Grow your service-based business

Author: Nicole Darechuk

During the holidays is when many business leaders have time to decompress and think about the future year ahead. Strategic plans may or will be in place and growth is at the heart of it all. There are two ways forward to attain growth in a service-based business – use systems and market the heck out of your business!

If you are asking yourself, “how can a system help my business grow?” Or cringing at the idea of spending time on marketing efforts… keep reading! I assure you; you can do both even on the smallest of budgets.

First, let’s define what a system is.

Systems are comprised of processes, applications, people, programmatic interactions, and information collection or distribution. Systems are how businesses can scale, provide great customer experiences, and ensure consistency. They also help maximize profit margins and when done right, help boost brand visibility and loyalty following.

Why should you build a system?

Systems enable you to productize your services, so they are easily understood by prospects and customers. Productizing services is the key to increasing profit margins and improving the lead to customer conversion time. By productizing I mean you should craft messaging that is reusable, create taglines that demonstrate value, brand documents deliver, and standardize service costs by creating marketable ‘packages’ that showcase value. By turning a service into a “product”, you can remove barriers and reduce the time prospects need to evaluate whether they should hire you or not.
Systems create consistency and reliability which leads to brand loyalty. Customers remain loyal to brands they can trust. Trust is built through consistent and repeated experiences that are delivered on time, every time. By using a system, you can automate most interactions your customers have.
Systems add Intellectual Property (“IP”) value to your business. A system becomes a tangible asset for your company. It’s filled with data, automated workflows, and insights. It’s a game-changer if at some point you want to sell your business or need to secure capital.

How can you afford to build a system?

Use no-code and low-code platforms.A no-code application allows you to design and build a system using visual interfaces. Examples include Airtable, Make, Zapier, Power Automate. These cloud-based applications do some powerful stuff on their own. When you start connecting them together to handle automation and data transformations, the opportunities become only limited by your imagination. Most offer a trial period or free plan to get started if you want to try them out before you commit.A low-code platform enables you with more customization features to help craft a system that fits with your business. Low-code platforms include web-based Content Management Systems (“CMS”), Zoho Creator, Amazon Amplify and Salesforce. These quick-to-get started platforms can help you extend the existing powerful capabilities to serve you in line with how you want to run your business.
Use and re-use code from online sources like GitHub. This is for the more advanced approach to building systems and often, free! GitHub is a great resource for open-source code shared by developers world-wide. You can speed the development of a custom system build by tapping into existing publicly licensed code and putting pieces together like a puzzle. I do caution you to using this approach if you have never done any code-level work.
Source freelancers to design and develop a system for you. It’s easy to hire talent with resources like Upwork and Fiverr or through your local tech providers. It’s cost effective to hire someone externally vs asking your team to build the system, and they will get it done faster.
Use generative AI apps to source ideas. Trending apps that provide access to AI generated information, are providing the business world with technological advances that mostly make sense. Simply type into your favorite search bar (like Microsoft Edge) what other companies in your industry use to manage their business and you could save hours on trying to find a best fit approach.

What are risks you might encounter?

You might build a useless system if you don’t plan it out! Before getting started, I recommend evaluating your current systems or build a prototype that will demonstrate the value needed. You may have already done this if you’re using spreadsheets to handle data like opportunities, leads, sales and account information. How that data is linked and used is considered a prototype of sorts. Make sure the results are measurable and insightful to guide you in your plan development.
Your business can get hacked if you don’t take precautions! Cyber threats result in losses that most businesses cannot be recovered from – primarily financial. Make sure any system you put in place is accessed by a privileged user and they have the minimum permissions necessary. Trust is implied but access to all should never be freely given just because of an employee’s tenure or position. Enable multi-factor authentication and train your employees on best practices or policies they must adhere to.
You may lose your business if you don’t have insurance to cover losses! I can’t stress the need to have insurance, enough. Talk to your commercial insurance company about the best type of coverage to minimize the impact of data loss, breach or cyber theft. It’s better to have it than not with the increasing threat of ransomware.
Don’t let scope, creep! A natural occurrence for the dreamers and big picture people to “do it all”. Keep the purpose of the system simple and build out new features iteratively. In a world full of Agile development, iterative approaches, make the most sense.
The system does not align to policies or standards! Many industries have established standards to maintain quality. Businesses will also issue policies that their company must comply with. Ensuring a system aligns to both policies and standards, is a must! Otherwise, a business can find themselves in hot water with the customer or worse, the law.
Poor user experience! A lack of proper design has been the downfall of systems. Your employees won’t use it if it’s a pain in the a$$ and your customers won’t use it if it consistently fails.

