We all have our pain points. And in the tech industry, there is plenty to irk us.
Of course, we need technology. We’re reliant on it. We can’t imagine how we would ever be able to, well, exist without it. And that’s why we need to step it up and work to resolve those tech pain points this year.
It’s still early in 2024. We have time to give our technology a boost. But we shouldn’t dawdle. The longer you sit on revitalizing and improving your tech systems and programs, the more annoyances—or worse—they will cause. That’s why it’s important to crack down on these seven tech pain points.
1. Cybersecurity Flaws
More than 1,800 data breaches occurred in 2022, according to the 2022 Data Breach Report from the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC). While the number is slightly lower than the record 1,862 breaches that happened in 2021, it is by no means ideal—and these are only the ones that were publicly reported.
Data security and other cybersecurity matters are huge concerns for any organization in the digital world. Roughly two-thirds of organizations report that increases in ransomware and malware are significant concerns, according to a 2022 Dell survey. And it’s true—this is an enormous problem. For smaller and mid-sized organizations in particular, the ramifications of a successful attack can be especially concerning. In extreme cases, they could destroy the very foundation of the company.
Unfortunately, cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated and launching high-scale attacks that make businesses and individuals across industries vulnerable. There’s no quick fix for this. Organizations need to create and deploy a robust, multifaceted cybersecurity strategy to protect themselves, their employees, and their consumers.
That involves working with trusted experts in the cybersecurity field. You will need to work with specialists, such as white-hat (or ethical hackers) and others, as well as rigorously test for vulnerabilities to guard against attacks. This isn’t one and done—it is something that you will constantly need to assess and reassess because the world of cybercrime is constantly evolving. You will also need to evaluate your strategies constantly.
2. Lack of Tech Talent
The layoffs in Big Tech and beyond present a somewhat bleak picture of the tech talent landscape. But that doesn’t mean that software engineers and other tech professionals aren’t still in high demand.
Many businesses are currently struggling with a lack of tech talent on their teams. The skills of your in-house professionals may not be what you need, or you simply don’t have the volume of professionals you would like to have. Perhaps key specializations are missing from your team. At the end of the day, tech talent is in short supply.
But at the same time, it’s still available to you. You just need to think creatively about how to best tap into it to bring your business to the next level.
It may not necessarily be a full-time, in-house staff of tech professionals who are the answer to your woes. Instead, consider utilizing external resources. Thanks to remote work, you now have access to a global pool of talent—you don’t need to be confined to your immediate vicinity any longer.
One solution is outsourcing your technological needs to an external provider. By engaging an outside software team to help you build up or improve your technology stacks, you can take advantage of a number of benefits. For one, these providers tend to be lower-cost, especially if you look to a nearshore team outside of your home country. They also tend to have a high degree of expertise, although you should certainly do your research to find the best matched company for you.
Many of these providers also have the key specializations you may be missing in-house or even in your immediate area. If you’re looking for an expert in a particular technology or tool, for example, chances are, you can find the qualifications and expertise in an outsourcing company.
In addition to outsourcing, think about how you can upskill your current team. You may have talented tech professionals, but they could just be missing key skills. Is there education or training you can provide or give your professionals access to? This will help you ensure that you have a strong workforce with the right qualifications.
3. Boilerplate Experience
One complaint businesses continue to grapple with is that they are not providing a personalized experience to their consumers. No matter what product or services you’re providing, you must tailor it to the unique needs of your customers. This will help you stand out from the competition and demonstrate your worth as a business. And yet too often, businesses offer a boilerplate experience to users.
Essentially, no matter what the service or product you’re providing, you must make it unique. No consumer wants to be treated like a number. Unfortunately, tech is—in some ways—interfering with that through the rise of automation and self-service portals or options. But tech can also help us avoid boilerplate experiences and create a strong customer experience (CX) and user experience (UX).
How do you create a more personal—personalized—customer journey? That starts with collecting as much information as possible about your current or prospective customers. Big data makes this abundantly possible. Thanks to the rise of digital technologies, businesses have access to more information than ever before. Data comes from an abundance of resources, such as:
- Social media
- Financial/banking transactions
- Cloud applications
- Customer/user/client/patient databases and records
- Internet of Things (IoT) applications and devices
- Software as a service (SaaS) applications and programs
These are only a few of the many sources of big data that companies can tap into for personalizing the consumer experience.
Of course, there are several considerations you will need to keep in mind when you’re collecting and using data. For one, you must be cognizant of the regulations governing data security and protection in any area or location in which you are operating or doing business. If you do any type of work in the EU, for example, you will need to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It is important to research any and every possible law, protection, rule, and regulation governing data usage so that you remain compliant.
Moreover, making sense of data is no easy feat. That’s why so many businesses are bringing specialists—data scientists, analysts, and engineers—on board. They can not only devise ways to better collect and manage data but also clean and evaluate your data to derive insights and make recommendations about how to best act on it.
There are other ways to improve the consumer journey and make it more unique to the individual, but it always comes down to having access to information about the person or target group of users. Market research involves a number of vehicles, such as surveys and focus groups, which are used to derive insights about what consumers really want. They are ways of giving you access to more data. Ultimately, information is key to personalizing UX.
