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FIRST START WITH A MANUAL PROCESS, BEFORE YOU IMPLEMENT TECHNOLOGY
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I am someone that loves technology. It makes our lives easier, faster, more effective and provide us with more information, to make better decisions.
So what do I mean, when I say firststart with a manual process, before you implement technology. There are so many things to consider and work out. If you do not know exactly, what do you want to measure, how you want to measure it and what are the reports you are looking for, then you might end up spending a lot more money.
To find the answers to these questions, it is best to do a manual process. This way you have a cheaper process to analyze your process, before a single code, which is more expense has been written.
So let’s have a look at an example. Let’s say Danny Jackson© from DJ Paint store© wants to implement tracking system, for his paint deliveries to customers. So ultimately what Danny wants, is a application on a tablet or phone, that lists all the delivery points for the day, with a customer satisfaction question and lastly a place where the customer needs to sign, he received the stock.
The best way for Danny to approach this idea or project, is not to run as quickly as possible to the first business that can develop an app for his idea, implement it and everybody lives happily ever after. If there are any issues through the development stage or implementation stage, this will cost Danny a substantial amount of money, because if the reports is not working or not what he expected, the developers will have to go back and develop again, which is more expensive.
So the approach I use with projects like this is, I will start with Danny with a manual process. Pen and paper. The customers will be on a list with a questions next to each customer and a place to sign. As the info is coming back, I will capture this from the documents into an Excel sheet to create a database. From there I will develop reports with graphs for the client. This will allow us to see what the information or data tells us, and what do we want to see.
If we want to make changes to the reports or the data points or questions, we can do so. Once we have this finished, we will go back to pen and paper to design the look and feel of what Danny want to see in the app, how it must work and how he wants to see and receive his reports.
Once all of this has been done and Danny is happy, we then have a blue print to communicate to a developer and translate the business requirements, which I have done through the business analyses process, into a software application that keeps a record of all the information.
This may sound like a longer process, but it is a more cost effective process.
If you need help with your business process, then the My Business Puzzle Explorer© program can help you to start the process to optimize your business.To learn more about our My Business Puzzle Explorer© program.