How do you use your system to market your business?

Establish a marketing “bank”. Collect quotes, ideas and customer feedback from your system that can be repurposed into social media posts, case studies and website reviews (helpful for SEO boosting!). By creating a centralized system, you set yourself up for an easier time building marketing assets that can be used and reused.
Automate publishing of “banked” content to digital channels. The bank when built using smart cloud apps can do so much more. Each idea posted can be incorporated into workflows that help produce templated documents and posts. Furthermore, you can automate the publishing of the content in that bank direct to digital channels or your website to ensure your posts go out on time every time.
Make sure every experience is a branded on. By including your logo, tagline and messaging on all posts, documents, and assets within your system, you are easily boosting brand awareness with employees, prospects, and customers. Don’t by shy! Brand everything.
Market the system as a value-add reason why customers choose your business. If a customer knows that each interaction, they have with you is going to be consistent and reliable, you can include access to that system as a value-add proposition in every proposal. This demonstrates you have your sh*t together and can deliver.

If you’re feeling like you can walk into 2024, ready to tackle building a system, remember –

Building a system can be affordable with a good plan and thought out approach. Systems enable you to go to market faster, serve customers consistently and automate marketing workflows to ensure your brand is being boosted regularly.
There are risks associated with building any new system, but by being aware of what those risks are and how to best minimize them, ensures you can find success.
Use your systems to market your business, efficiently and consistently. By boosting brand awareness digitally, you can further your reach for new prospects.

Get in touch with me if you want to explore building a system for your business. I wish you the best for the coming year ahead!

2024 Resolution: To grow your service-based business During the holidays is when many business leaders have time to decompress and think about the future year ahead. Strategic plans may or will be in place and growth is at the heart of it all. There are two ways forward to attain growth in a service-based business… Continue reading Grow your service-based business

Why SaaS Systems CAN Fail

Author: Nicole Darechuk

Top 10 reasons and advice for mitigating failure

SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) systems have been around as long as I’ve been working in the tech space and that’s going on nearly 20 years. When my career first started in 2005, there wasn’t a fancy name for software you could access using a web browser, like Salesforce.com, but over the years it evolved to being known as “Cloud Software” and ultimately “SaaS”.

These systems changed the way businesses operate, and I would credit SaaS vendors with also being one of the primary reasons new businesses emerge at a much faster and cheaper rate than before the internet came to be.

While SaaS has positives, it also has negatives. The reasons why businesses, looking for a fix or replacement of a SaaS system, reach out for help in the first place are predicable. SaaS system failures start with the approach people. In this article I’ll share with you 10 common failures that prompt businesses to seek out new systems and how best to mitigate the failures.

Failure #1: Choosing platforms that are "popular"

Platforms your peers are using is a great place to start evaluating new systems, but this approach can fail if you are steadfast on choosing the system someone else is using because they say it making them money. If you do not vet your operations (workflow) carefully, against any actual system use and functionality, you stand to lose time and lots of money.

One example of failure that always sticks in my mind involves an online retailer I met years ago. He had invested in a popular ERP on the notion the vendor could have it set up for that business in as little as 6 months for just $50K. It was to be the center of all business operations including the online order automation.

Fast-forward 3 years and $1M dollars of consulting fees later and the system was finally “ready to go”. It went live for just two weeks and the online retailer quickly realized they were losing thousands of dollars a day in sales and productivity. It had to be shut off and put back into development.

How to mitigate failure #1

It is well worth the money for you to invest in a thorough evaluation of a platform, independent of your day-to-day operations before selecting. Think of it as “making the business case” where you can collect solid data points that your decision making is based on facts and actual outcomes. It also allows time to build a relationship with the vendor. Good relationships take time, so make time to evaluate thoroughly before making the change.

Failure #2: Lack of focus on the user experience

Anyone rolling out systems without getting end-user input into the experience, is going to fail. I emphasize this with all my clients that the experience matters just as much as the functionality. This applies to internal and external systems.

Over the past few years, the user experience for a SaaS system has come into focus for many SaaS vendors and any businesses choosing to create hands-off experiences for customers and employees online. Today, the trend of introducing generative Ai into online systems is a contributing factor to ensuring users have a great experience interacting with these systems.

A couple of years ago, I worked with a client who needed an internal system for his team to streamline workflow and reduce errors popping up with regards to physical inventory counts. The project never saw much success and I attribute this to not putting as much emphasis, as we did on functionality, on designing the best possible interactive experience his team could have. The team struggled and ultimately the new system was a disaster.

