Are tech investments really yielding cost savings?

Technology is never 100% return-on-investment. It's different every time, depending on the current environment

The sentiment that 'you should spend more to save more' might be true for certain things like couponing or retail discounts, but it can't be applied to investments in technology. Katie Malone has written on CIO Dive about how CIOs around the world are seeing tech investments. 

This is what she has written:

• The success of IT investments relies on close communication with other stakeholders and tying the investment to the business outcomes. Therefore, IT leaders should focus more on business effectiveness than just cost savings to grasp the full potential of new technologies.

• Businesses utilizing IT investments usually start by looking at quick-return opportunities, which create a self-funding solution. Unfortunately, this means that the savings trickle in over time and require upfront spending.

• If you're interested in streamlining your process, you should start by identifying manual hand-offs in the workflow and automating them.

• The process of investments in technology leading to cost-savings overtime isn't always linear. Many factors could affect savings.

• For example, automation might not take away an integral part of the company but improve efficiency or productivity instead.

• Focus on effectiveness, and you'll see that you're able to invest in better technologies.

What We Think

Although ROI plays an important role in all tech decisions, CIOs must look beyond costs for a few initiatives like security. For example, technologies implemented to enhance the security of an organization might not show immediate cost returns. But, not having them in place might prove to be catastrophic in the long run in case of a cybersecurity attack.

You can read the full article here.