The other part of the equation, of course, is keeping on keeping on doing what they do. That takes an orchestrated effort of getting the most out of their people and processes. In order to do that - it will require that folks take a look at what they're doing - and being able to do it better and with more efficiency.
If you sum it all up into a single term - that means that everyone will want/need to be more productive. More productive, and therefore more efficient, in all aspects of their business. This means that the salespeople need to do better - but it also means that product development, customer service, support, marketing and all the other moving parts be enabled to do what they do - better, smarter and faster.
Then I came across an article in CIO Insight that talked about Business Process Improvement (BPI) - and it just confirmed my thoughts and gut instincts:
The top drivers for improving processes were quite similar during good times and bad, but IT executives signaled more urgency during more trying climates. For example, during good times, respondents cited productivity boosts as a top overall goal for business process improvement: 34 percent for companies with less than $500 million in annual revenue; 24 percent for companies making $500 million or more.
During a downturn, however, that number skyrocketed to 73 percent across all companies. Similar spikes were seen in other drivers, such as reducing costs, increasing revenue and keeping up with competitors.
So - that's all good and everything - but what the heck are you supposed to do about it? The answer is: technology.
When you're forced to more with less the only way to do it - is with smarter, better, more flexible technology - because at the end of the day - there's still only 40 hours in a work week.
That means that NOW is the time to "fix" those processes that are "broken." If you have internal or customer-facing systems that aren't up to snuff - it's time to take a look at where you can get the most "bang for the buck" - and change/enhance those systems.
Those changes can be small, or be large, depending on where you want to go with your business. It might mean additional reports to give managers more real time information into how the business is functioning - or it might mean adding a SaaS (Software as a Service) offering to your customers who want to "rent" rather than "buy" your application.
Either way - you need software tools that are flexible, fast, scalable and allow you to take advantage of multiple delivery methods (native client, browser, mobile) - with as little re-coding as possible. The last thing in the world you want - especially now - are tools that are complex, hard to debug and slow to roll out.
The key is to get these improvements in place quickly. It's not going to do you any good to start building stuff that can't be in the field within 2-6 weeks. Granted, if you're re-writing your core application to add SaaS capabilities - it's not going to get done in that time frame, but for other, internal applications those are the time targets you need to strive for.
If you are going to add a SaaS offering - try to offer a "lite" version of your current main application. This will allow you to potentially add to the top line growth by getting new customers into your ecospace. It will also allow your smaller customers the ability to stay with your software rather than jumping ship to a competitor who offers a more slimmed-down version of the same basic functionality and meets 80% of their needs at a much lower cost.
It's time to have a sit-down with your folks and discuss where things are "broken" - and to come up with ways to maximize their productivity (and hopefully make their jobs easier). The last thing you need in a down economy is unhappy, overworked, frustrated people on your team. Now and for the foreseeable future - it's all about productivity.
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