Software is a tool that enables your business strategy. The business strategy comes first, the enabling technology comes second.

This is the number one mistake I see when printers buy software, they go shopping for technology before they have a business strategy. When you shop among people who are incented to sell you stuff without a strategy – one will be invented for you. The invention of your business strategy by sales people magically fits their product as the solution. It’s really rather amazing how often it’s a perfect match. Remember this match might have absolutely nothing to do with your ultimate business objectives!

This happens all the time. This is happening right now. This is what causes most of the less than optimal software investments by printers. This is 100% preventable. Don’t get bogged down in the word “strategy,” it’s not the over-complicated term that consultants would like you to believe it is. Your strategy is nothing more than what you intend to accomplish, but it has to be very specific. For example, with web-to-print, don’t shop for a solution until you have clearly determined who you want to sell to online (target market), what you want to sell them (product mix), and where you want to sell (country/language/culture). Probably the most critical aspect to doing business online is your marketing strategy to drive traffic to your site (for both B2B and B2C)? If you build it, “they don’t just come” – the customers don’t show up without a marketing strategy.