Are Your Systems Really Helping (Or Hurting) You?

Have you yelled at your laptop for the 12th time this week? Did you spend all night trying to figure out a formatting feature in Word? Have you been on hold with your help desk for the past three days? Are you tired of talking about “innovation and change” (when your company can’t get the printer to work)??

Do you sometimes feel like tech is against you?

It’s popular to blame our tools when our systems aren’t working the way we want them to. Or, conversely, to jump to the shiniest new tool on the market to fix your team’s problems without figuring out what’s really causing them.?

I want to talk about another way— the “un-shiny” opportunity I see with my clients. It’s about doing better with the systems we have.

Of course, you probably could use new technologies or systems in certain areas of your business. And there’s a time and place for larger corporate transformations. But in keeping with the theme of this series of “Doing More with Less,” chances are there is so much more you could get out of the tools and systems you already have.

Where Do We Go Wrong?

?The need to “do better” is widespread. Here are some types of systems “problems” I’ve seen at clients (and experienced myself):

• Systems that are vastly underutilized with teams only deploying a tiny amount of what the system can do.
• Modules that continue to be paid for even though they’ve never been turned on.?
• The setup of enormous workarounds to create calculations because users can’t figure out the system.
• Staff making manual entries because the system lacks a simple network connection or interface.
• Widespread retention of paper copies because the backup function for transactions hasn’t been set up.
• Keying-in invoices twice because they can’t get reporting to work.
• Transformation project after transformation project draining project resources and burning out staff.
• Systems reimplemented because they were overly customized (one client lost $100M in the process).
• One IT guy trying to run 30 projects at the same time.
• I once spent $4k on a product called Click Funnels after the excitement of a conference. It was far too big for me and not appropriate for my business. On top of what I spent, I wasted a ton of time trying to figure it out.

All these examples indicate missed opportunities to use the technology paid for or the misuse of resources. In addition, when you aren't using your existing systems effectively, it means everyone compensates by spending more on people, tools, programming, administration, and so on. This all adds up to doing less with more.

4 Deceptively Simple Practices to Get the Most from Your Systems

For “systemic,” more global approaches to getting more from the systems and tools you have, let me share my 4 favorite practices.

1. Use the phone. Call your vendor.

Yes, seriously. It’s that easy.

I can’t tell you how many times I have seen unresolved issues or confusion about how the system works, yet no one knows or bothers to pick up the phone and call the vendor. I have seen many clients who have little or no relationship with their IT vendors or solutions providers, or else a dysfunctional one.?

If your system isn’t doing what you need it to, there may be a solution — one that is free. But you have to pick up that phone. If you’re a manager or team member who sees a gap or nonfunctioning aspect of your systems, speak up. Call someone and have it addressed.

Yes, sending an email or logging a ticket might work, but human connection is your best option to get the service you want and need. For IT applications, services, or systems you are paying for, your fees often include having a dedicated account rep and designated technical support rep to help you. So take advantage of it.

Getting started:

• Have clear roles and accountabilities assigned for each IT application, solution, or service.
• Make sure you know who your vendor rep or technical rep is for each.
• If you don’t have a vendor rep, follow up with the vendor to get one.?
• Contact the vendor rep regularly for challenges, issues, or areas for improvement.
• Review IT incidents, issues, or opportunities during regular meetings with your vendor rep.

2. Review your tools regularly.

Every year during my quiet period around Christmas, I do a bookkeeping review for my business. And every year, I am in shock when I see how much I spent on tools again this year. It’s surprising because I definitely wouldn’t call our businesses highly technical, and many tools (such as social media, project management apps, note taking apps) are cheap or free these days.?

Like our out-of-control cable and streaming accounts at home, tools and fees snowball over time. They sneak onto your credit card to handle one-off issues, and then can stay there indefinitely. While writing this article, I did a quick experiment this week to go over the apps that I have and took some modest actions, working with my assistant, to make better use of a few tools. We focused on two:

• Canva — This tool is a goldmine. What used to cost thousands of dollars to send to a marketing or design firm, you can do yourself. (You can save your budget for those high-value projects where their creative talents are essential). My assistant and I spent a few minutes figuring out the video editor feature in Canva that I have never used but should.?

• Buffer — Although I love social media, I am also prone to distraction (“Oh look, a puppy!”). I use Buffer to pre-schedule posts in advance, so I don’t need to spend as much time on social media. My assistant and I spent a few minutes looking for a better way to manage the “queue” in Buffer. It also paid off!

