Why Buying Faster Computers Isn't Enough
Today I want to talk about a situation I come across too often. A company invests time and money in upgrading their IT infrastructure. New computers sit on every desk and the network is as fast as ever. Everything looks great and barely a complaint is heard. Management sits back and waits for the productivity to go through the roof. And why wouldn't they, their spreadsheets open in the blink of your eye.
Now fast forward a few months, and nothing has changed. Outside the software running faster, there is no real boost to efficiency or productivity. What happened? You have the latest and greatest equipment, what went wrong?
The Problem
The problem is that while the computers are faster, the processes your employees use remain the same. That new computer might make that spreadsheet open faster, it does nothing to the process. If you are entering data into that pc by hand, that extra speed is wasted. Processes that require a lot of decision making will remain the same as well. What makes them slow was never the hardware, but the fact that a decision-maker is involved. If they are on vacation or working on other projects, it slows down the process. It is like driving a very old car on the highway. You can upgrade the road it drives on, but you are not going to improve how fast it can go. Hence, the title of this article.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t spend money on improving your IT hardware, it just means you need to consider your business processes when considering upgrading. What if your company is one of those I am talking about? Does this mean you wasted money or can't do anything about it? No, but it does mean you need to conduct a review of all your processes.
Technology Assessment
I am not going to paint this process as full of rainbows and unicorns. Yes, it takes time and costs money, but done right, you can see real gains in productivity. Freeing your employees to focus on work critical to the company. Eliminating unprofitable and unproductive work.
Not sure where to start? One of the services I offer is a technology assessment, where I help companies find improvements in their processes and show them where they can use technology to eliminate that unproductive and unprofitable work. The best part is that the assessment is free, and I guarantee that you will walk away with four or five great ideas that you can put in place, even if you don’t hire me. Give me a call at 207-740-5709 today and let’s talk. Let me show you how I work with zeros and ones to put more zeros behind your ones!