What is the main prerequisite for any technology investment?

1- Determine needs

2- Prepare feasibility study

3- Is the new technology serve the vision/startgey of the organization

4- Can we fund it

5- Can we apply it ourself or through outsource?

6- What is the value added to our customer we will get?

Efficiency. The initial cost of the purchase is expensive. However having transformed a department into more efficient operation will heal profits. With work flow increasing it will be the logical thing to do, to meet the requirements of a effectively managing the companies efficiencies.

there are many as per the needs but main I think is: Substainaliblity 

From my viewpoint, the main considerations (prerequisites) for any technology investment are

 

1. Amount of investment requires .. best expressed by the TCO (total cost of ownership) model
2. Return on Investment (ROI) over the lifetime of the investment  and whether this justifies the investment on commercial basis or not
3. Are there any mandatory reasons for this investment due to government laws, regulators mandates, technology onsolecence ... etc ?
4. Feasibility of the technology to be implemented and its anticipated value/benefits
5. Ensuring there are no show-stoppers that will invent this decision

That's what I can think of at this moment

I hope this answers your question

Agree with  Mr . Mohamed thiab 

Customer perception

Market needs

Resource management

Experience in technologies

Technical support

Any technology investments must deliver value to the business. To define this value and corresponding costs, businesses need to define a business case for their technology investments and build a framework for measuring ROI.

The need for

Science

Do we need it? Can we afford it? Will it move us forward?

In the pantheon of precious resources, time is at the top of the heap. You can’t create it, you can’t store it and you can’t delay it. It’s perfectly perishable.

So why is it that when many companies invest in technology they focus on the price tag and ignore the impact on the overall use of time? And why aren’t more purveyors of technology thinking along these lines?

These are the central questions of this new column, called The Objective. It is aimed at creators and users of technology (just about everyone at this point): the former, to help them come up with the next generation of not just cool but truly useful gadgets and systems; the latter, to help them get the most out of their precious technology budgets.

For all the progress we’ve made in the last30 years, we are still a long way from getting the most out of what we have wrought. As just one example, at dinner the other night one of my guests joked about his firm’s collective gasp when management announced the rollout of a new expense-reporting system. The justification for the new technology: real savings to the organization. Translation: The finance department would get kudos for saving a few bucks while employees would end up torching more time submitting their reports. In the grand scheme of technology, this is some pretty basic stuff.

Time isn’t just about minutes and seconds, though; it’s about the value of those minutes and seconds. We all lead busy lives and are always looking for ways to save time so that we can do the things we are passionate about. How many of us would be willing to put in a few extra hours at night on a project if it allowed us to make it to our kid’s school play, volunteer for a worthy cause or simply sit quietly with a good book?

There’s also a perceived value of saved time. Say you purchase a new device and set aside two hours on Saturday to set it up. You gear up mentally for the challenge. When Saturday comes, the total setup time takes15 minutes. It’s as if you created, out of thin air, an extra hour and45 minutes. Think you’re pretty happy with that purchase?

Here are three time-related benefits that manufacturers and customers should consider when mulling investments in new technology:

Progress–anytime, anywhere. Is your company process-driven (as opposed to running on the soup-to-nuts work of individual heroes slaving in silos)? Integrate process-approval steps into crucial systems, such as email. In my case, I can approve all expenses and purchase-order requests via e-mail, which means I can do it from my mobile phone–and the big wheel can keep right on spinning.

A sense of security. Many organizations have become paranoid about security breaches. Knee-jerk response: Install expensive tools that make it almost impossible for productive work to happen when someone is outside of the office. A better solution: an easy–and secure–access to your company’s Intranet. This allows everyone to put in a few extra hours on the road or at home.

The need for speed. Busy-work is not value-added work. That means automating what you can, and updating old systems that can’t keep up–even though they “still work.” I can hear you now: “You sell technology, of course you would say this!” Fair enough, but let me ask: Do you really know the cost of technology relative to your other costs? If the answer is “No,” you have plenty of company.

Here’s an order-of-magnitude comparison of how technology stacks up against other expenses in terms of total costs to an organization:

–Technology: $0.20/hour (high-end workstation)

–Office Space: $2/hour

–Knowledge Worker: $60/hour

Puts things in perspective, doesn’t it?

In future columns, we’ll delve deeper into how you can get the most out of technology: the stuff you already have, what you are thinking about buying, and what you should be thinking about buying given where technology is going (and, believe me, things are changing fast).

In a practical way I believe that, from my experience, any IT investment must:

1. Be aligned with corporate strategy

2. Add vallue to the company through it's bennefits

 

If those2 conditions are not met, then the investment may not be suitable for your organization