Businesses have more technology choices than ever. Need a CRM? There are hundreds. Want to use AI? You can be up and running in minutes. Need project management, marketing automation, accounting, customer support, or almost anything else? There's a tool ready to sell you a subscription.

Having access to a tool and building a business capability are two very different things.

Think about a CRM. The Customer Relationship Management System is the tool. Your sales process, expectations, data, and how your team uses the CRM together form a system. The capability you're actually trying to build might be consistently following up with prospects, understanding your pipeline, and converting more opportunities into customers. Simply buying the CRM doesn't give you that capability.

Giving everyone on your team access to ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or another AI platform gives them a powerful tool, but it doesn't automatically create an organization that's better at using AI. That requires deciding where AI fits into the work, developing repeatable processes, sharing what works, training people, and continuing to improve. Again, the tool is probably the easiest part.

I've seen many versions of this throughout my career with websites, e-commerce, CRM, cloud software, automation, and now AI. Businesses understandably focus a lot of energy on selecting technology. But the more important question is usually: What do we want our business to become better at doing? Once that's clear, we can determine the systems needed to support it and then select or improve the tools that make those systems work.

What to do this week

• Pick one important technology tool your business already pays for.

• Write down the business capability you expected it to create when you bought it.

• Ask whether your people and processes actually support that capability today.

• Identify one change that would help you get more business value from what you already have before adding another tool.

The distinction matters because technology investments shouldn't end when the software is installed or the account is created. Tools support systems. Systems build capabilities. Capabilities create business value. Keeping that sequence in mind can change both what technology you buy and what you do with it afterward.

If you have technology you're paying for but aren't convinced you're getting the business value you expected, that's exactly the kind of question I enjoy working through. Sometimes I find the next step isn't another tool at all.

Your Tech Pal,

—Joshua

Disclaimer: I use AI to help write emails like these. I originate, review & edit all AI-assisted work I publish.