Getting to the Business Goal

Many technology related projects get stuck in the technology world. They start with a business goal, but by the time they get to doing something, the goal is totally wrapped as a technology related project. The end result is that although the technology related project is delivered, the business goal is missed, or the effort to deliver it exceeds the value.

A recent project provides an example of how the business goal can easily be missed.

I was called in to help a small construction company. They were growing rapidly and went from small jobs to much larger ones. These larger projects required more sophistocated tools. As a result, they purchased new software. After a year of trying unsuccesfully to implement, they called me for help.

In analyzing the situation, I found that the software was probably the right one for the job. However, the approach was wrong. The focus had been to implement the complex functions first, ignoring was was their bread and butter operation. The complexity of the new function required significant effort, meanwhile, they had problems with day-to-day operations.

In digging into the issue further, I found that they were unable to invoice their customers ina timely manner. Since everything was being done manually, they had no records until after a job was invoiced, no ability to follow up on what was billed or not billed. Invoicing was 3-6 months late.

The delayed invoices meant that customers were not being billed and therefore not paying their bills until months later. This created a cash flow problem. lack of cash flow meant that the business could not take on the bigger, more profitable jobs. Lack of bigger jobs meant that the growth of the company was stopped.

So the real business goal was to grow the company. In order to grow, the company needed cash. In order to get cash, the company needed to invoice more quickly on the small jobs. In order to bill more quickly, they needed to start tracking jobs when they were started, when a quote was given.

We were able to capture all existing jobs and and create a follow up process for planning and executing the jobs as well as invoicing most jobs within days of completion in less than 3 months. This meant that the company could focus on growing the business quickly. The new functions to handle to large jobs could be done during quieter times.

If the original goal of fully implementing the software had been maintained as the priority, it would have taken a lot longer and cost a lot more. During that delay, the company might not have survived its cash flow problem.