Top 5 Tips for Growth - when thinking systems

Step 1: Start with the end in mind

Often companies have several systems and legacy systems which do not talk to each other. It is recommended to start with what your company looks like if everything is running smoothly and how you see this in 2-5 years' time. For example, is it the same as today? Or are you planning on changing? It is also important to build your vision and service offering (the ‘Why & What’) to be in line with the processes and systems (the ‘How’).

Step 2: Workflow

With cross-functional teams being a part of every organisation, mapping out each department’s workflow and overlaying these against the customer experience is critical. Many organisations have isolated silos for workflow and teams, which leads to a disjointed customer experience. Critical hand-overs from a sales team to an operations team, for example, can create double handling and even loss of vital information. This results in poor client experience, due to repetition and an incorrect expectation of the final result. You also miss out on extra sales opportunities by integrating other offerings you may have into the right part of your process, where a client might be offering buying signs for other products and services you offer.

Step 3: People and norms

Culture is king – so looking at how your people interact with each other is often missed by many organisations when building their systems. For example:

• ​Implementing systems with teammates competing against each other versus looking out for the customer and the company’s mission.
• ​Limiting collaboration by having systems and processes that are about recording detail and scope instead of sharing common themes and trends for constant improvement.

There are many examples here and there is no one fit all solution. It’s about knowing what norms and culture are critical for your success and vision.

Step 4: Leading and Lagging Indicators

Linking all the above into the equation as well as knowing your business-critical quality, safety, environment, and financial indicators is a must. Simplifying what measures mean you are doing a good job as you are working is the trick for making this happen and creating clear and precise live interactive dashboards.

Furthermore, using API integration to make this work successfully is also a key ingredient. With many systems only able to report on the key data you are capturing in their platform (e.g., CRM vs Operations vs Financial). When done well, you do not need your lagging indicators (did we make money, etc.) since you already know the results. Lagging indicators become more about confirming outcomes and looking for trends to improve into the future.

Step 5: Live it, be open to change and adapt

Many companies roll out a system and then forget about them. Innovative and forward-thinking companies instead:

• ​Make their systems one with their people, clients, and workflow so it becomes a part of their company. It flows in unison, like oil in an engine allowing the parts to move freely.
• ​Iterate on the fly since they have built agile systems, by following the first 4 steps.
• ​Ensure that ‘everyone’ lives it. If a team member is operating outside of the system or process, something must be broken and assessed. It might not be the person; it might be the system – to which an open mind is important.

J.M.C.S Progression

J.M.C.S Progression specialises in transformational growth by connecting people, culture, and systems. J.M.C.S Progression provides a more flexible way for organisations to source Executive Leadership and support, for scaling and transforming their companies in line with their vision, missions, and objectives.

J.M.C.S Progression assisted SBL Solutions in scaling their team whilst maximising Assignar and utilising an API integration to create SBL Solutions’ data hub. Read the case study here.