Atl Sunset

Tired of Bad Tech? How to Get the Right Solutions and Grow Your Business

A critical issue in the small business world is taking action on a vendor’s opinion. Since realizing this issue, I tell all my clients, do NOT ask vendors for their opinions, and here’s why. The most obvious reason is that the vendor is going to nudge you into purchasing its software. They are going to give you all sorts of statistical information that makes the software a solution to all of your problems. For the low price of 18k a year, all of your problems will vanish! Once the business realizes that’s not the case, our firm gets a phone call! Vendors are not consultants!

As a small business owner, here’s what you do:

  1. Assess operations to determine pain points. Ask employees their opinions of current operations and room for improvements. Compare and analyze data gathered to identify patterns and areas of improvement. ESTABLISH A BASELINE (KPIs that can roll over into new improvements), this is important so you can measure the effectiveness of future improvements.
  2. Map processes. This helps to visualize, and visualization often leads to noticing obvious bottlenecks that would otherwise go unnoticed. Mapping also helps with step three.
  3. Analyze technology stack. This will help you determine what tech you need based on the outputs of steps one and two. You will want to assess integration capabilities of the softwares in use, ideally you want modularity. Don’t forget to identify data silos (there are ways to avoid this!).
  4. Rank improvements. Improving customer interactions will provide the most immediate value, so you should probably rank customer interactions at the top of your list of improvements. As a general rule, digital transformation should start in the front office and make its way to the back.
  5. Develop a plan , implement said plan, and monitor progress. You’ll want to improve in iterations versus all at once. Make sure you provide adequate training on all tools and processes. And don’t forget to track performance.

All of your problems are not going to be solved by throwing cash at a vendor. If you need help in evaluating and improving your technology solutions to better align with your unique problems, ask a third party (not a vendor), someone who does not benefit either way.