How to mitigate failure #2

How a system functions is important. But if you want to avoid wasting time and money on change, allocate time during the design process to architect workflow and create wireframes, prototypes, and other user experience assets, that allow you to evaluate the result early on. The investment will have positive returns, guaranteed.

Failure #3: Leaving decision making to team members who lack insight

Establishing systems that are aligned to the strategic and operational plans of your business are key. They provide justification and guidance during the design and development phases. Assigning team members to drive the design of a system, and lacking insight or knowledge of those plans, is a cause for failure.

About 5 years ago, I was engaged by a business owner to design a replacement system for their internal marketing and sales operations. The initial conversations were with that owner but when it was time to digging into how things worked and discussing solutions, I was reassigned to his administrative assistant.

Sometimes this is the case when owners get busy. Unfortunately, in this case, the administrative assistant had to spend a lot of time on the phone with me and typically responded with “I’ll get back to you” or “I don’t know”. This engagement failed before it even started! It was a lost cause that couldn’t be saved except by the owner.

How to mitigate failure #3

I’ve worked with some great administrative staff over the years to implement awesome systems. The reason it was a success, is because those people were empowered with information and responsibility to work efficiently and independently.

I strongly suggest that if you are embarking on change and need your team to spearhead the effort, make sure they have the knowledge to be successful.

Failure #4: Lack of communication

This is such a common culprit of why system changes can fail. If people don’t talk to each other or share information, a system change, will fail. Humans either need to be informed or be involved, and if those two needs are not met, the effort becomes an uphill battle with lots of roadblocks.

Back in 2019, I was introduced to a client that wanted to make his internal operations efficient enough so the owner could take vacation and not be a bottleneck to his team. One of the key contributors to this effort was an employee who had been with the company for years. Typically, he was the go to person for any internal system change but this time his attention was needed elsewhere so he was simply serving as the Subject Matter Expert on the effort.

Initially things got off to a smooth start but as soon as the implementation work was to start, conversations started lacking timely response or there was a denial of access to information. I quickly realized that my attempt to roll out the new system was going to fail rapidly if I didn’t get this addressed. In the end the new system was rolled out but now without some hefty roadblock clearing along the way!

How to mitigate failure #4

Business owners and managers need to make sure they have addressed all internal concerns by team members and set the stage for how communication needs to happen including any internal concerns. Creating a safe communication channel for nervous employees is key as well as a centralized communication medium to share.

Failure # 6 Not defining goals and outcomes

Goals and outcomes being defined are critical to the success of a new system being put in place to handle key operations for running your business. Without the definition, systems can be ill-designed based on features alone that in the end are “noise” for your team and only serve to be a time-suck.

In addition, without the definition of goals and outcomes, there is no guidance in ensuring systems that are put in place will be able to supply data on demand to decision makers or performance monitors.

About 15 years ago, I was tasked with making Salesforce.com work for an organization that heavily invested in subscriptions but only 20% of the assigned users were using it. Of those 5% were logging in daily. It was a waste of money at the time and nearly replaced! But the challenge was accepted and within a year 80% of the assigned users adopted daily use. It seemed like it was a success but ultimately it was a failure because the input by the users of the system wasn’t producing metrics the leaders needed. It was back to the drawing board to make more changes.

How to mitigate failure #6

This *should* be obvious – don’t move forward on choosing a system without first defining the goals and the outcomes the system *should* provide and insist on these being a must-have feature.

Failure #5 Trying to do work without the proper resources

Companies think they are saving money when they use their “IT team” or most tech-savvy employee to implement complex software systems in a pinch. When in fact, they are overloading talent, losing money, and putting internal operations at risk that impact the revenue generation teams.

About 7 years ago, I was asked by a (prospective) client to provide a solution for their operation to help them go paperless and mobile. The solution was complex, had to be carefully executed over 1 year. They insisted on receiving the fully detailed design documents ahead of accepting my proposal and then declined the proposal on account of what it was going to cost. No biggie – it happens!

Fast forward 1 year later and I heard they went ahead with my solution but did it using their own team members thinking it would be cheaper. The project FAILED and did so because their team wasn’t technically prepared to manage and mitigate the risks and had no time to focus on completing any one task, successfully. It would have cost $30K but instead they lost time and money on a failed implementation and inability to serve clients.

How to mitigate failure #5

Hire people or assign people (if you insist on going with internal team members) with experience that understand the effort and risk involved. It can be a short-term investment that frees up your people to focus on what they do best in your business and only get pulled in when needed most.

Also, as a business leader, do the math on the returns of time invested vs hiring external expertise.

Failure #7 There is no plan. Let’s just do it!

