Searching for information

We install software in a business to increase productivity and reduce costs, sometimes to deliver a service that could not be delivered in another way.

Having said that, I am always surprised at the lost productivity that I find in business. One of the areas of wasted effort is searching for information. It doesn't take long to do most jobs. What takes a long time is searching for the information to be able to do the job.

Paper has a disadvantage over computers. It can only be in one place at any time. When information is loaded into a computer database that is shared among many people, it is accessible by everyone. So you can do the job when you are ready, not when the information reaches your desk.

In working with a small company recently, I found that they were often delayed in getting their invoices out. The reason was that jobs were being charged as time and materials and all of the charges had to be in before an invoice could be produced. This often took weeks before all of the payroll and payable forms could be made available. It was a further problem because many of these jobs were verbal agreements and there was no tracking mechanism.

Once we had the tracking mechanism in place, it acted as a trigger and a small change in the paper flow process allowed the information to be immediately available and the invoice could be created on the same day.

While a totally automated process might provide more benefits, a lot of work was required to get there. This provided the benefit (faster invoicing, faster receivables) without major effort.

Electronic tracking of workload (a small effort) produced a big benefit (faster revenue). This is what businesses need to look for. Big, complex, lengthy projects are not necessary to get value. Focus on the value first, then what effort is required to get it.