Business Operations Today
State of the State

What a wonderful age we live in! We have all the technology we need at our disposal to get our jobs done. We have programs and assistive computer tools of all sorts from collision repair estimators to multimedia email and spreadsheets that can do everything short of dancing in the aisles.

So why is it that in almost every business, we see exorbitant amounts of errors and time spent fixing those errors? What's worse, we see the same kinds of errors occur over and over involving the same business functions that are carried out on a daily basis. What prevents businesses from fixing the root causes of these errors so that they don't occur again? In general, unless a repetitive error gets large enough to demand holding the meetings needed to get agreements on process details, the problem tends to go on indefinitely. Of course, there will always be errors in any process because there will always be the unexpected details that come up. But it's the repetitive error in common functions that represent a needless waste of time and energy. This is in addition to the loss in productivity and constructive environment that strife between co-workers causes when process errors occur.

Why is it that we see so many paper forms used in processes with all the information handling tools that most people have right in their computer? Why do most doctor's offices still have those walls of folders when almost anything can be digitized? If one of the answers is "because we need signatures on file" then I'm sorry, but that's no longer a valid reason. We do have the technology to deal with that. It costs money to implement. But then how much are all those folders and filing cabinets costing to use?

Why do we see a lot of employees traveling all over the office or business location verifying information and making requests to colleagues concerning action items on everyday processes? Or emails flying everywhere requesting details on everyday things that need to be done?

Why does it take so much time to bring on new help and get them to the point where they function smoothly within the existing business processes?

And finally, If many of the computer programs today are designed to talk to other programs (which they are)  even if they're from a different vendor, then why do we rarely see effective use of these capabilities to streamline business processes?

Although the answers to these questions might seem like they would vary as widely as the types of businesses that exist in the world, there really are just a few fundamental causes of the common business operational inefficiencies that we see regardless of the nature of the business.

• Lack of Definition

• Lack of Time

• Lack of Knowledge