I love the passion some leaders have for moving ahead with a new system. It’s energizing BUT it’s also scary. Without a plan, 3 terrible things happen –

Deviation from the purpose
Shifting priorities and lack of focus on completing tasks
Confusion for everyone involved

A plan of any kind is useful tool but lacking a plan of any kind, even a simple one, means your team can easily lose sight of what you are trying to accomplish. This also leads to the inability for people to justify their reasoning for carrying out costly work that provides 0 value or negative impact to your bottom line.

I personally don’t work with teams that refuse to have a proper plan of any kind (even a 1 pager) so I can’t share personal experiences but do hear stories of all kinds enough to provide a suggested approach to avoid a passion project without purpose.

How to mitigate failure #7

For those short on time, create a 1-page mission statement that defines goals (outcomes), constraints (time and money) and purpose.

Failure #8 “Every platform subscription must be free”

I use quotes because often this is a typical ask from clients. I get it and support it. That said, vendors of the ideal platforms are smart and limit the must-have features needed to make it worthwhile, from being available with their free subscription.

In the early days of consulting, I made the mistake of insisting we find free subscriptions to save money for small business. At the time I was doing everyone a disservice by not evaluating the returns and possibilities.

How to mitigate failure #8

Keep an open mind on budget and calculate the ROI potential of the cost a repeatable or time-consuming task runs you now vs being able to offset those tasks to a smart system.

Failure #9 People fearing automation

People who fear automation will take over their job, is normal. Some leaders think it’s easier to control people over systems with automation. In both cases, an experienced onlooker would suggest they were very wrong.

I engaged many prospective clients over the years with this mindset. Unless given the opportunity to provide the returns outlook, it’s a lost cause and introducing new systems is a waste of money.

How to mitigate failure #9

Shift the mindset. Educate the team. Plan to shift responsibilities away from doing manual work to monitoring quality and consistency and scaling up.

Failure #10 NOT committing to the change

Statistically speaking it takes 20 minutes to refocus your attention on a task after being distracted. If we multiple this loss in time by the amount of time you were distracted because you changed your mind from one day to the next, you have lost time and money.

A former client of mine was famous for out of the blue asks to make a change on a weekly basis that basically made most of the previous week’s work, a waste of time and resources. There would be periods of happiness from seeing change followed by periods of anger because results were not being realized immediately. Over time, the failures added up and ultimately we both had to cut our losses on the attempts made.

How to mitigate failure #10

After mitigating all potential failures, staying committed is key. If your gut is telling you something isn’t working, don’t make any quick decisions before measuring the results and comparing against previous or baseline measures.

Commit to a plan and ensure it remains relevant to your day to day now and for the foreseeable future to guide decision making of any type of change.

Why SaaS Systems CAN Fail Top 10 reasons and advice for mitigating failure SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) systems have been around as long as I’ve been working in the tech space and that’s going on nearly 20 years. When my career first started in 2005, there wasn’t a fancy name for software you could access using a… Continue reading Why SaaS Systems CAN Fail

Creating Business Apps with Microsoft SharePoint

Designing and Creating Business Apps with Microsoft SharePoint

IMPORTANT: This article was written for the tech savvy, business user creating Microsoft SharePoint sites. If you would like to learn more about how you can build a custom Microsoft SharePoint app by extending features with Power Automate and other cloud tools, get in touch with me!

Microsoft SharePoint has been used for many years to serve up content to organizational users (internal and external). It’s powerful capabilities and native integrations to apps like Microsoft Teams, Outlook and Excel have been advantageous to managers who want to focus their staff on productivity and maximize ROI.

About Microsoft SharePoint Sites

When subscribing to Microsoft SharePoint and creating sites, you can select to use to use a quick start template – communication or team. While each are great starting points, they are just that… a starting point. Before diving into the creation process, let’s review some basic tips for choosing from one of the two categories.

Communication Sites

These are great starting points when you need to create (contextual) content that is served up to staff that needs to consume it. Additionally, it’s a great set up if you want to enable a centralized library of documents and reports you need to manage access to.

Team Sites

For the more interactive teams staffed by contributors of content to #SharePoint, the Team Site is the way to go. Additionally, it allows for the generation of a connected Microsoft Teams channel to provide a unified medium for communicating in context of the site purpose and have visibility into any site changes.

SharePoint sites, regardless of type, are populated by content, just like websites filled with information and files. This content is logically organized and by default, not hidden from anyone using the system so it’s a good idea to understand the concept of a document library – the content “holder”, and how to manage access.

A document library is a top-level folder that serve the same purpose as a Windows file folder to organize files. Libraries can contain sub-folders, various document types, images, and lists.

