We aren’t doctors at Convverge, but it can feel that way some days. Our patients are our clients and we find them at our doorstep struggling with certain business pain points in their organization. Whatever the pain point is in the business, it is always a frustrating circumstance for them. It is often explained as a piece of the business that is holding them back from achieving certain goals.
As the helpful doctor, or rather digital consultant, we want to support you and offer some prescriptive technology solutions for the pain. With the year drawing to a close, here is a quick look at the most commons business pain points we dealt with this year and the range of solution ideas we offered.
Top 3 Business Pain Points We Dealt with in 2021
ACCESSIBILITY
Problems here ranged from only being able to access files from the office to slow and tortuous methods to login to file servers to access items. When access is inconvenient, the reality is people start finding ways to speed things up and that creates its own set of problems; like saving multiple versions of key documents locally on computers, on USB keys, or in free cloud services (i.e. Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive, etc..). The problem with workarounds that aren’t tied to the company infrastructure is chaos and confusion, or formally known as loss of document control and increased risk of information and data loss.
The Solution: It depends on the company and the degree of pain they bring us. Typically we end up looking at two solution routes – Modern Workplace Solutions and/or Cloud Services and Migration. With Modern Workplace solutions companies can harness the power of the cloud by bringing in a suite of Microsoft 365 technologies to help their teams be more productive, collaborative, and unified from anywhere. With Cloud Services our consulting effort ends up being centered around IT infrastructure and how cloud services can make storing, processing, reporting and security more feasible with new technology optimization opportunities. For many, the ideal solution is a combination of both.
BOTTLENECKS
Challenges here largely come about through various types of slow and tedious manual or paper-based processes that create backlogs. Traditionally, the way to resolve the issue was for the business to bring in another employee, or a fluctuating temp resource, to help ease the pain. Its a solution that helps, but it also adds overhead costs and creates a solution that also needs to be further managed.
The Solution: When it comes to dealing with slow, manual, and highly repetitive congestion points, we like to start by understanding the business flow and understand the source of the real pain for our customer. From there, we prescribe some options to solve the problem through our expertise in Business Process Automation or an overarching look at a customers Digital Strategy. The end goal is to equip the customer with the right tools and design a solution that improves the work experience and output for the company that doesn’t add headcount.
SPREADSHEET OVERLOAD
Spreadsheets have a long history of communicating and tracking business data. They are a great tool and we aren’t debunking their service to a company, but they do cause pain for some customers when there are too many and the data for the business ends up hidden from decision makers’ eyes. The other challenge in a business heavily run by spreadsheets is that business reporting often lags due to slow data collection and/or time-consuming reporting processes.
The Solution: Remedies for this pain can range depending on the size of the organization and appetite for change (AKA: budget). We can alleviate the pain through a range of our consulting specialties – Digital Strategy, Business Process Automation, Data Modernization, and/or Business Analytics. Why do so many of our specialties touch this problem? The reason for this is because data lies at the heart of business – it drives decision making – which helps to improve customer satisfaction, grow the business, and beat out the competition. In today’s digital world, everything we do seems to touch on our client’s data strategy.
Convverge | Think of us as Business Transformation Consultants
There are a myriad of solutions to each of these common business pain points. Which one is right for you though? This is where our team can really lend a hand and figure out what works best for your company. Over the years, we’ve seen what has worked (and what hasn’t) and can use that unique insight and experience to offer the best advice and support so you can tackle your biggest points of pain in your business. Our goal is always to find a solution that works specifically for your business needs and alleviates your pain so you can make better decisions and leave the competition in your success dust. You can find a summary of all our specialties here. Contact us anytime to get the conversation going.
