Why you shouldn’t be using all of the capabilities of your software
You know that saying, that companies use only a fraction of the full capabilities of their software— and insufficient training is blamed?
Actually, you shouldn’t be using all of the capabilities of your software. A good chunk of it doesn’t critically apply to you.
Software companies, especially those that don’t offer easy options to buy only the modules you need, pile on the features so that their tools can be sold to a range of customers without customization. All those features can be a distraction with extra steps; twenty-five choices on a screen instead of just the four you need.
The key to leverage? Optimize 1% of each core process at a time
In every department, change a small bit of your life that’s of big significance.
To redo the entire department is daunting. It’s likely to miss the best opportunities, and cost a lot. Instead, modify one aspect and train people well on that. Incremental improvements usually add up to bigger and faster returns on investment.
Five places to look for big wins
1. Where have you settled for less?
Do you put up with workarounds and inaccuracies as a cost of doing business? Low expectations have a lost opportunity cost.
Instead, design it perfectly the way you need it. We do this for our clients. It’s possible because we offer source code software that’s designed to allow people to change anything about it, anytime.
When you remove a limitation, it lifts your team. The ease in doing their jobs well pays off as much as the time and costs saved.
2. What’s your company’s special thing?
One of our clients specializes in government work. They must provide formatted reports for items covered under contract.
We added fields to pass inventory data directly into sales reports in the required format.
It was a small bit of programming that took a few hours and it didn’t cost much. Yet it allows them to meet their customer’s need without fail, automatically. It makes a great customer experience even better.
This kind of leverage strengthens your core competency and helps you continue to thrive.
3. What important piece is broken?
If fixed, it will bring a huge time savings and a huge morale boost. Get your software set up to provide a breakthrough at last.
4. What’s changing that you’ve got to respond to?
For example, as your company grows, the amount of cash you have tied up in inventory becomes more critical. A small percentage of inefficiency in your purchasing starts to represent a bigger risks.
By refining your ability to forecast inventory needs, on a $1-2+ million inventory you can save $100,000 and up. That’s leverage that lets you sleep better at night.
5. What new opportunity do you want to pursue?
It’s freeing to know that you can try new ideas easily, in a self-reliant cost-effective manner.
Malleable software tools that can respond to new needs truly change the way an innovative manager can work.
Listen to your team’s suggestions (or complaints) with an ear toward uncovering ideas to implement.
We’d love to hear your wish list for connecting authentically with your customers and welcome your call.
The real point of leverage is being able to change efficiently when the world around you changes. To create leverage, sometimes we focus on getting the right software tool, the program which lets us do this or that. Real innovation and leverage also requires our proper and creative use of the tool. The days of saying “it can’t do that” are over when you use software designed to be modified easily to focus on the incremental, doable changes that will give maximum leverage. There can be one less hassle in your business day when it does just what you need.
