By admin 
Are you looking for a new workplace technology to overtake redundant tasks? Or one that would make your employees more productive? Or, do you want a tool or software to increase your business’s profitability and efficiency?
In any case, I believe it’s quite difficult for business owners like myself, to choose a new workplace technology. With thousands of high-quality tools and software available, choosing the best one that suits your business needs can beconfusing.
Having said that, this process becomes a lot easier when you ask the right set of questions.
In this article, I’m going to explain those questions, so that you know what to ask the next time you choose a new workplace technology.
Have You Identified the Issue?
I believe it’s one of the most basic, yet a fundamental question to ask when choosing a workplace technology. As a business owner, you should have clarity about the problem you want to address.
Here, I suggest you take a step back and pinpoint the exact issue you want to address.
Once you have clarity about the problem, research the available tools to resolve it. Having said that, you may find hundreds of options, but don’t settle on the first tool you try without testing out other available options.
Most tools offer a free trial period, so I suggest you avail it in order to understand which of them efficiently addresses your business problems.
Are There Any Prerequisites for Setting up the New Tool?
Workplace software often has prerequisites that need to be fulfilled first. For instance, a data analysis tool may require you to upload data sets on a cloud-based server first to perform any actions on it.
Similarly, some workplace tools may only work on advanced systems, or require a reliable and high-speed internet connection to run seamlessly. Talking about internet, most work tools are bandwidth-heavy and business owners should always keep this in mind.
Speaking from experience, I once set up a CRM tool but overlooked my internet connection.
As a result, the same CRM tool that was supposed to streamline customer-related operations made customer management a difficult job. And, not to mention other work tools that were also affected by my connection’s limited bandwidth.
Anyway, I identified the issue and subscribed to an affordable and high-speed Hawaiian Telcom internet. Since then, I’ve added a few more tools, but never experienced any lag in my work tools, and they all run smoothly.
Do Your Employees Want It?
Any workplace technology you choose is eventually used by your employees, right? So, don’t you think it makes more sense to ask them if they need the new workplace tool?
I believe it’s significantly important that you and your employees are on the same page about adding new workplace tools. Frankly speaking, listening to my employees’ suggestions has always helped me. Keeping them in the loop can help you get first-hand insights, and sometimes, they may even suggest better alternatives which might help save resources.
If your employees agree to your idea of adding a new technology, determine how much time it’d be required to train them. Here, you can conduct workshops or training sessions to familiarize your workforce with the new technology.
How Much Does a New Workplace Technology Really Cost?
Some business owners might not understand this, but the real cost of new workplace technology isn’t just the amount or the subscription charges you pay for using it. Yes, these are major costs but don’t forget the cost of system upgrades or other prerequisites you need to fulfill in order to integrate new tools into your current business ecosystem.
Then, conducting workshops or sessions to train your workforce may also be costly. So, I believe all these expenses collectively reflect how much a new workforce technology is going to cost you.
Having said that, it’s possible that a new tool may cost more than your defined budget. If that is the case, I’d advise you to keep searching for alternatives that fall within your budget. There are tons of work tools out there, and with a little research, you can find one that fits yourbudget and business needs.
To conclude, I believe these questions should help you choose the best workplace software for your business.
And before winding up, I suggest you keep the technology’s customer support in mind. If a new workplace technology malfunctions, reliable customer support would be your primary point of contact to resolve any queries.
Also, ensure that the tool you choose is backed with strong security encryptions and protocols. Simply because it’d be handling sensitive data, and as a business owner, you wouldn’t want to risk it.