Preparing a Needs Analysis for Technology

Preparing A Needs Analysis for Technology

Preparing a Needs Analysis for Technology starts with a TNA that produce TAPs.

1.

The Technology Needs Assessment (TNA) process identifies an organisation’s development priorities. These are derived from ongoing policies, programmes and projects, long-term vision documents as well as strategies for climate change mitigation and adaptation already in place.

2.

As a next step, the TNA identifies and analyses barriers hindering deployment and diffusion of the prioritised technologies, as well as measures to overcome these barriers, including enabling frameworks for the technologies.

3.

The final step in the TNA process is the preparation of Technology Action Plans (TAPs), which support the implementation of the prioritised technologies, at the desired scale, within the country to achieve the climate and development benefits as identified earlier in the TNA. A TAP is built upon the measures identified in a TNA for overcoming barriers to technology implementation and specifies how to implement these measures, including who is responsible, when, and from where to secure funding. As such, a TAP serves as a bridge (‘keystone’, see Figure 1) between the analysis of prioritised technologies and their implementation.

Fig. 1

4.

Once the activities are defined, the relevant stakeholders, i.e. those who will be directly involved in the implementation of the TAP, should be identified. Here, it is also important to estimate a timeframe for each activity. Following the identification of stakeholders, the TAP should estimate the human and financial resources needed for each activity .

This portion includes the ICT consultant , hardware and software supplier , the accountant (very important) , e-vendors , partners , executive authority and other outside stakeholders like an ISP .

5. Stages of preparation of Technology Plan

6.

This is very critical . In these steps this is where the bottom line is addressed. The cost factor and ROI. Once a decision has been made to go digital the lawyer will naturally come up with an action plan and a team to implement this with a clear delivery schedule. But at the back of your mind the above must answer the very simple question . Does this solution provide a solution to my challenges ? Is it worth the investment ?

7.

You must appoint a TNA leader to coordinate all your plans and activities and document each and every detail of the technology upgrade plan. A slight over sight might prove costly in the long run .

8.

At a minimum, a TAP could list actions required for developing a prioritised technology project or programme and include rough estimates of cost items for these actions. This could form the basis of a more detailed in-depth feasibility study, beyond the TAP . The TAPs should also utilise as far as possible outputs from earlier TNA steps, such as decisions on technology implementation scale, measures identified to overcome barriers, and cost estimates for these measures. Where relevant, this guidance makes specific references to these ‘earlier’ TNA outputs.

Barrier Analysis

1. This step identifies potential barriers and specific measures to identify them.

2. Barriers fall under different categories like Economic and Financial , Market condition , legal and regulatory , network structures , Institutional and organizational capacity , human skills , social and cultural behavior , information awareness and technical.

3. It is is obvious that the most challening one in our environment is the first one followed by human skills. The rest is pretty standard for any business for that matter.

Identifying Activities for the Selected Actions

Since these Action categories are still relatively broad, it is important to proceed immediately with the

definition of more specific Activities. These activities can be understood as the ‘things that need to be done to make an Action work’. The specific Activities will guide planning and implementation of the TAPs and reduce the chance of ambiguity.

These are “actionables”. This is where those plans and ideas translate into action plan. This is the point where whoever is appointed as the Project Manager comes up with a Gantt Chart. This helps you see online or paper what will happen when and at what cost and by whom .This is now no different from any other project .

Each of these action plans will cost money. This is were the accountant comes in to work out a budget that is based on what is required.

After all components have been factored a review wont kill any one. This might be done by a third party should it be necessary.

The last step is - implement.

Your Checklist

• Which functions are automated now – which additional functions do we wish to automate?
• Are existing pieces of equipment mutually compatible?
• Does everyone in the office use the same software?
• Do you want to use a local server or use Cloud-computing solutions?
• Are our word processing procedures standardized?
• Is our billing system interfaced with accounting?
• Are the accounts payable checks computer generated – or prepared manually?
• Are we keeping track of client expenses, i.e.copies, fax, long distance, postage, etc.?
• Does the office get flooded with interoffice memoranda?
• Is the payroll prepared in house? Manually?
• Do the attorneys carry boxes to the court house?
• Do the paralegals spend hours preparing manual document index systems?
• What type of calendering system do we use for docket control purposes?

Answering the above question will help you have a clearer of where you are technologically and where you want to be . Once you know that then a plan is put in place and a budget availed for this.