If you build your company from the ground up, it becomes special to you—and rightfully so. However, when it grows, expands and becomes successful, it’s easy to turn a blind eye to systemic problems and pain points that affect the business. Why? Because it’s too personal to you. You spent countless hours setting up, structuring and operating the organization—and your systems worked; so why change them?
Well, there are many reasons.
Past the Tipping Point
All too often, clients come to us when their systemic issues have passed the tipping point. It’s only when their problems get out of control that they look in the mirror and admit to themselves that there were long-standing concerns to address. This is the number one thing that companies don’t understand about their business: how it actually works.
The Process: Not as Good as You Think
A more definitive word we like to use is “process”. Most businesses do not understand the process or processes in their business. Many think they understand them, but after diving into their internal communication systems, workflows, hierarchies, management and oversight procedures, they realize that many aspects are outdated, inefficient, mottled and in need of serious help. Sometimes, it takes an outsider, like our specialists at Eligeo, to see what the insiders cannot.
“But, that’s the way we’ve always done it…”
It’s a hard truth to accept, but sometimes the systems that once helped your small business grow, no longer provide value when it expands into a medium to large-sized company. Legacy systems are hard to stop using because that’s the way you’ve always done things, and switching to a new platform or management model seems too overwhelming to even think about.
It’s true: switching from an old system to a new system isn’t always easy—but if you really want to improve the way your business runs, you’ll need to do it before it’s too late. Much like taking care of a car, putting off maintenance is more convenient in the short term but, in the long run, it costs you a lot more time and money. When we suggest new platforms and integrations to clients, there’s usually some hesitation, but when we show them how these integrations work—how they connect departments, streamline communications, turn five-task jobs into one-task jobs—they are elated and relieved.
Some of the most common process problems we see businesses struggle with include the following:
Communication Breakdowns
Great internal communication holds a company together. When running smoothly, information is accessible to the right people at the right time, everyone knows what everyone else is working on, and no one is running around blaming others for missing information or client problems. It can also prevent a toxic workplace.
When it’s not working, a lot can go wrong. For example, multiple employees working on a single project end up housing critical client information in their work emails or different storage devices and information gets lost. With more staff working remotely, this problem has become more prominent than ever, because staff don’t have the ease of chatting to their desk neighbours anymore. Quick conversations now happen via text, messaging apps, email and more, and if there isn’t oversight on where, how and when this information is delivered, projects (and people) quickly go haywire.
Too Many Processes
Another glaring problem we see is too many processes. Many companies come to us with internal problems and they can’t understand how they’ve happened because they have the latest technology at their fingertips. Again, because their business is so personal to them, they don’t realize that they are over-processed. They’ve layered too many systems on top of each other so the workflows are time-consuming and inefficient. Where one app or platform could suffice, they end up having several.
No Journey Oversight
For many companies, the customer journey is too siloed, so the business has different operating systems and platforms for lead generation, sales, project management and delivery, and this can make for a lengthy battle of search and find for all staff involved. It’s much easier to have comprehensive oversight of all of these areas, so information is always accessible to everyone involved, and more importantly, serves the clients who want to see that each department understands their history and journey with the company.
If you don’t understand your company process—if you don’t know how it operates—then there is no point in spending money on new technology. Our company is living proof that understanding your process is the key to improving your business. We’ve helped dozens of growing organizations streamline their processes with the latest technology—customizing it to their industry specifications—but it all begins by addressing one simple question:
What is your business process?