How Technology Can Help You Define Your “New Normal”

A lot of businesses can get away with throwing people at a problem.  Adding personnel is very costly – on the way up, and on the way down.  Good systems are much less expensive.

More compliance requirements?

There’s nothing like a well designed system that is the ONLY way a job can be done to enforce compliance.  Compliance requirements come apart when they depend on a person to remember to write something down.  Systems define the process, become the only way they can be done (thus assuring it will be done that way), and are self-documenting (for audit).  It is the cheapest insurance you can buy.

Stop talking about it and implement bar code data collection already.

In my many years of technology implementation, the one thing that I have heard people talk about the most but do the least, is bar coding data collection systems.  It is probably the highest return on investment project available, but one that requires a little more investment because of the cost of scanners.  As a result, most businesses get cold feet before writing the check.  What a shame…it’s like found money!  And talk about improvements in customer service…don’t get me started!

Let technology projects help you get process improvement changes made.

“We’ve got to do it for our new system” will usually trump “this is the way we’ve always done it.”   Don’t underestimate the human aspect of change – the people aspect of process improvement and additional automation is far greater than the actual technology challenges.  Use your systems project as the watershed event that is requiring the behavioral changes – changes that are designed to improve everyone’s work life.

Learn to manage by exception.

Once things are fairly automated, utilize system tools like event management software that alert you of conditions that need management attention in a timely manner.  What goes “bump” in the night for you?  Find that condition when it first happens, and notify the right people to deal with it immediately, before it becomes a costly affair.  These same tools can also be used to automate some very routine tasks, such as emailing order acknowledgements, saving labor cost. 

Integrate your systems. 

Don’t let your company slip into “Excel Hell”.  Excel is not designed to be a business system…it is an analysis tool.  Find where the disconnects are in your business systems, evidenced by duplicate data in different systems, and extensive use of Excel to operate the business.  Everywhere there is duplicate data indicates waste, and a cost that can be eliminated.  If you need multiple systems to run your business, there is very affordable software available that allows integration of disparate systems to keep each of them updated with data changes made in whichever system “owns” the information (such as customers).