Tech-savvy tips
By Mark Tosczak

1. Develop a strategy.
   "It is absolutely critical to figure out what your strategy is," said information technology and e-commerce professor Arvind Malhotra. Technology without a clear strategy behind it is likely to just waste time and money.
2. Come up with the right process.
   "Process actually emerges from people being able to do something," Malhotra said. "I map out the process." Process is how you're going to implement the strategy - whether it involves new technology or not.
3. Figure out how people fit in.
   "It's very delicately balanced - strategy, people, process and technology," Malhotra said. "You change one and you don't change the other three and you get the perfect imbalance." No matter how advanced the technology, people will always be able to break a process, so figuring out how they fit in is vital.
4. Decide on the technology.
   "The devices come and go," Malhotra said. "It's the concepts that stay." Technology and process "co-emerge," Malhotra added, one emerging from the other - the technology enabling the process, the process emerging from what is technologically feasible.
5. Involve the information technology staff from the beginning.
   That way, Malhotra said, you'll have a good grasp of what the technological possibilities are as you're forming the strategy and developing the process.