4 Steps to Build an Agile Infrastructure

Evaluate business goals and progress. The past, present, and future are all closely related—whether thinking personally or professionally. As a channel partner, it’s important to help clients, manufacturers, vendors or producers look at past investments, such as tech and collaborative tools. How well did they work? How well do they work together? Did many of your past investments fall short in terms of promise and ROI? When looking at future investments, helping your business partners understand how to maximize usage to reach their business goals is key. If tech isn’t working for them, is it your investment that’s falling short or are your goals not capable of evolving as needed? Sometimes the right perspective and analytics can unearth new opportunities for you both.

Look for synergies. From open offices to open door policies, siloes are on the way out in the business world. When it comes to using technology, this same philosophy should be shared. Can one tech investment positively impact a partner’s business in more than one area? Can improved processes ensure adaptation of the technology to therefore improve outcomes and further maximize investments already made? The key component to accomplishing this is communication and innovative thinking. Encouraging leaders to share best practices between organizations and new tech that they’re excited about can change the game in ways your relationship may have never thought possible.

Set an expectation; but be realistic. Clearly identify what will make workflows more productive in their current state, but don’t stop there. When evaluating and selling a tech solution, forward-thinking mentality makes leaders stand apart. While this past year has taught us that priorities and life can change from one day to the next, coming up with solutions is what has always made a business successful. Solve the problem of the day and then challenge your partners to think how new technology and work processes could be utilized across the business relationship in the future. By preparing your infrastructure and organization to be forward-thinking, meeting the demands of both your and your partner’s customer will be significantly easier.

Make a holistic commitment. Becoming an agile workplace begins with holistic commitment by the executive team and must be reinforced to permeate the entire organization. Instilling an agile mindset throughout your organization will drive innovation in your business and your partner’s. You’ll be able to identify more opportunities for growth and streamline your business to better support your end customers and protect your bottom line. It’s important to show employees how strategic thinking can be applied to everyday tactical decisions — not just the big decisions made in boardrooms.