Is this year going to be better than last year? I can already say yes, but can you?
The reason is the elimination of several bottlenecks in our business. It took most of last year, but two major issues holding us back were eliminated by process change. We estimated the changes would save us approximately 500 hours this year and about 10K in capital investments. More importantly, the changes help us focus more on clients. Already, the board and myself are seeing improvements in staff motivation and better understanding and service.
Too many businesses fly into the new year with great hope, but no direction. Management is clobbered with year-ending and beginning tasks, so it’s business as usual. What are 1 – 3 things that if you “fixed”, would help management, staff, and customers? Think strategically and if it is just one thing that has a significant positive impact, that is still huge.
We moved our Customer Relationship Management application that runs both our sales and support operations to cloud computing. We exported the data, customized a few forms and reports, and in full operations in less than 30 days. A bottleneck was removed for staff as all functions could now be done in one place. Our management team had one less thing to worry about off of our business continuity list. Finally, customers reap the biggest reward by some new features and more focus.
One of the major reasons you use a Virtual CIO is to eliminate those bottlenecks which become a win/win/win for all involved. Here are a few examples we’ve done for other clients:
- Increased inventory turn double per month by integrating data collection for a large distributor
- Increased product shipments 6,000 tires per day for a major manufacturer
- Saved energy conglomerate $24 million annually in freight processing
- Reduced IT costs $86,000 annually for local law firm
- Lowered communication costs $225,000 for a municipality
Unfortunately, identifying the bottleneck and how to remove them are two different skill sets. If you’re tired of the status quo, inquire about our Virtual CIO service (918) 622-1167 Option 3.