Picking Technology? Here are some quick tips

If you are a small business owner, financial advisor, consultant, or anyone who is in role in which you need to compare technology, due diligence on various software and applications can be tiresome.

Here's my secret in making the initial due diligence faster: https://www.g2.com/

This website is a fantastic starting point for just about anywhere you are in the process. Go to G2 if any of these questions sound familiar:

• Did you hear about a software that you're not sure what it does?

• Are you looking at a particular technology and need to compare it to other tools?

• Are you looking for a specific function for your business and that you are hoping a piece of technology might solve?

• Curious about technology trends for something common like scheduling or CRMs?

I almost always use G2 as a starting point. It gives me side by side comparisons of things like price, customer satisfaction, capabilities, and usage based on business type and industry. Depending on the technology I am looking for, I take my due diligence process from there and quickly eliminate vendors.

If you are specifically looking at fintech, you would be doing yourself a disservice if you didn't look at two places:

1. Michael Kitces Technology Map - https://www.kitces.com/fintechmap/

Check out his entire directory here. I find most fintech is on the site (some not yet listed on G2) and it has an interesting tech stack builder tool if you are looking to move to the RIA space.

2. T3's Technology Tools for Today: https://t3technologyhub.com/

They even have an annual conference hosted in the beautiful city of Tampa if you are interested in exploring more. Their annual research report is for my fellow financial services industry nerds who are interested in more data around the best tech.

Liz's Opinion: If you are looking at becoming an RIA and/or building your own tech stack, I am not going to sugar coat this: it can be very tedious in piecing technology together. This is why plug and plays for independents in the RIA space are hot, people using very similar tech stacks (using advice from friends) are common, and custodian's ability to integrate from a tech perspective might be one of the most important factors in choosing a custodian. Give yourself time and if you're not strong in the operational execution space with technology, explore all the options you can including tapping into an existing tech stack or hiring an RIA consultant to help you piece it together.

Before you buy or even consider cost, you need to be asking yourself a few questions:

1. How does this technology address my needs? Needs are critical to your business running efficiently. If it's helpful but not critical, it's a want. Needs > Wants.

2. Outside of needs, how does it add value? ...Or, even better, how does it replace inefficient processes or additional technology I might already be using?

3. How comfortable am I with this software from a risk management perspective? Depending on your affiliation, you may have resources to help dig into this for you. For those without that decision making power to approve the software, you may be subject to someone else approving the software before you get the green light.

4. How does it integrate? You can build a technology stack all day long on a builder tool, but the integrations are extremely important for it to flow seamlessly. If you don't have a single sign-on capabilities with the software, you might just have to log into every software one by one.

5. What's the learning curve to adopt? This is a behavioral question ultimately. Most tech companies pour millions into training & development but if your team isn't willing to learn the software and/or if it's very difficult to learn because of how complex or who is responsible doing the implementation, your likelihood of implementation is low.

6. THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION: Will my team(s) use this software? There is no point in making the investment in the technology if your team won't take the time to use it appropriately. Remember, only you can answer this question and these sales teams are happy to have you buy the licenses even if everyone isn't using it. Your best bet for utilization is to make the software integral to business processes. If it's a 'need' then your team is going use it because they'll have to. If it's a "nice to have" that could drive growth or efficiency, you likely need an accountability partner on your team or within your enterprise to pursue adoption and change management items that are likely to come up.

What are you considering new tech for?

• I have a gap in my business that I can close with tech.
• New tech can help step up my game!
• I am considering RIA and exploring tech stacks.
• I'm dissatisfied with my current technology & want a change.

You can vote for more than one answer.