What should contractors consider before integrating a new piece of technology?
Landscape professionals
Richard Bare
Arbor-Nomics Turf
Norcross, Ga.
Jerry McKay
McKay Landscape Lighting
Omaha, Neb.
“Try to determine how many labor hours it will save you instead of focusing only on what it costs.”
Industry consultants
Marty Grunder
The Grow Group
Dayton, Ohio
“The biggest thing to consider when integrating a new piece of technology is your commitment to the successful implementation of it. Putting technology in the hands of your team is the single greatest leverage point you can take advantage of in business. However, none of it is easy. “You have to have an unwavering commitment to implementing it, wrap your company around it, and hire people to help you implement it if you have to.” Few like change or the change that technology brings at first; however, in the end, change is the only thing in life that makes things (and businesses) better.”
Phil Harwood
Grow the Bench
Grand Rapids, Mich.
“Incentivizing adoption.”
Kevin Kehoe
3PG Consulting
Laguna, Calif.
“1). Any new technology should be assessed in light of existing ones. In other words, will it potentially integrate or just add more data collection that needs someone to manage it all? 2). Evaluate the vendor selling and supporting it. What is their road map for investing in the product and making it better (as things become obsolete quickly)? The bottom line today is you are buying a partner not a product. 3). Training. Where will this fit and for what roles in the company (sales, account manager, foremen)? Can they learn it and will they use it?”
Jeffrey Scott
Jeffrey Scott Consulting
New Orleans, La.
“The biggest mistake I see is not making full use of your existing technology, be it your accounting or operational software or your platform, e.g., Microsoft. So, dig deeper into the newest upgrades and features in existing tech before considering a new technology.”
