The value of understanding tech stack in adland

This Article First appeared in MarkLives on 16 November 2023 HERE

In a world where it’s become easier to stack different technology solutions together and connect them, rather than spend many millions developing bespoke solutions for your ever-changing business, the tech stack has become more important than ever. It’s driving agencies and business in general to ask compelling questions that you may be grappling with as well.

A tech stack is a selection of either standalone or interconnected tools that, when put together by an agency, become somewhat a proprietary solution of how the agency operates and delivers services for their clients.

There’s no shortage of these tools that can be, and are being, used in the relentless drive for performance in the agency marketing landscape — performance in the effectiveness of creative delivery, media buying, deadlines, resource, finance and reporting. Some tools have a value proposition as a large multifunction solution that can do it all, while others are specialist solutions that solve very specific problems implemented through a licence off the shelf for a modest monthly fee per user or licence.

Compelling questions

So, compelling questions you may have include:

• What technologies do we already have and how are they connected?

• What tech do we need and how will it integrate or replace the existing tech we have?

• When will we see the business impact of the solution?

• Will the business impact we see justify or surpass the investment we’ve made?

• How do we futureproof the tech decisions we’re making so we don’t revisit this every few months?

While this is by no means an exhaustive list, these questions are critical because the alternative to making decisions without a clear understanding of the ecosystem, the business needs and your future aspirations can breed an agency filled with “dark tech”.

What’s “dark tech”?

Dark tech has two definitions; the one I want to focus on is in relation to the topic at hand, which is when a business invests in software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions on a monthly or annual retainer basis, and the technology adoption or use is low or non-existent, resulting in tech that’s a sunken cost but doesn’t yield commercial or operational value.

It’s when your ops manager wants you to purchase a special time-tracking software for the creative studio and it “only costs US$8 a user” and that sounds great. But… you have 30 specialists in your studio and so you’re paying north of R4 300 a month for software that’ll take weeks to train adoption of, only to be used for three days and then occasionally used if the ops manager begs in status every day for the next year — costing you R52 000 for the privilege. Some businesses have 20 licences of this nature.

Remember this: If there’s no specialist/custodian of your tech solutions, or at least a champion who’s measured in their KPIs and performance reviews with driving a specific tools adoption, tools won’t magically be used by your teams. I’m continuously surprised by businesses that buy a R3m technology licence, and don’t even allocate a specialist at a fraction of the cost of the tool to ensure adoption and usage.

One type of solution/approach

While every agency’s needs are vastly different and there can be no single model or solution for many reasons, there’s a way of approaching tech stacks in business.

Break tech stacks into three areas:

#1. Inside-in solutions: Tech adopted within the business for use within the business

Think: Monday.com, Chase, ClickUp, Adobe InDesign etc.

Action: Map the tech stack, understand usage across the business, gain feedback from the users, define a lead person per tech, build SOPs and quarterly licensing review meetings to gain efficiencies and cut costs.

#2. Inside-out solutions: Tech adopted within the business for use with clients

Think: MS Power BI, Adobe Sign, Better Proposals, MS Teams, Looker Studio, ProofHub.

Action: Review your tech and the barriers to adoption by client and ask critical questions, eg: Is it a gimmick or core to delivery? What are the barriers to usage? What’s the adoption learning curve? Do they have something like it already? Can you deliver for them if they don’t use it?

#3. Outside-in solutions: Tech adopted by the client that the agency needs to use/adopt

Think: Slack, proprietary signoff software, secure file-sharing software, custom meeting software etc.

Action: By far the hardest area of tech stack adoption. If your client’s whole organisation is on Slack and you’ve spent three months on a ClickUp implementation, pain is on the horizon. A solution is to speak to clients regarding API connectors to keep each business orientation around their core technology and not to create unnecessary adoption. Adopting the tech of another business should come with a cost in time, resourcing and fee. It won’t magically happen without an understanding and roadmap. The risk is employee burnout if they spend more time managing new systems forced upon them, rather than doing the work they love to do.

Technology choices matter

Technology choices matter. On the one side of the coin, bigger and more complex integrations that cost a fortune and take a year to implement don’t always mean better. On the flip side, cheap and quick stackable solutions don’t always scale or customise to bespoke needs of businesses.

Focus on what your people need before the business needs; tech stack without adoption is dark tech, and forcing adoption will result in pushback at scale.

This is a business area of growing complexity and importance; knowing where you are, where you’re going and the factors that affect your decisions of how you get there all need robust structure.