Are you being swept along by the technology utilisation gap?

Do More With Less: Harnessing Your Existing Tech Stack

In today's economic climate, the push to reduce costs whilst improving outcomes has never been stronger. After decades advising businesses on technology transformation, I've observed something important. According to a 2023 Forrester Research study, organisations typically use just 40% of their enterprise software capabilities.

This isn't about buying new systems. It's about properly using what you already have.

The Technology Utilisation Gap

The challenge isn't a lack of technology. It's a disconnect between:

1. What your systems can do

2. How your people use them

3. What your business actually needs

This gap wastes money. It reduces productivity. It creates frustration. Yet it often stays hidden until someone takes a structured look.

The Hidden Cost of Under-utilisation

Think about your current technology spend. Now imagine 60% of that investment sitting idle. That's the reality for many businesses.

The costs appear in surprising ways:

• Licensing fees for unused features

• Staff working around system limitations they don't know how to solve

• Manual processes that could be automated

• Duplicate systems solving the same problem

• Training costs on new systems when existing ones could do the job

These hidden costs often exceed the visible technology budget.

The People Factor

Technology doesn't exist in isolation. It's used by people.

The primary barrier to technology utilisation isn't technical. It's human. Staff develop workarounds because they:

• Don't know what the system can do

• Haven't been trained properly

• Find the interface confusing

• Have developed habitual ways of working

• Haven't been asked for input on how to improve

Addressing these human factors often delivers more value than any new system could.

Our Assessment Approach

At Fractional Imagineering, we rate your organisation's technology utilisation on a scale of A-G (like an Energy Performance Certificate) across three areas:

• Systems: Are your existing tools set up optimally?

• People: Does your team have the skills to use what you've already bought?

• Process: Do your workflows match your technology capabilities?

The assessment involves:

1. Discovery: Interviews with key stakeholders and system users

2. System analysis: Technical review of current configurations

3. Usage patterns: Data analysis of how systems are actually used

4. Gap identification: Comparison of potential vs actual capabilities

5. Opportunity mapping: Prioritised list of high-value improvements

The outcome is a practical roadmap for maximising your existing technology investment. This typically takes up to 5 days per location.

The Integration Opportunity

Modern business typically involves multiple systems. The interfaces between these systems often represent the greatest opportunity for improvement.

Common integration gaps include:

• Data being manually transferred between systems

• Duplicate data entry requirements

• Inconsistent information across platforms

• Inability to get a complete view of operations

• Workflow breaks requiring human intervention

Addressing these gaps can dramatically improve efficiency without purchasing new technology.

The AI Enhancement Path

Your existing systems likely contain valuable data that could fuel AI enhancements.

The most accessible opportunities include:

• Automating routine decision processes

• Identifying patterns in operational data

• Predictive maintenance for equipment

• Customer behaviour insights

• Resource optimisation

These enhancements often require minimal investment beyond your existing technology stack.

The Quick Wins

Our assessments consistently identify three types of opportunities:

1. Unused capabilities: Features you're already paying for but not using

2. Skills gaps: Simple training that would dramatically improve utilisation

3. Integration opportunities: Ways to connect existing systems that would eliminate duplicate work

These findings typically deliver substantial returns on the assessment investment within weeks and months.

The Assessment Value

Our technology utilisation assessment provides:

• A practical rating of your current technology utilisation

• Identification of specific improvement opportunities

• Prioritised recommendations based on value and effort

• Skills gap analysis for your team

• Integration roadmap for your systems

• Future-readiness evaluation

This intelligence allows targeted investment in improvements that deliver maximum value.

The Next Step

If you're looking to reduce costs without compromising capabilities, start by understanding what you already have.

Our technology utilisation assessment offers a practical way to identify these opportunities. It pays for itself through the improvements identified.

Let's chat about how this approach might benefit your organisation.