A great benefit of libraries is giving you the ability to organize content in a hierarchy and to manage access at the library, folder, or file level. It’s a powerful CMS with great tools available in a few clicks to set up advanced uses.

Let’s move on to the first phase of designing your business app.

Design a SharePoint instance

If you have heard the expression “Measure twice, cut once”, trust me when I state it applies here too. Designing your app before you start building doesn’t have to be a lengthy or complex exercise but it’s a good idea to do it.

Step 1

Anytime you embark on creating a new system or changing one, should also include asking people questions to gather intel such as –

Who is this for and how will they interact with it? Will people be updating information, adding information or requesting information?
What does it need to do? How does it need to work? Do you need a mobile version?
Where does this bring value? To internal users? External users? Other systems?
When the information is collected, does it also need to be shared across other business systems? Does it need to be transformed?

Step 2

Once functionality, features and access are determined, mapping of how the data will flow and users will interact at various steps is key. Using visual diagrams such as a flow chart on a whiteboard make for an easy starting point. For more advanced data flow mappings, also figure out if you need to standardize content on the site in lists and library properties.

With SharePoint you can create standard fields to manage the inputs and outputs, so they comply and align to standard terms, data dictionary definitions or to values that are required in other systems you want to integrate to.

This critical step will also help you determine if you need to extend features and functionality within SharePoint during the development phase. If that is the case you may need to engage a specialist.

Step 3

To figure this out, it’s good to understand the difference between the two types of content ‘buckets’.

Libraries are great containers to house documents, images, links and more in a hierarchical way.
Lists are great for tracking tickets, tasks, project (portfolios) and any type of data you may typically track in Microsoft Excel tables. Lists can also be synchronized to Microsoft Excel to further the data use-ability in charts and summarized reporting.

When using content containers in an app, other applications such as Power Automate, you can manipulate the information within them based on rules of engagement, turning your SharePoint site into a very powerful tool for your team.

Step 4

This is critical to ensure the user experience is ideal. Know your audience and the purpose will lead to how you want to organize content. Put yourself in the users shoes and ask yourself, if you had their job, what’s the most important area of the site to them? What type of resources do they need to be available in 1 click, 2 clicks or 3 clicks?

Keep in mind you can’t set things up to meet everyone’s needs individually but SharePoint has advanced features you can check out, that allow you to present context based on individual preferences and group settings.

Developing a SharePoint instance

Pick your ideal SharePoint site template and set the name of the site

Choose a Teams or Communication site to get started. You can change this later but for now create the foundation.

Create a document library structure(s)

Create folders and lists with sample content to make sure the planned structure works before you upload all the content.

Apply security to the library(ies) and lists

By default you can set permissions based on users and the default groups – Owner, Member and Visitors or at the user level (not recommended!). If you plan to create complex security permissions, I recommend creating custom groups to manage permissions and users that they apply to. Keep in mind the most restrictive permissions will apply as a priority.

Customize pages and navigation

Created sites will come with 1 page (the home page) that you can easily edit. By default all content can be shown in web parts on the home page if well organized. For sites with large lists and large document libraries that need to be accessed online vs using OneDrive, I recommend breaking content into pages. Think of how websites are organized to share information and use the same approach if that is familiar to you.

Upload content

Once design work is done, uploading content is key to start bringing your site to life. Mass uploads are possible using the SharePoint migration tools (administrative access to M365 required) or you can authorize users to upload content by providing links and invites to do so.

Activate Features and Extend Functions

It’s recommended you learn about each feature or extended function being activated. If you are not a Global Administrator, you will need to loop in your assigned teammates to work with you on the extension to make sure you have permissions and any integrated application is compliant with your organizational policies and procedures.

When developing a SharePoint site to become an app, this step will always be present in the process.

Test and launch

Testing links, buttons, workflow, navigation and access is critical to ensure your site is received successfully once officially launched and your business app is working. I would also recommend preparing a training video or walking people through the new setup, live, so you can get feedback as you roll it out.

When developing a SharePoint site to become an app, this step will always be present in the process.

If you have been interested in creating a digital workspace but want a head start there are tools on the market. I would check out Mozzaik365 to help speed the process up or get in touch with a SharePoint specialist to help get you started. We can help you with migration and a complete setup.

If you want to tackle trying to create your own SharePoint app for business using the available Microsoft tools with your subscription, I suggest you start here – Create a team site in SharePoint and don’t hesitate to reach out if you need some guidance in moving it forward to becoming a business application that nets maximum returns.

Microsoft, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft 365 are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.

