Which software is your best match for running EOS?

As a business scales, it gets harder and harder to maintain alignment of the business vision and goals across the entire company. Once you are past the start-up phase and are adding more people to your team, it’s not as easy to regularly interact and understand what everyone in the business is actively working on. Silos can develop with teams focusing on their agenda and even ending up at odds with each other. The growth that once felt exciting can start to feel chaotic, and the fear can creep in that the business is spinning out of control. A study by BLS found that 65% of businesses will still fail within 10 years of operation. How do we change that statistic to avoid failure?

A successful boss enables the business to scale. Richard Branson has often said that the key to his success is effective delegation. The Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) describes this ability as practising LMA (?) Leadership + Management = Accountability. Once you understand the five leadership and management practices the next step is to usually look for a software system to support you in the journey. A tool that assists theory by guiding you through the day to day management of people, processes, and solving issues. The right software will deliver effective collaboration, create transparency and give you the confidence you are managing the right metrics for success.??

Full disclosure, I love software! I geek out at finding software solutions that address business challenges. However, from my experience in the software industry for over 25 years, I have learned there is no silver bullet. You must do your homework properly to avoid costly mistakes.?

It’s really important to select the right software for your business for now and the future. If not, you risk investing your time and money in hours of research, implementation, and time in change management to ensure company-wide adoption, only to realise too late the software is not the right fit.?

How do you avoid wasting time, money, and energy and blowing your credibility within the business? This article aims to do the heavy lifting with a review of three EOS business framework software that practice the principles designed to give traction through effective meetings, leadership, people and process.?

Regardless of what business framework you use, or whatever other software you are looking for in your business, start at the beginning by asking, and answering these questions.

What business problem are you trying to solve?

When buying off the shelf you don’t always have the luxury of getting everything you want. Make a list of your business pain points and future opportunities you’d like to take advantage of. Very carefully pick your number 1 top priority. Ensure it is something that has an impact on the business now, and for at least the next five years. Then select your next two priorities. Label these as your ‘must haves’ and ensure the software delivers on those. The rest of your priorities are ‘nice to haves’. If you find yourself confused between similar software apply a point weighting to each business need. I.e Priority 1 is worth three points, Priority 2 & 3 worth two points, and the nice to haves one point.? Then add up which software delivers the most points. Some EOS focuses can be:

• Align business vision, goals and team activities?
• Run productive meetings?
• Have better transparency by bringing siloed information together?
• Make better business decisions by empowering the leadership team?
• Understand where the business is really at by monitoring the right key metrics?
• Remove micro-management friction by allowing the team to manage their actions, aligned to business goals
• Solve the right business problems, and without going down rabbit holes

Work out your budget, know the real cost

Don’t fall into the trap of comparing just the pricing pages of comparable software and thinking your work is done. What are the hidden costs? Go the extra step and budget the cost for your internal resource (people) hours. Of course, you expect to incur a cost. Balance it by remembering software is an investment you make. Measure it against the value of the business problems you are solving.?

Implementation

• Identify the right people to be evolved in the evaluation and implementation. Make your initial list of who you think is best. Is it your Operations Lead, Finance Manager, or Project Manager? Do they understand the business vision? Do they have the right authority to roll out the software and influence team adoption? Remember to include your name if you are a key stakeholder. Also, find out from the software companies which roles they recommend.?
• Ask the software company about their onboarding process and how many hours are typically required.?
• With your list of names work out your internal business hourly cost. This is your resource salary x estimated hours required to research, implement and rollout for company adoption.?
• Factor in an opportunity lost cost if you are using a person who contributes to revenue-generating activities. They will be distracted and it’s not fair to expect them to still perform at the same level without a discussion on how that would be achieved.???
• Does the software company require you to pay for implementation? Be clear on the hours they provide free as part of the subscription fee.?
• Do you require an additional external expert?? Software companies typically know the best setting to choose in terms of their software, but they do not know which are the best business metrics for your business to track. If you are not strong internally in metrics or business planning then give yourself the best chance at success by engaging an external implementor as well. Don’t be tempted to think you are saving costs by doing it yourself when you don’t have the expertise. Instead, you will waste precious business resources chasing down the wrong activities, miss hitting targets and underutilising the power of the software effectively wasting your monthly software cost.

