Most business leaders crave a single, reliable version of the truth. This, above all else, gives confidence and decision making capability. Taking control of overblown, spaghetti-like business processes is easier than you think.
How most business processes are created
Most businesses, after a certain amount of trial, error, fire fighting and furrowed brows, figure out their processes.
They understand ‘how we do things around here’, and pretty soon these processes become part of the furniture, passed on to new recruits.
These processes probably started out on paper, post-it notes and whiteboards, before eventually someone with a copy of Access or Excel decides to tighten things up.
The process and the system became one, and everyone got their job done.
For a while at least.
Everyone has their own way of doing things
Each department has its own version of this story, and eventually, the whole company has a fairly good idea of how they actually get things done.
Unfortunately, these outcomes have usually been arrived at by any means necessary.
Software must hold its hands up as the choices made are a major part of this misfortune. All too often different departments opt for different means at their disposal for capturing and processing data.
These proud, shiny creations, either a combination of spreadsheets, or a fancier formation of customised off the shelf software, get the job done.
More or less.
Duplicated processes cause confusion
There are the work arounds, the exceptions to the rule, the occasional mistaken deletion, or inappropriate forward of an email attachment.
And this happens in each area of the business, until you’ve got:
- five customer databases
- an email database
- an online asset register
- an offline asset register
- 3 copies of your Bill of Materials
- not enough software licenses to go round
- very frustrated customers
So we thought we’d solve this really big problem.
How to get a single version of the truth (that’s affordable)
User friendly social networking websites and mobile apps have taught us to expect software that actually works.
Companies understand the problem of user adoption, and they also know that they must get the whole team on board. Poor customer performance will be penalised through social channels and buying decisions.
As it should be.
Flowlens can help you improve your business efficiency. Download our ebook How to improve your processes and reduce waste to find out how.
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