Designing and Creating Business Apps with Microsoft SharePoint IMPORTANT: This article was written for the tech savvy, business user creating Microsoft SharePoint sites. If you would like to learn more about how you can build a custom Microsoft SharePoint app by extending features with Power Automate and other cloud tools, get in touch with me!… Continue reading Creating Business Apps with Microsoft SharePoint

Transforming the way we do business

Transforming the Way we do Business

Digital Solutions

Statistics Canada released a report in July of 2023 (1 ) with data collected on the use of applications related to Internet-connected smart devices or systems, for all industries, across Canada. The data collected came from a survey conducted in 2022 and includes data points from organizations of all sizes. When evaluating the information, it confirms digital solutions have become an integral part of the business landscape.

Some interesting data points –

44% of applications used by large Enterprise (>= 250 employees) organizations is to support infrastructure.
Small- (1 0 to 99 employees) and medium-sized (1 00 to 249 employees) organizations invested more heavily into customer service applications. Respectively, 48% and 40%.
All organization sizes invested the least in autonomous or driverless vehicle applications.

The applications are the digital solutions of today and offer a wide range of ways to help organizations streamline through innovation. From cloud computing and data analytics to artificial intelligence and smart infrastructure, digital solutions have the power to transform.

Future-thinking leaders are evolving their organizations to meet the demands of business strategy and reduce costs with innovative digital solutions. This approach has led to great gains for many organizations who need to run lean.

History has shown a shift in consumer behavior, such as those seen during and post-pandemic, has great influence. The transformation organizations have undergone, in such little time and how we now transact, has been necessary for survival(2).

The pandemic was a catalyst for transformations taking place across industries like healthcare, construction, finance and retail. It was the pivot for many to embrace automated workflow, Al and improve efficiency. Organizations needed to centralize and move to the cloud to support remote work efforts. Even with the latest return to office mandates, organizations still benefit deeply from the cloud systems to keep the operations running.

In this blog post, we will explore the digital solutions and how they are changing how we do business.

(1) Source: Stats Can Report published July 2023

(2) Source: FinancesOnline.com

72 Vital Digital Transformation Statistics: 2023 Spending, Adoption, Analysis & Data – Financesonline.com

Streamlining Workflow with Digital Solutions

Organizations streamline to be able to do more tasks in a given day. When streamlining using a digital solution, key elements are automation, built-in integrations, easy to use interfaces and… Al capabilities.

Streamlining provides an opportunity to introduce Artificial Intelligence (Al) programming to help with identifying trends or risks, quickly. The finance industry benefits from Al for uncovering audit issues, fraud and other risky transactions. Retailers are certainly benefitting from Al and specifically generative Al when implemented properly to handle customers.

Automation is a big game changer for many organizations who want to streamline. Popular initiatives by many are to automate sales and marketing team flows. Reworking of the flows ensures customer relationship engagement activities are personalized and timely. Other popular automations include: Automatic posting of transactions from eCommerce channels to cloud accounting systems;

Automatic transformation of data consumed from CRMs, ERPs, cloud resource monitoring systems (i.e. web analytics, AWS or Azure logs) to analytic warehouses for use in real-time organization analytics and insights; and

All this automation has a great benefit of improving productivity of teams. It certainly does not mean team members can put their feet up and just monitor the statistics on a dashboard.

Automation does allow team members to put their focus on tasks that require a more cognitive approach to problem solving. The human element is still a necessity in everyday business dealings to maintain empathetic approaches. With the introduction of automation to handle repetitive tasks, team members productivity naturally increases.

Automation relies on integrated systems which is not a new concept. It is however a much more accessible trend that organizations lean into and understand are helpful. It enables the automated workflows to easily and securely move data from system to system. Integration also enables many workforces to manage privileged access using centralized management tools from providers like Microsoft.

With the increase of automated and integrated systems, the need for good user experiences is a focal point. Ensuring applications are easy to use, means lower costs to onboard, improved employee satisfaction and minimal investment to upskill team members.

Data-Driven Decision Making

Team members are also benefitting from digital solutions powered by algorithms to handle large volumes of data. Every task results in data collected and summarized to trend activities and statistics. Being able to aggregate data in large volumes serves the healthcare and retail industry very well.

It provides insightful predictions to help manage the number of staff required or the potential for disease outbreak

The retail industry has been tapping into centralized data analytics for years. Using it to make improvements to SEO and SEM efforts and hone the spend for every conversion made.

The finance industry does not fall short of benefiting from analysis of large volumes of data. Large volumes of data provide valuable insights for day to day fraud detection.

