How to choose the right technology for your business

With so many new technologies becoming available all the time, it can be difficult for companies to determine which products and solutions are worth the investment. For business owners faced with such a large number of options, in a market that’s continually growing, choosing and adopting new technology can be quite challenging.

Regardless of your industry or the size of your organization, it’s imperative to have up-to-date equipment that does what you want, when you want it to. Whether you’re choosing a new learning management system or content development platform for your business, you’ll want to make sure it can deliver the results you want and expect. So how should you go about making the right decision for your business needs?

To help you make smart choices for your organization, and make this process less overwhelming, we’ve put together some factors you might like to consider when choosing the right technology for your business.

Finding the best solution for your workplace

Within an organization, learning leaders are entrusted with the task of building employee skill sets, making them perform better, faster and with higher productivity and engagement.

In response to this, vendors present organizations with an overwhelming amount of options for learning tools and technologies to assist them in this challenge. In fact, last year, in 2015 alone, more than $6.54 billion in investments were made in new learning technologies, which is up dramatically from previous records of $2.42 billion in 2014 and $1.64 billion in 2013.

 As a recent online article in Chief Learning Officer stated, “learning leaders are often eager to embrace innovative new technologies, but if these tools don’t drive business results they are probably not worth the investment.” So can all this technology really help your business?

Before committing to a new technology, it’s vital that you consider how this new technology will ultimately have a positive effect on your company’s bottom line. Taking the plunge and investing in a new technology solution can feel like a bit of a risk, but it’s one that can dramatically help your business’ growth and pay off for you and your employees in the long run. 

Choosing technology-enabled learning solutions

Investing in smart and effective technology solutions is vital for today’s businesses and the technology sector launches a seemingly endless array of new tools and platforms in response to that. Smartphones, tablets, cloud connectivity, CRMs, LMS… these days, there’s a wide range of technology-based learning systems to help improve and grow your business, while promising to make learning easier, more engaging and more accessible to users. 

Before making a technology purchase, consider this helpful advice from Dani Johnson, Vice President of learning and development research for Deloitte: “Don’t start with the system, start with where you want to go… you need to know what your goals are before you can choose technology that will get you get there.” 

Ask yourself how this technology can create positive change for your business, before deciding if it’s the best tool for your company’s needs. Adopting new technology should help your organization increase productivity and reach your goals more efficiently – not create more problems that will need to be fixed or slow things down for employees.

Choosing a learning management system

When choosing a learning management system, be real with yourself about whether or not your employees will really use it. There’s no point spending money on technologies that individuals will struggle to use or simply not be interested in.

When weighing up your decision, make sure the technology is:

• Intuitive and easy to use
• Accessible, with searchable content
• Engaging for users
• Flexible and mobile, to adapt to different learning styles
• Relevant and up-to-date for your audience

If you believe it will help make staff more productive and improve their skills, while offering a flexible and engaging approach to learning, it should be a safe bet.

Looking for an award-winning learning management system?

Consider Go1’s training and learning portal, unlocking positive potential in people and organizations through technology.

As a technology-enabled learning solution, the Go1 platform offers an online staff training system, where your employees can easily and conveniently complete customized courses online. Your staff can learn anywhere, anytime, with over 100,000 courses available online in the Go1 marketplace.