21 Aug Enhancing Business Processes Around Your Technology

Posted at 15:20h in Data Analytics by
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If you find yourself spending hours on processes involving applications or technology, you may want to take a step back and look at the whole picture of your business processes.

Most days, we come in to the office, grab our cup of coffee, and fire up our computers. Once we’ve avoided burning our tongue and finished checking our email, we start to look at the day and how it will unfold. Most of us have that one task to complete, whether its daily, weekly or monthly, that we push off because of the amount of pain, suffering and TIME it will take to complete. These tasks are typically done time after time without rethinking the process. More often than not, these tasks are the least enjoyable part of our job. For me, finding a solution that will best alleviate the pain, suffering and loss of time is a top priority, in work AND in life.

What if you could gain back lost time, eliminate monotonous tasks, AND prove to your peers that you are an analytical thinker?

Business decisions usually cannot be made overnight and require persistence and commitment to be implemented. Think about the decision maker approving a change to a business process. They are likely in their own bubble, conducting the business they need to in order to keep the company moving forward. This means evaluating internal business processes will likely fall pretty low on their priority list, BUT this doesn’t mean they don’t value efficiency and overall enhanced business flows. If you are able to put together a PLAN, prove you can EXECUTE the plan and demonstrate the RESULTS, most decision makers will be willing to listen AND give you approval to proceed.

 

What do you consider when attempting to implement a change in process?

 

      1. What is the goal of your department?
        • (Example – Increase sales directly related to digital marketing initiatives)
      2. What is the goal of the process you are looking to enhance?
        • (Example – Consolidate and automate sales and marketing data into on place, allowing for faster, more direct decision making based on results)
      3. Determine the need behind the desired change
        • What are the benefits of the change?
          • (Examples – increased data accuracy and efficiency, less room for error, direct access to important information, more time to evaluate data rather than validating data)
        • What are the issues with the current process that conflict with these three considerations?
          • (Examples – entering the same data into multiple applications, delays in data being posted, lack of access to data for specific departments or entities, pulling data from multiple multi-layered sources)

 

Three primary considerations:

 

      1. Constant need of approval
        • Asking others to change their process is difficult and will often require a higher authority to be willing to communicate to your peers to cooperate with you on the process changes
      2. Additional costs incurred
        • Additional features on applications and software typical require additional cost. This should not be a problem if you are able to prove the money saved from the decrease of time and staff needed to complete tasks
      3. Time of implementation
        • As mentioned before, these changes don’t happen overnight, so do your best to understand and plan according to the time it may take to complete a change of this nature

 

With risk comes great reward:

Risk: 

  • Failure – Obviously this is the scariest part of change, but no risk, comes no reward, right?
  • Brownie points for contributing to the company – positive risk, who knew?!
      • There is a strong chance you will still receive praise for trying to improve the company and validation that you are doing the job as efficient and effective as possible

Reward:

  • Added Time back in your day/week/month
  • Alleviating a pain point in your current role, making work more enjoyable
  • Improved client experience
  • Brownie points for contributing to the company
    • DO NOT UNDERSELL THIS VALUE, you have potential to impact the company overall, leading to potential pay increase or added benefits – if not, at a minimum, its great experience and can be added to the resume.
  • Satisfaction. This. This is what we are all looking for in work and in life. Any opportunity you have to make a positive impact is satisfying and what better way to do so than by making a positive impact on your career and in your company.
In the end, if you are looking for a resume booster, internal recognition, or to simply alleviate stress in the workplace, I strongly recommend you evaluate your daily/weekly/monthly business processes. Afterall, who knows your job better than you?
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