Do you have the right technology and tools to grow your organization?
You may have a hard time answering this question with an emphatic “yes” if your organization is using QuickBooks or similar systems in conjunction with add-on or third-party solutions for your reporting needs. The low price and minimal time commitment necessary for these solutions may make them seem attractive, but their narrow scope and disconnected nature will leave you wanting more.
It’s very easy to keep track of all the details on a project when you’re just managing a handful or when you only have a few SKUs in your inventory. However once you increase the number of projects or inventory items the amount of data that you have to look at, analyze and keep track of can be very challenging.
Track All of Your Information
Today the financial system meets the needs of the business, but as the business grows it loses the ability to handle some of the complexity. So we look at bolt-on solutions that “integrate” business units, which is really just a short term fix. It’s a Band-Aid to the overall problem. You have two systems where this information is being tracked: Some of it is over here, some of it’s over there, and some of the information is shared between the two systems as it’s bolted together. This gives you an incomplete view of really what’s going on with your business.
Reduce Training Time
What many organizations look to do is say “well we’ll spend that time now and we’ll kick the can down the road” without really looking at the amount of time that’s wasted learning a short-term fix now when they’re really going to have to learn the long-term fix later. So while it may seem like a load now to learn and adopt a new system, the time savings and efficiency long-term provide massive benefits to your less technically savvy team members.
Plan for Growth
Organizations need to look not where they are today, but where they want to be and where they expect to be in the future. Do you want to expand into new markets? Add new product or service offerings? Do you have specific sales targets? You want to design and figure out what the systems will be that are needed for the firm for the long-term growth in the organization, not short-term. You need a system that will grow with you and not put you back in the same position a few years from now.
The Takeaway
By looking at and projecting where the firm is going to be and choosing the solutions for the long-term growth you can enjoy the benefits and efficiencies when you need them and be where you want to be instead of playing catch-up from bolt-on systems.
