In the Wild West that has become businesses “tech stacks,” it is helpful to have a documented list of all the technologies your business is using – and if you can go one step further – have all of those technologies mapped out in a business process flow diagram.
Not what you bargained for…
We’ve all seen how this can play out – you purchase tools with the hopes of “scaling up” the business or “driving efficiencies” or [insert jargon/buzz word here], but it doesn’t pan out. Maybe you were oversold on what a product can do. Maybe you hired an implementation team who botched the job or left it unfinished. Maybe the tool is a great fit for your business but no one on your team knows how to use it and you were left without any training.
Many of my clients have come to me this year very stressed out about how their tech stacks have grown to the point where they are not even sure why they are paying for certain applications, what they do, and where they fit into the picture as a whole. The general sentiment is “we aren’t using all of this” and the goal is to figure out what tools are actually benefiting the business.
So whether it is your website, CRM, sales, marketing, productivity, professional services automation (PSA), data enrichment, security, code repositories, phone systems, payment tools, IT monitoring, HR, sales – now is the time to create an inventory of all the tools for which you are paying and determine if you are actually getting the benefits and the usage you expect.
Tech Stack Inventory & Business Process Flow Diagram
As a result of the demand I’ve been seeing for this kind of work, here is an example of a Tech Stack Inventory spreadsheet along with a basic business process flow diagram. These diagrams are going to be different based on the unique processes in your own business. We can get a tech stack inventory and process map completed for you in under a week.
The goal is not to perfectly map out everything that is happening in the business. The goal is to start with the basics – a tech stack inventory and process map to be able to actually see where these tools fit into business processes as a whole. Once you have everything on paper, you can determine if you actually need all the tools you’re paying for and you will be able to finally visualize how all of these tools interact to solve the needs of your business.
Please reach out if you’d like assistance with completing a tech stack inventory or a business process flow diagram.
Roy Wimer
roy@parquet.dev
