Industries we serve

Technology

Technology companies scale fast and restructure often. The organizational infrastructure rarely keeps pace.

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$5.6T

Global spending in 2025

13K

Tech workers faced layoffs

70%

of tech executives name AI as a top-three priority

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Global IT spending hit $5.6 trillion in 2025 and tech jobs are expected to grow at twice the rate of the overall U.S. workforce over the next decade. [1] [2] The money is obviously flowing and most tech companies know exactly what needs to happen: deploy AI, modernize infrastructure, scale operations, integrate acquisitions, shift to service models.

Here’s what those numbers don’t show:

  • The IT skills shortage will impact 90% of organizations by 2026, generating an estimated $5.5 trillion in losses from delays and missed opportunities — not from technology failures, from organizational ones.[3]
  • 13,000 tech workers faced layoffs in early 2025 while 87% of technology leaders simultaneously reported challenges finding skilled talent in the areas they actually need.[4]
  • 70% of executives name AI agents as a top-three technology priority, even as most organizations don’t yet have the workflows, roles, or decision-making structures to put them to work.[5]

The strategies are well understood academically and in practice. Execution is where things tend to fall apart. In the tech industry, execution is an organizational problem.

Why Technology Organizations Buckle Under Pressure

1

Underutilizing informal networks

Technology companies run on informal networks that move faster than any org chart. The engineer everyone goes to when they’re stuck. The product manager who coordinates across four teams without formal authority. The customer success rep who handles escalations before they reach leadership. These networks are how fast-moving companies actually get things done. Likewise, these informal networks often help organizations stay grounded when operations get heated.

2

Organizational debt accumulates invisibly

The problem is – most of the time – that those “velocity-first” cultures systematically underinvest in the organizational infrastructure that makes that pace sustainable. Knowledge transfer happens accidentally, if at all. Coordination depends on a handful of individuals who aren’t on anyone’s succession plan. Cross-functional initiatives launch with energy and die in silos because nobody owns the end-to-end outcome.

Technology

How Rooted can help

When growth is fast enough, companies can run on this for years without feeling the full cost. When it slows — or when an acquisition, a leadership change, or a major platform shift arrives — the organizational debt comes due fast.

Organizational Network Analysis (ONA)

Technology organizations make critical decisions through informal networks that bear no resemblance to the org chart. ONA maps who actually influences technical direction, where coordination breaks down across engineering, product, and security, and which informal leaders hold key workflows together.
Decision authority mapping across technical teams
Engineering-product-security coordination gap analysis
Informal influence network identification
Knowledge concentration and succession risk assessment

Business Process Engineering (BPE)

Feature delivery slowdowns rarely stem from technical problems. BPE maps actual delivery workflows and redesigns them to eliminate approval bottlenecks, clarify decision authority, and reduce cross-departmental negotiation that delays releases without improving outcomes.
Feature delivery workflow redesign
Cross-functional approval process optimization
AI integration workflow development
Security review process restructuring

Organizational Change Management (OCM)

Development culture doesn’t change through training mandates. OCM handles harder transitions — security-first development, AI-integrated workflows, new delivery models — by addressing how teams understand their work and role, not just what procedures they’re required to follow.
Security culture development in engineering
AI workflow adoption strategy and implementation
Development team change communication
Agile and delivery model transition management

Organizational Development & Effectiveness (OD&E)

Technology organizations scale headcount quickly and organizational capability slowly. OD&E builds the structures and knowledge transfer systems that let engineering and product organizations grow without losing delivery velocity, institutional knowledge, or the informal coordination that early teams depended on.
Engineering knowledge transfer system design
Organizational scaling architecture
Technical leadership development
Decision framework documentation and distribution

Industry-Tailored Approaches

Tech Sectors We serve

Want to take a sector-by-sector approach? Learn more about how the various sectors within the technology industry and how Rooted can help navigate your organization through all levels, stages, and layers of the industry

Hardware

Software

IT Services

Internet & Digital Services

Emerging Technology

Telecommunications & Networking

Health & Biotech

Rooted vs. Big5 Corp.

Why Technology Leaders Call On Rooted

Large consulting firms (Big5 Corp.) aren’t built for operational environments where client commitments are non-negotiable and you can’t pause for transformation.

Big5’s Approach Rooted’s Approach
Who they
serve		 Fortune 500 and enterprise-scale technology companies Mid-market technology companies and software-driven businesses
Delivery
model		 18–36 month transformation programs Measurable results in months, not years
Operational Reality Assumes you can pause product development for organizational change Works inside live engineering and product cycles — no freezing sprints
Industry experience Consultants who have studied technology organizations from the outside People who’ve worked inside technology organizations — not just studied them from the outside
Engagement
size		 Minimum retainers sized for enterprise budgets Scoped for mid-market resource constraints
Post-engagement Ongoing dependency on the consulting firm Builds your internal capability to keep improving after we leave

The Big5 Problem in Technology

Large consulting firms (Big5 Corp.) aren’t built for operational environments where client commitments are non-negotiable and you can’t pause for transformation.

1

M&A Integration

When a tech company acquires another, large advisory firms are typically brought in to manage the process. They focus on financial synergies, technical consolidation, and legal alignment — the parts of integration that are measurable and contractually defined.

What they consistently underdeliver is the organizational side: the cultural integration, the informal network mapping, the retention of the people who made the acquired company worth acquiring in the first place. The result is predictable. Key talent leaves, customers churn, and 18 months after close the acquirer is trying to explain why the acquisition hasn’t delivered its projected value.

2

AI and Digital Transformation

Large firms sell both the platform and the change management around it — the same economic structure as manufacturing ERP. The platform is the contract. Organizational readiness is the line item. Workflows don’t get redesigned before deployment. Teams don’t get brought along before the tool goes live. Adoption is inconsistent. The ROI gap isn’t a technology problem. It’s a preparation problem.

Most mid-market tech companies are navigating one of these two situations, or both simultaneously. Rooted works as the independent organizational partner — not inside the implementation contract, not inside the M&A advisory relationship. Our accountability runs entirely to the client.

The Takeaway: These large consulting companies and systems integration firms show up in technology in two specific patterns, and they underperform in both.

Build an organization that executes under pressure.

The gap between strategy and execution is an organizational problem. This brief explains what’s actually causing it in technology, and how to fix it.

No sales pitch. No commitment required.

  1. Gartner. “Gartner Forecasts Worldwide IT Spending to Grow 13.5% in 2026, Totaling $6.31 Trillion.” April 22, 2026. https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2026-04-22-gartner-forecasts-worldwide-it-spending-to-grow-13-point-5-percent-in-2026-totaling-6-point-31-trillion-dollars
  2. CompTIA. “State of the Tech Workforce 2024.” March 2024. https://www.comptia.org/en-us/resources/research/state-of-the-tech-workforce-2024/
  3. International Data Corp. “Skills, AI, and the Enterprise: Three Strategies for the Road Ahead.” May 20, 2024. https://blogs.idc.com/2024/05/20/skills-ai-and-the-enterprise-three-strategies-for-the-road-ahead/
  4. Robert Half. “Building Future-Forward Tech Teams.” 2025. https://www.roberthalf.com/us/en/insights/building-tech-teams
  5. Capgemini Research Institute. “Top Tech Trends of 2025: AI-Powered Everything.” March 2025. https://www.capgemini.com/insights/research-library/top-tech-trends-2025/