Change Management

What support and excitement exist within the business for new software? Purchasing the software is easy, setting it up takes time but the software companies help with that. The longest road is then ensuring company-wide adoption and full utilisation. Expect this phase to take up to 18 months when done properly.

• Get buy-in early by advising your team what business problems you are looking to solve and why.?
• Treat the software as a project and ensure you perform a consultation process with those who like to be consulted.?
• Select the right people to be part of the implementation. Positivity, persistence, patience and people skills are important.??
• Nominate an advocate - this is the person who will be passionate and keep being passionate. They are the contact for resolving issues and the key contact for the software company for giving feedback and learning about new features. Incentivise them.?
• Everybody learns differently. Training will need to be done in different ways, and perhaps many times. Be empathetic to people who struggle with change and technology. Repetition is key.?
• If you have identified this software as a core critical system, what actions will you take if someone refuses to engage properly with it?

Ongoing costs

Software subscription: Often this cost is a per user per month cost.?

• Is there a discount for an annual purchase commitment??
• Factor in user growth into your 12-month budget.?
• Check for discounted pricing for a higher volume of users.?
• How often do price increases occur??
• Check if pricing increases to unlock certain features.

Support costs: Most software companies include a level of online support within their fee and this is often sufficient.

Ask them under what conditions you will be expected to pay for support. Take time to think and jot down question examples you might have to see if they will answer those as part of their support service.

Software support

The post-sale support must be a five-star experience for your team. Most companies will tell you they have a great customer service team. Dig deeper and make sure. Your research could include:?

• Google for customer reviews. How many customer reviews and testimonials do they have on their website? A Google search may also unearth some useful feedback on social media. ?
• When you have narrowed your choice to between two, ask to speak to a reference site. Ask that site about the onboarding experience and ongoing support.?
• What type of support is important? Does your team like to speak to a person, read instructions or use instant chat? Match your preferences to the software key delivery methods.?
• Is support available during your time zone hours??How much does this matter?
• Do they have a knowledge base? How extensive is it, and are the articles helpful? Google and you will often find examples of their content. Read a couple of articles, and watch a couple of videos.?
• Will you have an account/client success manager for urgent or priority questions? This is usually more important during your software rollout and subsequent adoption.??
• Do they hold ongoing webinars such as training and deep dives into the product? This can be helpful when team members who were not part of the initial implementation and have been trained internally start engaging with the software.

User Experience / Navigation

This is how easy it is to follow your nose around the software and is vital for team adoption. A system that is intuitive with its menu and icons means people won’t have to slow down and figure out where to find what they need.?

• During a demo or a trial specifically look at how good the user navigation is.?
• Test the navigation against the key business problems you are solving. Was it easy to locate and logically move from one step to the next??
• Identify your top critical processes that will be performed inside the software and test replicating how it is done. Did the workflow feel efficient and include all important steps?

How were the softwares evaluated?

This evaluation looks at key practices of EOS and the areas the software should have proficiency in:

• Accountability Chart
• VTO - core focus, core values, purpose, niche, targets, marketing strategy, 1-year plan?
• Weekly Level 10 meetings: Scorecard, Rocks, Issues, To Do’s?
• People Analyser?
• Process documentation?

Three softwares were evaluated. They have been compiled in the following matrix for comparison:?