4. Unreliable or Fickle Software and Websites
Perhaps you have a solid software infrastructure and a strong digital presence. But what if those things are in place, but they’re not providing the consistent experience your consumers or team members need?
For example, your in-house systems might fail with more frequency than you would like, and your team members are dealing with downtime that interrupts their workflows and leads to a loss in productivity. Perhaps your website has outages, which, in turn, affect your sales and bottom line, because when your customers attempt to access your site and can’t, they go to your competitor.
Or perhaps the website and software you put forth aren’t as easy to navigate or intuitive to use as you—and your users—would like. This, too, means your tools and technologies aren’t reliable or as high quality as you need them to be.
There are several steps you need to take to guarantee both reliability and consistency. First, you must put all your technologies—software, apps, websites, systems, and everything else—through rigorous quality assurance (QA) testing. This is a multi-stage process conducted by QA engineers and specialists who have the skills to perform both manual and automated evaluations to assess a number of aspects of different products and services, including:
- Performance
- Functionality
- Security
- Load capacity
- User experience
- Usability
QA testing also seeks to eliminate as many bugs and defects as possible.
But testing needs to continue throughout the product life cycle, whether you’re using it in-house or deploying it to the public. This is called continuous improvement (CI) and involves ensuring that you are constantly assessing and reassessing your technologies. This must be a priority for any business.
5. Legacy Technology
Too often, businesses are relying on outdated systems and technologies that they may have been using for years and years. This is called legacy technology, and unfortunately, it can prove problematic to your processes.
Like it or not, legacy systems often need to be overhauled or replaced altogether. Sometimes, updates simply run out—the technology is just showing its age. At the same time, business leaders can be reluctant to spend their budgets on what they regard as overly pricey new models, systems, and tools. It is, of course, reasonable to be wary. The shiny new toy isn’t always the best option, and the costs can add up.
But in many cases, it’s actually more cost-effective to invest in up-to-date models than to rely on your legacy systems. That’s because legacy technology is too often glitchy and unreliable and can routinely break down, costing you in terms of repairs and a loss in productivity. These are enormous barriers to your profitability and overall success. At the end of the day, it’s not the best or most efficient approach.
It’s about the long term, not just the short term. Perhaps when you’re looking toward next week, or even next month, focusing on your legacy technology seems like the better option. But when you think about next year and five years from now, considering newer, more up-to-date technologies is generally more cost-effective and will lead you to thrive.
That’s not to say every single older system or technology should be immediately replaced by a newer, more cutting-edge version. In some cases, an older tool will serve you well for a number of years. It is important to have IT experts or consultants in place who can advise you on which systems are outdated and may be costing you in terms of money and productivity.
6. Technical Debt
Technical debt occurs when developers prioritize a fast turnaround or delivery of software over having strong, precise code. It is a difficult balance because reaching the market quickly is critical in this day and age, but reliable—even perfect—code is important, too. Technical debt leads to errors and bugs, absent documentation, incompatible systems and programs, rising costs, issues with productivity, and problems layered on top of problems, thereby interfering with a sound infrastructure and successful delivery of products.
Technical debt isn’t always a terrible thing—sometimes it’s necessary to incur it when time is of the essence. But it can accumulate all too quickly and lead to huge problems, too, and become burdensome for organizations.
Of course, the best way to combat technical debt is to prevent it from accumulating in the first place. However, in many cases, that’s simply not realistic.
That said, you should aim to curb it as much as possible before it gets out of control. As with some other pain points on this list, rigorous QA testing is certainly one way to keep this in check. Quality code refactoring, including established plans and practices for this, is also an important part of reducing technical debt.
Another step is measuring technical debt to assess how much has accumulated and how it impacts your overall performance and flow as an organization, as well as the products you deliver. Additionally, establish key metrics to evaluate the debt and its effects.
Ultimately, establishing a culture of continuous improvement is essential for curbing technical debt in the future. That doesn’t mean no technical debt will ever occur, but by having a CI-focused approach, you will be able to limit it and reduce its impact on your business as much as possible.
7. Communication Silos
Is communication a tech-related issue? It certainly can be. While technology has facilitated greater access to communication, it doesn’t necessarily mean more fluid communication. In fact, one of the biggest problems is that tech tools can create communication silos within and outside an organization.
Too often, something is lost in translation when it comes to digital communication, and the meaning isn’t as clear as it could be. Or, certain teams or individuals are left out of the loop. In a world where remote work dominates the scene, these silos are even more present. This can be problematic for organizations because workflows depend on strong communication and people being kept up-to-date and well-informed.
In order to make strong decisions and keep everything running smoothly, it is important to have a solid communication plan. While providing multiple channels of communication—such as Slack, Zoom, email, and so on—is usually necessary, you will need to make sure that your team members are clear on when and how to use each tool and the purpose they each have.
You don’t want there to be confusion because someone didn’t know that they were supposed to be logging their progress on a project management board rather than sending updates over Slack. These specifications should be part of the onboarding process to reduce confusion.
Moreover, there should be point people for various concerns or issues. In other words, it’s not entirely about the tech. All communication needs that human touch as well.
At the end of the day, tech is there to solve problems. And yet too often, it creates new ones. By addressing these universal tech pain points this year, you will make your team members more confident, your workflows stronger, and your entire organization more successful overall.
