management)
  • Foster a culture of continuous learning and technology adoption by providing training and support for users to maximize system utilization (e-learning, help desk) and encouraging experimentation and innovation to drive ongoing improvements (hackathons, innovation labs)

Repositories, Capture, Sharing, Collaboration, Retention

  • Implement centralized repositories for storing and organizing information, establishing a single source of truth for critical data and documents (knowledge bases, content management systems) and ensuring version control and access permissions to maintain data integrity (document versioning, role-based access)
  • Encourage knowledge capture and documentation by developing processes for recording and sharing best practices and lessons learned (after-action reviews, case studies) and incentivizing employees to contribute to knowledge bases and wikis (gamification, recognition programs)
  • Foster communities of practice and expertise sharing by creating forums or discussion groups for employees to exchange ideas and insights (online communities, brown bag sessions) and facilitating mentoring and coaching programs to transfer knowledge between individuals (peer-to-peer learning, job shadowing)
  • Leverage collaboration tools and platforms by implementing solutions like instant messaging, video conferencing, and project management software (Slack, Zoom, Trello) and enabling real-time collaboration and reducing reliance on email and meetings (co-authoring, virtual whiteboards)
  • Establish knowledge retention and succession planning strategies by documenting critical knowledge held by key employees (knowledge interviews, expertise directories) and developing processes for transferring knowledge to new hires or team members (onboarding programs, cross-training)