• Product features - Comparable
• Implementation - Ease of implementation?
• Ongoing Support - Timely, quality and usefulness???
• Pricing - Per User per month

Main Feature Analysis

Implementation and Support

Pricing

The software's are largely comparable in key EOS product functionality, implementation and support.?Regarding the two pure EOS softwares, Traction Tools and Ninety.io are comparable in pricing at a 10 user level. If your user number is higher more variable pricing kicks in and you should undertake your own pricing comparison exercise.?

Added detail: Commentary on each software

This section details the company bio, unique feature variations, what the software does well and what could be improved.

Traction Tools

Mission:To foster a world where entrepreneurs can make decisions from a place of strength and confidence.

Subscribers: Information not shared.

Ideal client: Entrepreneur-led teams with 10-250 employees who are looking to increase accountability, productivity, break down departmental silos and run better, more effective meetings. Designed to work equally well with in-office, remote and hybrid teams.?

Creation Story: In 2014 Clay, Traction Tools Visionary, was struggling with his own startup. His friend Jay (one of the founders) recommended a book called Traction and for Clay it was love at first read. Just six days later, he pitched his brand-new software, Traction Tools, at a Chicago EOS? forum. As fate would have it, Todd (another founder) and his assistant Kathy were in attendance and immediately saw its potential for revolutionizing meetings. The rest is history.

Unique points:

• First officially licensed provider of EOS software
• Only software with a pure People Analyser (Summary Page), aggregate To Do completions???
• Can tell who is currently online in the software

What it does well:

• Most knowledge base articles (162)?
• Can customise the Dashboard. Drag and drop makes for personalised user navigation.?
• The collaboration with an EOS Implementer (Coach) is well inbuilt i.e software helps facilitate Focus Days, Vision Building Sessions 1 & 2, Quarterly Planning, and Annual Planning. Delivery of information to the Implementer can be scheduled.?
• Rocks (Goals) have a progress bar representing completion based on milestones, great for Integrators.
• When forwarding a To Do to another team member the software helps you keep track of the delegated item.
• All team members can run a preview of the Level 10 preview and add required detail such as metrics, issues and mark their To-dos as completed. This saves valuable meeting time for review and discussion. This feature also enables the Integrator to check ahead of meeting that the team are on track on active To Do’s and lean into support where needed.
• Can have multiple editors taking part during the meeting. Shows live edits on screen and has a Whiteboard on which smart pen functionality works.
• Integrates with 1000’s of Apps; one super easy integration is with Zapier.

What it could do better:?

I have to be honest, I struggled for suggestions. It contains all the core EOS functions. If nitpicking, there is an inconsistency between the Autosave ability being present on some pages and not all. This could lead to confusion and loss of data if not hitting the ‘save’ button, however, it’s a low risk.

Ninety.io

Mission: Helping small and mid-sized businesses become extraordinarily more productive, humane and resilient.?

Subscribers: 5,500 + business across 26 countries. 1% of users in Australia. 30-day trial available.???

Over 300 + Implementers explore the software.??

Ideal Client: 10-250 employees, which is the EOS Implementer (EOSI) target market, also happily servicing smaller or bigger sized businesses. Ninety.io's ideal clients are those who want to build great companies. Software is available worldwide.

Creation Story: Ninety.io was launched in 2017 by three founders who had the shared experience as EOS Implementers. With backgrounds in software development and strategic business advice, the software was born.?

What it does well:?

• Easy to navigate Knowledge base with articles in both video and written, interlinked to each other.?
• Chat support covers bulk of AU hours, with 24/7 coverage coming by the end of the calendar year?
• Regular weekly live training webinars cover ‘How to’ basics and Advanced e.g. process documentation, and quarterly conversations. Monthly product office hours are a different topic each month, in-depth detail. Note webinars are held in the US Timezone, you can register for a recording.?
• Self-guided implementation starts with the Accountability Chart, a foundation EOS principle. The chart is preloaded with EOS terminology and requirements.?
• Process documenting has default EOS departments pre-loaded.

What could be improved:?

