Pandemic – An opportunity for small business to embrace change

Organizational greatness generally links to how effective and efficient communications are. The word "communications" in business is broad but commonly relates to communication between employees, management, and departments as well as the ability to effectively communicate with clients and prospective buyers. In this article, I will focus on how it relates to the business itself being able to collect, analyze and communicate information to its employees, enhancing their capabilities and giving them the wisdom to make decisive decisions.

As employees continue to work from home and customers' buying habits change to reflect the pandemic's new landscape, companies must ensure their technology can keep up with and deliver on their employee and customer demands.

Many companies still have local servers and hardware with limited or no remote capabilities to access their offices' information. They have purchased one-off solutions or have a stack of Saas products, each with its own set of ambitions. In most cases, companies have created sophisticated spreadsheets to solve problems as they arise throughout a long history of operations solving problems with limited upfront resources. The problem is that the consequences are an ongoing and compounding tax on employee resources to keep up with the maintenance, along with an ever-growing number of "data islands" that can't communicate with each other without significant manual effort.

The other problem is that by the time these calculations are completed, the data is so old or irrelevant that you are simply looking back on mistakes rather than having an opportunity to make the best in-the-moment decision.

Throughout the pandemic, we have seen companies leverage communication platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack to help teams collaborate and communicate remotely while staying organized and on-task. Even Zoom plans to enhance its offering to address the growing need for project management capabilities within its video conferencing tool.

There are many modern ways to report on data and information without breaking the bank. Microsoft Power BI is an excellent example of this. Its free offering lets you import an offline database, including Excel or a CSV file, and quickly build pretty and compelling data visualizations.

Even with the modern tools available that bring your data to life, the problem still exists in efficiently collecting information. For decades now, small business has been challenged with balancing the need for sophisticated ERP technology environments with the cost of maintenance, customization, and expensive implementation and licensing fees. The alternative is building a custom solution that is purpose-built for their operations, but this comes with a heavy burden of ownership and custom technology management that shouldn't be taken lightly. The other problems are the operational and process changes. These require change management across the entire organization combined with the already heavy burden of replacing every system, spreadsheet, and tool with an entirely different platform.

The good news is it's not as bad as it seems, and the reward is well worth the journey. Some businesses and consultants are experts in helping companies navigate the path to enlightenment. Today, there are cost-effective solutions that didn't exist a short time ago.

Companies have been forced out of the status quo and, out of necessity, have a new perspective on how we work and the value of technology.

This is a chance to make life easier. This is an opportunity to lower fixed expenses, identify your strongest people, and build stronger relationships with clients and vendors.

Now is the time to make changes that will impact your resilience to environmental changes in the future. Now is the time to embrace technology and do the work needed to make your company the envy of your peers and competition. Now is the time to simplify and enjoy life.