It is not uncommon for businesses to jump on the technology bandwagon and implement something new because it’s the latest tech, “everyone is doing it” and the fear of not doing implementing it makes you look like you’re not keeping up with the times.

A great example (but not limited to this) are apps. iOS, Android etc. Should you build an app for your business or not?

Here are a few things you should consider when you find yourself at these cross roads.

If you implement this technology, will it:

1. Be something your customers will use? In other words, within your customers or your target market, is this technology well adopted?
2. Add convenience for your customers?
   Encourage more, better or different ways for customers to consume your product?
3. Help you better serve your customers?
4. Will it make your job of serving customers easier or better?
5. Can you afford the upkeep? Not all tech requires long term maintenance but if you’re building things like apps, these are not things you can build once and forget. Because the application runs on new, ever updated operating systems, you may run into issues in the future where your app may not run anymore or may cause problems for the user. So you will need to consider the cost of upkeep and daily support. No matter how well designed or stable a system is, you will get support requests that will take away some of your support team’s focus.

If your answer is all yes then what are you waiting for? It’s a good time to implement that now.

If you answered no to one of them – in particular the first, then you may have to re-think this or if possible step in gently, in stages.

Photo by Natalia Buckley