How Does Technology Roadmap Help Companies to Digitally Transform

About just 33% of the companies worldwide are effectively meeting the challenges that arise due to digital disruption. Even those companies that make strategic bets do so only to the tune of 10% of their total market capitalisation. Now, the question is- should your company also make a strategic bet. If so, then up to what extent?

The modern era is all about digital transformation. Having a technology roadmap makes the whole process of digital transformation smoother. Before we proceed further, let’s first understand what exactly is a technology roadmap. A technology roadmap is a guide or roadmap which outlines a company’s technological initiatives, strategies and products and services.

A technology roadmap will detail the technology that the company is making use of, what is required to be implemented in the coming days, ways to mitigate the associated risks and how to upgrade to the latest technology from the existing ones. The company’s business strategy and goals are vital components to come up with a technology roadmap. This document will help companies to envision new approaches and ensure there is a sync between the current and future business actions.

Process of developing a technology roadmap

To create a technology roadmap, it is essential to include all stakeholders from the various departments that are driving the business forward. These stakeholders will have to factor in the company’s strategy, business needs of all wings, technology needs, and the end goals to arrive at a technology roadmap. This document should ensure that there is transparency and stability when the digital transformation is taking place in the organisation.

The following are the phases that have to be considered while coming up with a technology roadmap:

● Primary phase: This is the first phase of developing a technology roadmap. This phase is crucial to establish sponsorship and leadership for the technology roadmap. In this phase, the stakeholders will have to decide as to what they want to cover in the final roadmap and ascertain what will eventually be met by the final technology roadmap. The primary phase of a technology roadmap calls for decision-makers to discover and establish the pain areas that are to be solved through digital transformation.

● Developmental phase: This is the second phase of creating technology roadmap. During this phase, the company will go onto creating the physical roadmap document. During this phase, it’s essential to ascertain the products that will be under the focus, crucial systems that are going to be interacting with the products, highlight every essential technology area, and targets and drivers to insist on the probable alternatives.

● Follow-up activity phase: This is the final phase of creating a technology roadmap. In this phase, the completed roadmap is assessed to check if there are improvements and iterations required. Once the technology roadmap is approved, it is then used to create a strategy to bring about an evolution in business technology.

Template for technology roadmap

The designing of a template to create a technology roadmap ultimately comes down to individual preferences. However, most will go on to make use of colour coding, icons, flow charts and other visual tools. An ideal technology roadmap must consist of very detailed timelines so that all other departments and business wings are aware of the timelines by when the services will be ready to avail.

Even though a technology roadmap has to be detailed, it still needs to be flexible in order to facilitate changes that may come in the future. The technologies that the company use may change, the goals might vary, or the plans that the company had may have to be entirely dropped. Hence, technology roadmap will have to plan in such a way that it is built for the future and is able to provide flexibility to accommodate uncertainties.

At the end of it all, technology roadmap should be easily accessible and understandable for all audience groups. The technology roadmap should be able to make all employees adapt to the strategies drawn, update or upgrade products that the company is going to launch and make use of in the future.

Advantages of a technology roadmap

Having a technology roadmap helps companies to clearly understand both current and future needs. It makes it simpler to discover technological requirements. A technology roadmap will provide companies with a framework to survive at times of uncertainty and facilitate them to adapt to the changes in technology swiftly.

Since a technology roadmap will cover detailed information about the past and current systems of information technology, they can be utilised as a tool for gauging the success of technology initiatives and new products. Furthermore, a technology roadmap will swiftly align the relevant teams to the ever-changing technology as it gives a detailed insight into the new technology initiatives.