* Don't rely on technology, rely on people helped by technology
All the talk about technology, computers, and networking miss the point: technology isn’t important, people are important. It matters not if we have the fastest computer available if we don’t know how to use it to our advantage. Point of sale systems don’t sell things, people do. Word processors don’t write letters, people do. The most important part of your technology sits on the opposite side of the keyboard from the monitor.
I see two main problems in companies struggling with technology. First, they buy systems that don’t fit their business. Second, they don’t properly utilize the best parts of the technology they do have.
Easier to say “buy the right system” than to describe how to do it, right? Test every new technology against two criteria: will it make you money, and will it save you time. Don’t buy systems unless they do both.
Don’t confuse “will it make you money” with “cheap” because they are not the same thing. While the ROI fanatics miss the point at times, a new system should pay for itself over a reasonable amount of time and then put future savings in your pocket. A new software application to schedule your five service techs may cost $10,000, but if you get four extra jobs per week based on better scheduling, will you make money from the purchase?
I talked this week to the president of a phone installation and service company with five techs. Rather than spend the $10,000, he adapted Time and Chaos’ appointment calendar and to do list for his techs, using the company’s color-coded system. Cost? $40 plus a little effort. He also spends about $10 per month posting the appointments to a private page on Time and Chaos’ Web site so techs can look at their schedules each morning from home, rather than driving to the office.
This is a great example of using 80% of an inexpensive program’s features rather than 20% of an expensive program’s features. Does a $10,000 tech scheduling program have more bells and whistles than a $40 appointment tracking program? Absolutely. But how many extra features would it take for you to spend $9,960 more to replace a simpler system that gets the job done?
Letting the techs check their schedules from home saves them time, another key benefit. Fewer miles on the company service vehicles means longer life and less gas. Less pointless driving makes employees happier.
These same techs print out their appointments and hand-write the service call details on the pages during the job. At the end of the day, they fax the pages, with their notes, back to the office.
I’ve said before I’m not a fan of fax, but many are. More important, most people use fax machines comfortably and with no errors. Better a simple technology that works reliably than a fancier system with errors.
If your techs make a dozen stops per day rather than four, this system may not work. You may need to invest in a wireless PDA and a program that provides check boxes for the techs to mark as they finish and immediately upload to the office. UPS pioneered wireless clipboards for drivers because they got an ROI with real time updates for each delivered package, along with an electronic signature from the receiver.
One valuable resource small companies ignore far too often is employee training. Excuses are easy, but smarter employees make better decisions, work faster and contribute more.
Training doesn’t have to mean sending an employee across the country to the vendor for a week, because that’s tough for small businesses. It can mean paying your reseller for a day to work with your employees at your business on your systems. It can mean buying a couple of books on your new software and leaving the employee alone for an afternoon to try things without normal work day pressure. That’s not expensive, and the employee will almost certainly learn new tricks to share with other employees.
Conventional wisdom says training employees is a mistake, because they’ll leave for a better job thanks to the training you provided. Conventional wisdom is wrong again. A few will bail on you, but most employees realize your investment in their training acknowledges their value to the company. More, it says you value them as employees and people, and most will respond in kind.
Happy, motivated employees will make you more money than the fastest computers and newest technology every single time.
* Editor’s Note: Take a Vacation, Stay Connected
If you didn’t think it was possible to stay connected to the network while on vacation, think again. Advances in networks and technologies make it possible for you to get away from the office yet still remain tethered to what’s going on. Our special ‘Toys of Summer’ product guide (compiled by Cool Tools guru Keith Shaw) will show you the best new devices that let you get away from the data center and onto a nice, sandy beach.
