It’s easy to get tunnel vision when it’s time to upgrade workflow technology.
For example, if your network is too slow, you want to upgrade it so it’s fast enough and has sufficient bandwidth that it won’t bog down. If it’s time to replace the additive technology machines you bought a couple of years back, you will naturally focus on the specifications for the latest systems you’ll be investing in.
It’s essential, however, that you never lose sight of the so-called three P’s (people, product, and process) as your business grows and evolves. Think of it this way. If you have a shrubbery in your yard with a single branch that’s thriving and growing while the rest of the plant just hangs on, it’s time to focus on the entire system from soil and roots to moisture, sunlight, and maintenance. Likewise, when growing your business, you must never lose sight of the fundamentals, and the three P’s are as fundamental as it gets.
People
Suppose you learn about a new piece of technology at a trade show that is the best, fastest, and most reliable in its class. Maybe you want to put that piece of technology to work in your business. But you shouldn’t make the decision before understanding how it would affect the people who would work with it.
Maybe upgrading your technology is the right choice, and maybe waiting a while is the right choice. Either way, you can’t expect technology to solve every problem, and you have to invest in your people as well, so they will be trained and ready for new technologies. Otherwise, results will include frustration, and drop-offs in productivity that will have to be addressed.
Product
When you make changes to technology or the processes that use them, you have to ask how they will affect your primary product, whether it’s window blinds or financial reports. Will you take on production of new products? Upgrade existing ones? Can your workflows cope with either of these eventualities?
Once you upgrade, say, your network or production equipment, how will productivity change? How might workflows need to change to accommodate technology upgrades? Can you modify workflows without major upheaval?
Process
Technology upgrades and process changes go hand in hand a lot of the time. Processes have to evolve as businesses grow and change, and planning for process changes is essential for those changes to be as smooth and uneventful as possible.
Automated workflows may be dedicated to a single process, or to multiple sub-processes, and your workflow software can make all the difference in how well you are able to adapt processes and workflows to changing needs.
Ultimately, technology should bring people together rather than drive them apart. Your workflow software can make a measurable difference in how well upgrades and new technologies integrate themselves into daily business.
Workflow software that allows change based on end-user feedback helps with managing changes, as do checks and balances that ensure workflow participants act when their input is needed. The best automated workflows are designed so the right people enter the workflow at the right time, have the tools they need to do their part, and pass along the process to the next participants with maximum efficiency. In other words, they bring the three P’s together seamlessly.
PerfectApps is workflow software that takes the friction and inefficiency out of the processes your business uses every day. No programming is required, so workflow users can have more influence over how workflows are designed and managed. And when technology affecting one part of a workflow changes, the workflow can easily be modified to accommodate it.
Never lose sight of the three P’s of successful business operation, and make sure your workflow software works with, and not against you as you align the three P’s to make your business thrive. PerfectApps encourages you to watch our demo video and see how the right workflow software has your back, helping you optimize processes, put your team’s talent to its best use, and connect the right people with your products.