Collecting all of this data, in any industry, allows for fact-based predictions with the ability to define the future of an organization. When aggregating data sets in large volumes, predictions become simplified and the margin for error reduced. Acknowledging the presence of anomalies, the data is the best resource. Time and time again, predications have proven correct.

This is when education comes into play. Making sure the organization as a whole has a healthy respect for insights it can gain. It provides teams and leaders with the “kick in the butt” needed to make changes fast.

Digital Solutions Enhance Customer Experiences

The data analytics help organizations who want to personalize experiences. This shift has come into focus and digital solutions only amplify the ability to make it happen. It has led to the creation of roles and the introduction of tools to help with delivering these experiences. It is a huge time saver and can, if implemented properly, be a cost savings mechanism as well.

Some believe digital solutions with Al will mean people losing jobs. However I see it as an opportunity. People usually spend hours answering customer requests but now they can help improve Al systems and do more in less time.

How Digital Solutions Transform Industries

This article has explored some high level ways digital solutions has transformed experiences, provide real-time analytics and improved efficiencies.

In this section of the article, I’m going to dive deeper into industries to highlight key transformations.

Retail organizations saw a shift during the pandemic and many had to quickly convert to an online presence. The need to meet demand and provide the consumer a way to purchase was a must do.

Retailers are now looking at ways to streamline operations by introducing digital solutions consisting of omnichannel tech and generative Al experiences.

I don’t see that as a threat to roles today as some may think. Organizations will train their teams to manage Al systems which will go a long way with maintaining authentic customer loyalty.

Customer loyalty is often built by providing great experiences and providing value for every dollar spent. Retailers using secure systems to capture customer data and personalize the shopping experience provide the customer with the benefits needed to sustain loyalty.

Vendors who make software to capture data have certainly made it very user friendly to analyze and use the data through their recommendation engines that are built right into most eCommerce platforms.

Amazon is ahead of the curve in inventory delivery systems with a digital system born out of consumer demand. They adopted a “digital-first” supply chain strategy that involved tapping into analytics for insights into what needs to be stocked. While seemingly a large scale for some, it’s a model that can be applied to a retailer of any size.

The advances of digital banking and mobile payments has been steady for a very long time. More organizations are adopting payments in traditional and non-traditional currencies. Not all of which have been regulated but in time it will happen. The increase in conversions from bricks-and-mortar to eCommerce is placing a huge demand on digital banking solutions.

With the rise of digital banking and mobile payments comes the demand for better fraud detection and better yet, fraud prevention. Digital solutions combining the best of fraud detection and prevention are quickly becoming the normal companion to most eCommerce type setups as a result of the increased ability for more exposure to persons who may circumvent controls.

The "Obvious" Challenges and Opportunities

I can’t in good conscience boast about and recommend embracing digital solutions without touching on the negative aspects. It’s to heed caution when putting solutions in place. I highly recommend careful planning and educating users when considering implementation. It will minimize occurrences of cybersecurity issues.

Security is a hot topic for the current times and likely not to let up anytime soon. Organizations adopting digital solutions to manage customers data are subject to stringent policies for protecting sensitive information. When considering a digital solution, don’t skip key activities like establishing terms of use, governing protocols and teams responsible for patching and updating systems.

Those individuals help organizations implement robust security measures and are the optimal augmentation to any team. Their focus on security ensures that at all times your losses and risk are mitigated.

In conclusion, taking responsibility for ensuring proper digital solution adoption and transformations can transform the way we do business. By enhancing efficiency, decision making, and customer experiences, companies are transforming industry practices and level-setting our future interactions. However, they also face challenges such as cybersecurity threats and the growing skills gap.

If organizations prioritize addressing these challenges, a digital solution can unleash their full potential to help grow organizations.

The applications are the digital solutions of today and offer a wide range of ways to help organizations streamline through innovation. From cloud computing and data analytics to artificial intelligence and smart infrastructure, digital solutions have the power to transform.

Microsoft SharePoint Solution

Case Study: Managing Client & Project Data

A Microsoft SharePoint Solution

Microsoft SharePoint has always been my go-to solution for organizations who utilize an M365 business subscription AND need a CRM or project management tool. Most M365 subscriptions include access to SharePoint which is a powerful collaboration platform that easily integrates with other collaboration utilities like Microsoft Teams and Microsoft OneDrive.

In this blog post, we will explore a case study of how one of my clients was able to adopt a customized SharePoint solution to streamline their project and client management workflows resulting in a 200% increase in revenue and decrease of 40% a day of administrative effort.

