If you want to empower your company to grow and beat your competition, you have to identify inefficient steps and processes and resolve them as soon as you can. But inefficiencies aren’t always easy to detect — some of them have become so ingrained into your operations that they are no longer readily apparent. Nevertheless, you can find them by looking for these symptoms:
#1. Silos
Silos form when departments refuse to or become incapable of working with other teams in the same company. Driven by an us-versus-them mentality, siloed teams keep to themselves and tend to work for their own faction, instead of the organization to which they belong.
In the presence of silos, different teams could unknowingly work on or compete with each other over the same goal, ultimately wasting time and other resources. Take, for instance, what happened to Sony when three different silos competed for dominance over digital music players, leading to their defeat by the much more streamlined and robust iPod.
You can break down silos by improving transparency in your business. Introduce collaboration software, such as Trello or Slack, that would allow different teams to see what everyone else is doing. These applications also open channels through which different teams can support each other by freely sharing files and ideas.
#2. Unintegrated systems
Incorporating as much tech as possible will not magically make your operations smoother. Your hardware and software must be properly synced and integrated with each other, lest you end up with a disjointed system that requires your workers to constantly copy/paste or retype the same information across several apps, just to perform a single task.
The components of a properly integrated system “talk to each other” so that information entered in one app doesn’t need to be repeated in another. This reduces the number of steps needed to finish a job, allowing your staff to finish more tasks within a given period or to focus on more important work.
Finding tech components that support your workflow isn’t easy, so seek out expert assistance when needed. These experts should also help you set up a well-oiled IT system that eliminates redundancies, reduces steps, and speeds up the completion of crucial tasks.
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#3. Lack of visibility
As a business owner, you need to have a clear view of all aspects of your business at all times. Visibility is crucial to identifying problems, understanding which activities to prioritize, and deploying timely and effective solutions.
You can use sensors, the internet, and the Internet of Things (IoT) to gather real-time data about your business’s performance at any given time. These technologies also let your workers document their observations and any issue they encounter while doing their job. Using analytics, you can crunch all collected information to produce insights that are crucial for making sharp and educated business decisions.
Going back to silos, some of your company’s teams may not be willing to share collected data with their peers. You can address this issue by implementing a centralized, cloud-based database or storage that everyone with the right login credentials can access.
Leveraging the power of cloud technology ensures transparency and visibility and destroys silos. It also allows your workforce to function as efficiently and effectively in any location as if they were in the office.
Keep in mind that your efforts to eradicate inefficient steps and processes can only be effective if you are open to change and new solutions.
At Zenops, we work with our clients to identify technologies and opportunities for them to maximize their efficiency and productivity, allowing them to deliver better results to their clients and increase their bottom line. Contact us today!
