Zoho recently published product roadmaps for its low-code app builder, Creator, and its password manager, Vault, along with pages for users to give feedback on planned changes to Meeting and Assist

If you are a user of any of those applications, we encourage you to visit the links for details

A roadmap is very exciting for several reasons

For one, it lets users and partners plan. If we know a new feature is on the way, there’s no reason to waste money developing our own local solution.

A published roadmap also demonstrates that Zoho is making investments in its products and is serious about closing the gap with competitors. Not only does that help them thrive, it encourages retention. You’re less likely to pursue a costly migration to a new service if you know necessary changes are coming

(Conversely, you know you’ll need to migrate sooner rather than later if they are not.)

This is what good roadmaps do—they help you to plan, and so to lower existing costs and avoid new ones. For that reason, the lack of a roadmap is always more expensive in the long run.

What is a roadmap?

An IT roadmap is a document that outlines the future of a company’s technology infrastructure, often listing what fixes and enhancements will be released and when.

That sounds to many small businesses like a “nice to have” for a future day. After all, for any such document to be useful, surely it would be expensive, requiring extensive research and internal conversation that would pull key stakeholders away from core tasks.

But that only considers the costs of a roadmap and assumes any benefits are marginal. In our experience, the lack of a roadmap is both more costly and more problematic.

Here are the true costs and benefits of maintaining an IT roadmap.

One of the reasons many small businesses are so sensitive to pulling key stakeholders away from core tasks is that their normal business operations are always just on the verge of running behind—or perhaps they’re already there!

In a world of easy automation, this is a sure sign that your company is not leveraging technology effectively

Many small businesses never tackle inefficiency. Those that do will often jump headfirst into technology and just start swimming! Presumably, the idea is that, if technology is what they need, immersing themselves in it is the solution.

But putting your head under water is not any more effective than putting it in the sand.

First misunderstanding: “An IT roadmap is complicated.”

Leveraging technology effectively does require a plan, but it doesn’t have to be a complicated one. In fact, starting with a rich, nuanced plan is like expecting to win your first game in a sport you’ve never played.

Start simple, and at every stage, scale your plan to your needs.

Second misunderstanding: “An IT roadmap is expensive.”

Quite the opposite! Scaled appropriately, it will be less expensive than the alternative.

After all, if you’re not leveraging technology (or not very much), then you’re definitely paying for extra labor, overhead, benefits, error, rework, and lost business.

If you’ve begun adding technology to your business without a plan, you will almost certainly spend too much in the form of false starts and abandoned projects.

If that’s business as usual for you, then you’ll be numb to waste, and a roadmap will seem like the larger cost.

But such episodes are costly and avoidable, and any one of them likely used more resources than a roadmap.

Third misunderstanding: “An IT roadmap is a ‘nice to have’.”

Most small businesses are carrying a non-trivial amount of technical debt.

Technical debt is a metaphor for the cost of maintaining and updating a system that is not well-designed, well-documented, or well-organized. It represents the extra work that has to be done in the future because a business made short-term decisions that were not ideal for the long-term health of the company.

Technical debt typically arises because of tight deadlines, lack of resources, and poor planning. It also has a tendency to accumulate over time as each short-term decision adds to the total, meaning the cost of the next short-term fix is always more than the last.

In practical terms, technical debt works just like monetary debt. Borrowing now to cover an immediate shortfall only means you’ll have to pay more later, and each time you borrow, you have to borrow more.

We often encounter small businesses that have a deep aversion to monetary debt but are carrying a technical debt equal to the GDP of a small city!

Think of a roadmap as a kind of payment plan that brings your organization out of debt.

Where do I start?

If you’re starting to understand how an IT roadmap can keep your company focused on immediate priorities and avoid costly errors or changes of direction, you might be wondering where to begin.

1) Identify your goals

There’s no point in pursuing technology for technology’s sake. It should always be in pursuit of a tangible, well-defined benefit.

When Zoho was building their product roadmaps, for example, they analyzed the competitive landscape, studied their customer requests, and asked where their products needed to be in 3-5 years to remain successful.

If your organization doesn’t have formal written goals, then that’s where you need to start. Goals don’t have to be lofty, but they should be clear, concise, and communicable.

2) Decide on a budget

How much money can your company spend in pursuit of your goals?

Another way to ask it is: How much are you willing to spend to “buy” your goal?

Start with your best guess. You’ll have to refine it continuously as you move through the process.

3) Break your goals into milestones

What tools must be in place by the end of this year for you to hit next year’s goal? What must happen in six months for you to have that tool in place by the end of the year? What must happen in three months to hit the six-month milestone? What must happen next week?

Write it all down. We recommend a tool called Zoho Projects, which was built to manage exactly that kind of effort.

4) Compare your milestones to your budget

Do you have enough resources to meet all of your deliverables? Don’t be surprised if the answer is no. In fact, this is how you avoid error and rework: by recognizing in advance that you were never likely to hit that goal anyway and that any resources you put against it would’ve been wasted!

Now, focus on what you can do. Remember, it’s essential to create an IT roadmap that is realistic. Choose goals that are achievable, and only include as much detail as makes sense for your organization.

5) Stay flexible

Keep your roadmap flexible. Business conditions are always changing. Make sure your roadmap is a living document and treat it as such. Review and update it at regular intervals.

And most importantly, don’t worry if you’re not sure what to do

Executive Summary:

• In an increasingly technical world, an IT roadmap is crucial for any business. Creating one is not hard.

• First, understand your company goals and identify where technology can help (and where it can’t).

• Second, identify a budget, which may be something as simple as the amount of money you have to get to the next decision point.

• Third, create a list of important milestones with dates. What must happen and when for you to reach that point?

• Fourth, track progress against tasks and budget. Log issues that arise and implement mitigations.