Sometimes people try to be too clever. It’s a common mistake and often happens because of a need to impress. It can also happen when a consultant or member of staff has an agenda or product to push for what ever reason. They become so focused on pushing the system they forget that sometimes new does not mean improved.
In a conversation today I heard about a company here in New Zealand which has a paper based work flow. Sounds unbelievable in this day and age, right? Yet, this company is doing well and delivering the correct items to the correct customers on time. The reason is that they have invested in the work flow and not the system which manages the data. Each person knows just what to write on the paper and who to pass it to. The business process rules are working using the simplest technology available; technology which drove industry for a very long time before the invention of the computer; technology which is still used by a lot of people in business’ of all sizes.
Of course there are down sides to this paper chain: storage for one; finding passed orders for another and no easily searched database to use to check invoices against. But creating a database such as this is all going to be very easy to achieve and any good database and form building programmer could do it with an sql database or Filemaker.
But one thing to bear in mind is that while the staff could potentially put exactly the same details into an application to be pushed through the work flow electronically, this would require a major investment in technology to facilitate the ability to input the data on site. Yes, that might save some time and possibly increase orders but does the ROI add up? Or is it technology for the sake of it? You see, if the present system is working and sales have actually increased what is the business case? The piece of paper being used by the sales guys does the trick. The issue for this company is to find the point in their chain where the largest benefit is gained in the shortest time by applying some electronic systems. In the case of this company I would say that that is in the office.
And thats the trick here, dont pick a new system and impose it on your company, spend some time figuring out if and what needs to be fixed and how. Remember, low tech is still tech and sometimes the simplest tech is the most failproof and supplies the greatest return on your investment.
