Improving business operations is definitely on the bucketlist of any business owner out there. But, they are alywas limited by the complexity, cost and tecnical nature of how to improve their own operations. Many business people and entrepreneurs "hit the roof"of progreess, simply because they don't really know how to improve their operational processes any further.
So how exactly should one go about this? How do you implement a software in your business, while at the same time focus on serving your customers and not break down? What about the implementation cost and the cost of the software itself, should you even bother to incur such expenses in the first place?
Whell, if undertaken strategically, digitizing your operational process and undertaking business process re-engineering could be the best decision you could have made for your self and your company. Below are step by step measures that you can take to implement the software the right way.
1. Identify the problem
In order to solve any operational inefficiencies you need to first identifly what your problems are. What inefficiencies do you tend to have in your daily operations? How do you identify inefficienciees in the first place?
The areas of your business that you find hard to maage are most likely the problems you need to solve. For businesses that manage inventory for example, if you cannot keep track of your products, that is what you have purchased, sold, damages, expiries, and returned products, then you have an inventory management problem that you need to solve.
For service companies, you might need to track the time and material tracked while undertakign the service delivery.
In general, all businesses need to know their financial reports, if, therefore, you cannot generate an accurate profit and loss statement, balancesheet and cashflow statement, then you probably have operational inefficiencies that you need to work on. Other really important reports are your receivables and payables report, that is who still owes you money, and who do you owe money? All these are fundamental reports that if you cannot generate, then you probalby need to check on your record keeping.
Record keeping.
Managing a business involves huge volumes in record keeping. You need to generate invoices, and capture expenses daily, upload receipts, timesheets, employee records, among others. If you cannot maintain accurate records, then you definitely need to check up on how you are managing the business.
2. Come up with a plan
This is the roadmap of how you would like the implementation to be done. This involves the planning, phasing and budgeting of the implementation project. What does the plan entail?
- The potential sofware solution:
Based on your needs you need to identify the software that fits your business need. Typically, you should identify sofware that is easy to use, within your budget constrains, easy to adapt to, can be configured to meet your specific business need, you can access quick and quality support, does not easily break down and can be backed up.
b. Timelines.
As a business, your primary end goal is profit maximization and customer satisfaction. You don't really have the time to pause your business operations just to focus on setting up your software. It's therefore essential to come up with project timelines on how you are going to undertake the software implementation. Based on your requirements, the timelines should be grouped into different phases based on your requirements and what you consider most urgent. For example, a business might have challenges in inventory management, invoicing and employee records. You should come up with a hierachy of the the most pressing issue. If it's inventory management, the it's what needs to be given the highest and most immediate priority.
c. Budget.
This is the financials of the project. You need to take into consideration two things: the cost of the software, and the cost of the implementation. The software you eye should be one that lets you pay only for what you need. If your pain point is inventory management, don't get a sofware that makes you pay for a package of "inventory management and HR". You will end up purchasing funcitionality that you don't realy need, and this will inflate your software cost.
When it comes to implementation, you can implement for yourself as well, if you can learn the technical know-how of how to set up the software. Your implementation is going to be more successful however if you hire experts to guide you on how to set up and use the software the right way.
You should always take your time when coming up with the plan and refine it, as it decides how successful the implementation will be.
3. Implementation
This is the the definitive moment. Where all the setup is done. A typical rule to follow is try and stick to the plan that you came up with during the setup. If there's any data that needs to be imported into the system, make sure that it's clean. If they are contacts, avoid any duplicate contacts as they become really confusing when you want to select which customer, or supplier you are transacting with. Same applies for products.
Always start with, and stick to what is priority. If it's inventory management, once you have everything set, your products uploaded and stock taking has been done, you should start using the system then, as you continue setup in other departments. It's never a good idea to try to implement the whole software in one go. It will take far too long, delaying your operations, and the aim for perfection will frustrate you to the point where you may never finish the implementation. Start small and keep improving. It's actually better to have a partly functional system than no system at all.
After you have finished setting up, you can begin training end users on how to use the system to perform operations.
4. Using the software after implementing.
Once the software has been implementend, you should be good to go to start using it. At this point you need to be patient with the end users. They are not going to be aquainted with the system righ away. And changing over from old habits aren't as easy as well. The system users need the most guidance and support on the first weeks of starting to use the system.
Author
Baraka Waswa.
Certified ERP Sofware expert, project manager and business analyst.