Technology Balance Beam: Balancing Internal and Outsourced Tasks

A guest post by Shane Caniglia  

Marketing requirements and customer experience are driving the necessity for innovation and speed in our ever-changing business environment of delivering financial education. Right now, there are many simultaneously interlocking elements in development: Web initiatives and analysis, data capture and management, social media, and mobile applications. I consider these 5 key points when juggling multiple but equal priorities:

1. Transition your best people into management roles and set goals.  It takes a strong leader, someone who understands the technical process, can define the scope of the project and build an effective external team.  These strong leaders must be able to work in a cooperative environment and communicate non-stop with a marketing team to reach business objectives.
2. Have the hardware in place to support the development process and the systems talent to manage growth.
3. Build externally and maintain internally. Outsourced talent becomes an extension of your internal team and can maintain the objectivity necessary to reach goals.
4. Communicate effectively. Transparency and frequency of interaction keep projects on track and talent on task.
5. Always think cost-savings and efficiency. Fix your own bugs.  Internal support puts your team closer to the end-user and opportunities are discovered in this process.

The financial education world is fast-evolving from archaic forms of content delivery like books and tapes to one of engagement and data capture. Maintaining a competitive position on the crest of this wave takes an understanding of your business history, a vision of the future and an innovative plan to get there.