We will delve into the specific features and functionalities of SharePoint that were utilized, as well as the benefits and challenges faced during the implementation. Whether you are considering implementing SharePoint or looking for ways to optimize your current usage, this case study will provide valuable insights and practical tips.

tHE chALLENGES

Inefficient project tracking and documentation was a constant concern. It led to miscommunication of requirements from clients and sometimes led to missed deadlines on deliverables.

Without a centralized system, the MSP also faced having to dedicate more time to conversations internally when clients would seek updates through various lines of business or attempt to access resources they were not currently subscribed to.

This led to difficulty in collaboration and communication among team members because there was no single source of truth and a lack of visibility by team members into the current state of projects.

IMPLEMENTATION

Prior to selecting SharePoint, other platforms were evaluated for managing projects including Jira, Monday.com, ClickUp and a variety of BMS solutions. All provided feature sets ideal for one but not all lines of business. A customizable solution was required and because of the native integration capabilities of SharePoint to Microsoft Teams and OneDrive, it was a plausible and cost-effective option. The system could be centralized, security measures implemented, and each service line was able to select a custom view for their respective teams while benefiting from the centralized data and document libraries.

Linked Teams and OneDrive channels were established furthering the collaboration requirements being met with ease and still at low-cost to the client. The synced channels provided multiple methods for each team to easily adopt and manage data uploaded, downloaded and managed from their Outlook inbox, SharePoint site, Teams channels and OneDrive folders.

Features

The built-in document management and version control provided an immediate win for the MSP as it allowed live collaboration by team members located in office and remote. The ability to track versions at the micro level provided the confidence to teams working on proposals and project documents without leading to confusion.
Task tracking and assignment management was easily performed by project coordinators, project managers and each staff member. This too was easily managed through Outlook tasks, SharePoint lists and if subscribed to, email notifications.
Calendar and scheduling was established using the visual Gantt chart add on that linked to assigned tasks and priorities. The result of which provided at a glance view for client account managers to schedule projects and set appropriate expectations with clients.
The customized SharePoint site became a dedicated client management solution that allowed the MSP to go beyond tracking basic support entitlements. They could now track MRR, ARR, CLV and beyond. Tapping into this information, it became a marketers dream to surface opportunities with existing clients for upsell opportunities.

Benefits

Improved project tracking and documentation

Housing all the project status and priorities provided management with at a glance oversight and the team with the ability to focus on priorities. It also provided the opportunity for team members to red flag potential issues the coordinators and managers may have overlooked.

Centralized client information for easy access

Managing client’s information across service lines becomes difficult from a management perspective. With the centralized client management setup, less and less time was required internally to resolve conflicts with scheduling, delivery and more importantly billing.

Enhanced collaboration and communication among team members

The team recognized the benefits and important of the digital collaboration and centralized data. To the point they encouraged each other to utilize the system when they saw there was rogue working happening. As each team member relies on the other to be successful in delivering service, it was a big win for the MSP for this to occur as it greatly reduced management oversight needs on a daily basis.

Increased efficiency and productivity

Prior to the solution implementation, the respective teams would take on 3-5 projects a month but often miss the delivery dates for valid delays. After the implementation, more realistic timelines were set, resources could be forecasted accurately, and the result was a bump to nearly 20 projects a month that could be accommodated across all services lines.

The most surprising benefit of this solution was the MSP was now able to share resources across services lines. The centralization of data helped to uncover skillsets not previously tapped into making sure there was not a lot of downtime across the various teams.

Lessons Learned

Initial resistance to change and user adoption challenges.

The solution did not get implemented with a pre-planning conversation. In fact, it was implemented for one team and presented as a proof of concept when it was recognized as a useful tool. The initial feedback was the change was not going to benefit other teams however in time with training, the solution was accepted and eventually adopted for use. The lesson here is to ensure training is always provided (even in casual conversation) to those who do not have enough information to understand and accept the change.

Continuous improvement and optimization of SharePoint usage

The initial implementation across teams was quick and in time became an ongoing improvement exercise. Each team member became more engrossed in sharing ideas of how to improve the system, so it became a well oiled machine for managing projects and clients.

The case study of implementing Microsoft SharePoint to manage projects and client data highlights the significant benefits that can be achieved through effective utilization of this collaboration platform. By streamlining project management processes and centralizing client information, this MSP was able to enhance productivity, improve communication, and ultimately deliver better results internally and to its clients.

Case Study: Managing Client & Project Data A Microsoft SharePoint Solution Microsoft SharePoint has always been my go-to solution for organizations who utilize an M365 business subscription AND need a CRM or project management tool. Most M365 subscriptions include access to SharePoint which is a powerful collaboration platform that easily integrates with other collaboration utilities… Continue reading Microsoft SharePoint Solution