This exercise took me about 20 minutes, and it helped me move a few steps forward! (No, it didn’t turn us into experts, but it got the wheels turning at least.)?

Just think about the impact that regular reviews can have in bigger companies. In past consulting engagements, I have performed applications rationalization projects for companies who need to sift through hundreds of applications and systems, often from companies they have acquired. A rationalization exercise helps to ensure you are paying for applications, modules, features, support, and licenses that your organization needs.

Getting started:

• Develop a list of applications and systems and their owners.
• Think of one or two things to do better with them.
• Document periodically how to improve with each of them.
• Conduct a regular rationalization exercise to get rid of applications, modules, features, support, and licenses your organization doesn’t need.

3. Schedule time to talk about IT.

If you are a bigger or medium-sized company, your IT, business units, and management should have regular communications to discuss IT needs and “what’s working or not working.” These shouldn’t be administrative meetings but rather opportunities to provide a feedback loop with stakeholders to understand your technology needs.

Whether you form a committee or use working teams, the IT and the business department should discuss the technology you have, how to use it better, and continuous improvement opportunities. It can also be a chance to identify new solutions to add to your technology stack and technology roadmap too.

If you are a small business, this could just be talking about IT regularly. I do this with my assistant, but you might have another team member or trusted external party you can work with.

Getting started:

• Have a regular meeting, maybe monthly or quarterly to allow IT and the business to have a structured communication and a feedback loop.
• Create regular reporting on projects, IT services, and how issues are being resolved.
• Use the meeting to develop a feedback loop with your stakeholders to understand your technology needs.

4. Make an IT project list and plan.

When a company is small, it isn’t unusual that you see one IT guy handling a number of projects off the side of his or her desk to support Finance, Sales, Operations — and everyone else. But, as a company grows, this model becomes unsustainable.

That same IT guy gets stuck playing whack-a-mole with the projects on his plates. In this case, it’s often the “squeakiest” project or stakeholder that gets the attention, but not always the most critical.?

Develop a master list of IT projects. Then, estimate the time and resources they will take, allocate resources accordingly, and plan for them to happen. In the age of citizen development, “IT” might become everyone and not just people sitting in the “IT” team or department. The same applies to small business owners (like me) where you are the CIO and, while your IT projects aren’t major transformations, you still need a plan to make better use of your tools.

Organizations (no matter what size) don’t have unlimited IT people, money, time, energy, or patience to deal with too many IT projects at once or in the same year. Whether you are a small business or a big one, a project plan helps to ensure you are realistic in what IT projects you can take on and where your gaps may be.?

Getting started:

• Develop a list of IT needs and put them into projects.

• Assign resources to the projects.
• Assign hours to projects and assess the demands and availability of your IT resources and where you might have gaps.
• Plan your projects for the year, or else more iteratively in quarterly “spurts”.

When You Do Need Bigger Change: Embracing Digital Adoption vs. Transformation

Sometimes a systems upgrade or transformation is called for when your business has grown or changed dramatically or you are faced with challenges or opportunity in the market. But, as you probably know, digital transformation projects have a high rate of failure (historically at around 70%!). Too often, projects lay out grand visions and hopeful ideas, but this energy and enthusiasm wanes and negative emotions take over as the transformation drags on. (I have been on these projects before.)

One of the biggest reasons researchers cite for the abysmal success rate of digital transformation projects is setting expectations too high.

“To transform” is to go through a process that will make us completely different on the other side. It’s like you are a caterpillar forming into a larva in a cocoon that – after digital transformation – turns into a beautiful butterfly. Maybe this image is just too far-fetched for you. (As a pragmatist, it is for me too).

But there’s another term you can embrace that is just as cool, but way less expensive or grandiose: digital adoption.

Digital Adoption is the practice of evaluating and improving how you use and acquire digital technology to better meet the demands of your organization. It can be as basic as better training on your existing tools.?

While digital transformation is fat, digital adoption is lean and gets to the heart of what doing more with less is all about.

So, before implementing a new system or getting dazzled by what your vendor is selling you, I encourage you to take a good hard look at the tools you have already. It pays dividends to regularly to look at what’s working or not, then to improve how you use them incrementally over time.

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How do we change our focus from what we KNOW to what we DO with what we know??

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