• Quarterly and Annual Session preparation such as a report pack for Integrators to review ahead of the session. Useful to be able to share with an Implementer / Coach.?
• People Analyser Tool. Ninety currently does half the job as it captures the Get It, Want It, Need It (GWC) detail but doesn’t summarise in a one-pager for the leadership team. The good news is the summary page view is currently in testing and will be launched soon.?
• Ability to customise your homepage and build a personalised dashboard view.

ResultMaps

Mission: We’re on a mission to help the world be its inspired best.

Ideal Client: Companies with distributed or all-remote teams pushing to hit their first $10M or their first $50M?

Subscribers: Information not shared?

Creation Story: Founder Scott Levy led high stakes projects for corporate teams and start-ups with a speciality in software, product and program strategy. Loving systems and software design, the practical learnings he tested over and over came to be the functionality in ResultMaps to advise and collaborate with his clients. Client demand to have their own version of the software soon led to it being available for all. After reading and resonating with Traction: Get a grip by Gino Wickman, this led to ResultMaps incorporating EOS principles as one of the available business frameworks in ResultMaps.?

Unique points:?

• 24/7 support?
• ResultMaps University Courses are part of the Platinum plan and available as an add-on purchase on other plans.??
• Mind Maps. I love a Mind Map! The visual ability to see the interconnectedness of all elements of the business strategy, combined with the drill-down feature to dive into actions without losing context is a big winner for me.?
• Extra functionality of Project Management linked to EOS practice and rhythms. This feature has a lot of depth. It is versatile and practices sound project philosophy. The interface is intuitive allowing users to easily add detail and switch between favourite views including lists, columns, mind maps, summary pages and detailed views.
• Has a company Feed, think Yammer. This is useful to the Leadership team as you can praise your team alongside seeing what activities are going on and lean into where support is required, all incorporated into the one system.??

What it does well:?

• In-depth education and training which includes what is best for your business. 1:1 implementation and training available for every user in the business. Onboarding emails come out fast which accelerates learning. To maximise this you need to ensure implementation of the software is an internal top business priority and the team is given working day capacity to engage. Discuss with your ResultMaps account manager which pace is best.?
• The software is gamified with extensive psychological research to reward and nurture people's engagement with the software.?
• The “3 step prep” for the Level 10 meeting is a walkthrough that reinforces ownership of measurables, rocks, to-dos and invites issues to be surfaced. All participants should do this to save valuable meeting time to focus on review and discussion.?
• Can have multiple editors taking part during the meeting. Shows live edits on screen and has a Whiteboard.?
• The Process feature contains a lot of depth since it can utilise built-in project functionality. It includes reusable visual templates and checklists.???
• Alongside EOS principles, the software also has additional options to allow you to take advantage of other business framework elements, e.g Franklin Covey and Anthony Robbins.?

What could be improved:

• The EOS People Analyser is not available.?
• ResultMaps does not have the ‘Same Page’ meeting. However, ResultMaps do have a 1:1 session board feature that can be utilised.

It is worth noting that EOS Worldwide, the creator of the EOS principles, has also launched its beta software. This software was not included in the comparison as it isn’t fair to compare a new product just in the market, to more mature software providers at this point. What I did like about EOS Worldwide software are their help videos. It's great to get training on the EOS principles from the horse's mouth so to speak. It’s worth keeping an eye on this software and its planned roadmap.

In summary, the good news is that when selecting an EOS supportive software you have several choices to choose from in the market. Whilst they are all based in the US this is logical as this is where the business framework was developed. In this global world of technology, the geography and timezone challenges are mitigated comfortably and many Australian businesses are used to being supported by overseas software companies.

About the Author

Michele Clemens has worked in the software industry for over 30 years. During that time, she has worked in many businesses as an early adopter of software, had her own consulting company recommending and implementing softwares, and worked in no less than eight software development houses in senior management roles. She is an official software geek and experienced business advisor who loves to empower business leadership teams and make life easier for everyone on the front line.