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Is your business technology woefully behind ?

Article posted on 24th February 2008

 

- it should be enabling every part of your business to perform

I guarantee there is technology out there that you should be using that you aren't.  It seems like every day there is some new business technology that is immensely clever, often cheap - or free - and from what I see is adopted by companies in inverse proportion to their size!

I blame you and, if you have one, your IT Manager.

I would have the job specification of every IT Manager start with:

"It is your responsibility to ensure that the best information technology is made available to improve the efficiency of every aspect of the operations of the business"

We all know about the big ticket IT systems like ERP and MRP, sales order processing, accounting packages, CAD systems and the like but you should be using technology throughout the business simply to ensure that everyone in the organisation spends as much of their working time as possible doing what they are paid to do.

What does that mean?

Some of you will have seen the results of research by Proudfoot that I quote in my workshops. They researched how sales people in the UK actually spend their time and what they found was that, on average, they spend just 33% of their time doing what you employ them to do - selling to customers.  Furthermore they spend an unbelievable 52% of their time on travelling and administration.

I am sure we could establish similar statistics for service people, account managers, engineers, technical people and indeed probably almost everyone - including you!

Business leaders, with your IT managers (where you have them) and your departmental managers must address this as it represents a significant wastage of expensive, and increasingly scarce, resources and, when you think about it, it is a massive opportunity to grow your business for free!

Some of the solution rests with the elimination of unnecessary procedures, bureaucracy, and less ‘paperwork' but also the adoption of readily available business technology.

As an example ask yourselves how many of the following your organisation has adopted and uses extensively:

 

Many?  No?

 - so why should you? 

Skype. It's free to download and it gives you free phone calls anywhere in the world (except in Dubai) and If you want, you can link it up to a webcam and see each other as well.  The wonderful Jeanette Sim, who looks after my interests in Singapore, and I, for example, regularly talk on Skype - it's invaluable and totally free.

Why would you not use it?

Voice Recognition Software. I use Dragon 9.5 and it is simply amazing - I can dictate letters and e-mails - and indeed this article straight into Word, Outlook - or whatever system and its 98% accurate I would guess.  I bought mine through a company called Voice Recognition Systems who won't sell it to you without one day's training - and that means you get up to speed very quickly.

When I'm travelling I use headphones and dictate straight on to a digital voice recorder (the Edirol RO9 is said to be the best) and then simply plug into my laptop on arrival and it's all done! (incidentally you may have to be careful about your local laws if you're driving!)

Proprietary mass communications systems

I suspect that no matter what your business is you may on occasions want to be able to contact large groups of people (from, say, 50 to 10,000).  These may be customers, prospects, users, suppliers, shareholders, academic contacts, subscribers or a myriad of other groups. You may also want to segment them in a number of different ways.

You may want to give them technical updates, advise them of events, send a newsletter or flyer or simply market to them.

You might normally do this by snail mailings, or setting up an e-mail Group - but you may find with the numbers you're sending out your Internet Service Provider restricts you in some way and you'll probably be sending an attachment which some businesses block as a matter of course.

There is a very easy and cheap solution - a proprietary communications system. I use Constant Contact which has standard features that allow you to include photographs, links to websites, segment the recipients, ecommerce capability and a range of templates that make preparation very straightforward. In addition (and here I'm giving my secrets away!) you can track every recipient and see what they've looked at and what their interests are.  It is an extremely powerful and valuable tool at an extremely low cost.

Why would you not use it?

By the way I've used the word "proprietary" because I have, on more than one occasion, come across companies where the IT department have written their own software - and it's never as good and certainly won't be any cheaper.  I can only think that they have nothing better to do with their time!

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems are as simple as simple can be and have been around for a long time but nevertheless I'm constantly surprised at how many businesses don't use one.  They are just a "receptacle" for all the information you have about each of your customers, or prospective customers, accessible by everyone in the company.  They are cheap (ACT!, for example, starts at around $300) and a very powerful tool.

The first thing to say, however, is that you only get the full benefit of a CRM system if it is used 100% - in other words every contact with the specific customer by anyone in the company must be entered into the system. You can put into the system all the personal stuff as well -- contact names, birthdays, interests, PA's name etc.

Maybe you should require very little other reporting from your sales people  than this - entered directly through their laptops - immediately on leaving a customer.

Here again I'm afraid I have to have another go at IT people!  Please do not let them either design the CRM system themselves or buy a highly complex proprietary one - it simply isn't necessary in most businesses.  Just get the system up and running and giving benefits quickly.

Now what is green or blue screen?  It's a software (which comes with a small rolled up screen) that allows you to make a video and then have this superimposed onto a background of your choosing.  This might be your website, Copacabana beach, your office or as if you were a TV reporter.

You might think "that's all very nice but what would I use that for?"  An extremely valuable use would be to have video testimonials on your website. When you have completed a satisfactory contract have your people ask the Client, on video, what they think of your company and the job you've done and put it up on your website.  

By the way some of the latest video recorders of modestly priced whilst giving high-definition both video and sound straight onto memory card (the Sanyo Xacti HD2 for example)

As CEO I am sure you will be wanting to communicate directly with all your employees -- some of whom, maybe, are at remote locations from you -- and with green screen, no matter where you are, you can record a video "from your office" and send it out to all your people.

I am genuinely surprised at how many companies I come across (of all sizes) who don't use their website as a tool to provide information to customers, suppliers, employees and others through a simple confidential website download facility.

In this password protected area, for example, you can put product updates, maybe your report to shareholders, a message to all staff, a request to suppliers for quotation, high-definition photographs, press packs etc.

It's so easy!

Why would you not do it?

 

Finally  video e-mails.

I recently sent a video e-mail to the Director of a major international media company - thanking her for her hospitality and the discussions we had the week before.  She was so impressed by my e-mail that she forwarded it to all her people pointing out what brilliant technology it was. And this was a major media company!

Here's where I give away another secret!  That technology costs around $150 - you just buy the Logitech Fusion webcam which is the first to have inbuilt video streaming capability - and that's all!

So there we are - just some of the technology which I believe you should be using to help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your business.

I have to ask - how many of you with IT departments have had this technology even mentioned to you by them?

I know this sounds like I have a vendetta against IT people. 

I don't. 

They have a very important job to do in implementing and supporting major IT systems but I do believe that they also need to recognize that in the same way as the HR Department has a job to keep abreast of the latest employment legislation, part of their job is to keep abreast of the latest business technology of all kinds that can help their organisation get more efficient and become more successful.

Some of you will know that I start my "Staying in the HelicopterTM" workshops by talking about purpose - the purpose of your company, your division or department - simply asking the question what are you there for?

I was running a one-day workshop last year and at lunchtime the Vice President of IT of a major international bank came up to me and said:

 "I'd never thought about the purpose Iof the T department before - I guess I thought we were simply a cost centre but maybe in fact we are a profit centre"

Maybe it isn't maybe!

 

© 2008 Roger Harrop