#10XBetter Insights: Can Digital Tools End the Blame Game?

Your annual planning meeting for this year was probably the same as the previous one.What did we do?, what did not work … what should we do?…such common questions.

This is not a problem until you realise, how you arrived at your business goals for this year.

Did you consider feedbacks from the team?

Did you involve your customers?, Maybe not by having a face-to-face meeting, but at least by gathering and analysing their feedback.

Chances are, a group of people ended up setting the goals that will be carried out by another group.?

In the end, new issues will pop up, maybe even worse than before.?

And you'll find yourself doing the same thing all over again, trying to fix problems that have happened years before.?

We call this an endless loop of business problems which is? a common “working lifestyle” in most organizations.

So, where's the problem??

Well, it's always within the people and the way things are done, especially in the organisation’s processes.

Let's look at one typical process in organizations and the issues it raises:?

When a customer needs something, they reach out to the sales team. The sales team then passes the request to the product or service team.

But here's the thing: the sales team often doesn't fully understand the customer's needs.?So, the information they pass on to the product or service team is incomplete and unclear.

And what gets delivered to the customer might not be exactly what they need.

Then comes in the blame among customers, sales, the product team and executives.

For instance

Sarah, the client, asks for an ERP system for managing her Cambridge schools.?But Peter from the sales team reports it as just an ERP for managing schools.?The product team interprets this as a generic school ERP, not one tailored to Cambridge's specific needs.

Who should be blamed here, it’s always sales but the reality? lies on how? organisation processes handles customer request.Infact this happens in a lot of scenarios.

One reliable solution to this is to implement effective communication mechanisms within and outside the team. And you can never think of nothing else other than implementing digital tools and embracing a digital culture within the team.Such as:-

1. Real-time communication and collaboration tools;?Making sure everyone in the team is always on page. Questions like who is working on what and why, what is happening now and so get clear answers.
2. Customer Relation management (CRM)? toolsAt a basic level this how you manage customer information get to know them better and eventually serve them as they want to be served.The most interesting part is these systems collect a lot of information that can provide very important insights, lets say new sales opportunities that are very difficult to notice sometimes.
3. Enterprise resource planning(ERP) toolsA typical organisation needs to keep a lot of information i:e finance, operations e.t.cThis is what ERP’s do at a basic level, to process and keep organisation information for easy retrieval and sharebility.However, This is not what they are meant for,They a meant to be used for planning since they provide a visual presentation of business behaviour/trends in a specific aspect.

So the answer is Yes, Digital tools can end the blame games.

Food for thought: Were your decisions for this year based on real data or assumptions?

And how much did you look into past progress to ensure this year's goals will be? on track?

Digital transformation is crucial now more than ever.?No data means missed opportunities.No insights means more wrong decisions.