Have you found the optimal balance of people, process, and tools? (Part 3 - Tools)
- Kevin D Thompson
- Jun 20, 2021
- 9 min read
As discussed in the two previous posts, Have you found the optimal balance of people, process, and tools? (Part 1 - People) and (Part 2 - Process), The Triumvirate (people, process, and tools) is a key component of The Professional Services Ecosystem™ (PSE) and is a key component for delivering services to your clients. As mentioned, I feel strongly that the people component of The Triumvirate is the most important and therefore creates the base of the triangle, especially in PS organizations where people are so critical. Process and tools make up the other two sides and play similar roles in the evolution of the business.
As noted, these three components of The Triumvirate are inextricably linked and must be effectively managed to become a competitive advantage instead of a driver of business risk. The Triumvirate is constantly evolving and as such is also dependent upon continuous measurement and improvement to deliver sustained operational efficiency. Let’s take a look at the final component, tools, in more detail.
The Triumvirate - Tools
Tools are the third component of The Triumvirate and include both tools and technologies that help to manage, inform, support, or deliver services to your clients. Tools often take a host of forms and are often taken for granted in their most simplistic states. Here are just a few tools many of us use daily:
A laptop
Telephones
Pens
Paper
Form letters for mailings
Standard email templates
Auto-response emails
Forms
A myriad of Excel/Sheets spreadsheets and reports
Org charts
Process flows and documentation.
Then come the many technologies and systems we frequently use:
Web services
Google
Instant messaging
Teleconferencing
CRM
Salesforce automation
Accounting software
Phone systems
Office automation suites
HCM software
PS automation
Data warehousing and modeling tools
IT infrastructure
Security software and practices
Custom-built tools.
You get the point. As they evolve, PS organizations build, inherit, incorporate, and buy these types of tools, in one form or another. The tools often dictate how a process is performed and can create efficiencies, inefficiencies, and liabilities for the organization.
The tools often dictate how a process is performed and can create efficiencies, inefficiencies, and liabilities for the organization.
In the beginning...
In the startup phase, PS organizations find they often use the ubiquitous free toolsets that are available to individuals and small teams. The Google Suite is a great example of this and is a pretty robust solution for people and companies that are just starting out. You’ll also see many technology services organizations leverage toolsets such as Linux and other open-source technologies to minimize development costs. For these companies, the flexibility in cloud computing platforms like AWS and other IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and PaaS (Platform as a Service) technologies are a godsend to firms that are just starting out, as the business is only billed for the resources needed and used and they are provided tools to easily manage those resources and their expense.
For those folks that are simply hanging out a shingle, so service organizations that are selling their knowledge or the knowledge of their people, it can often be even easier with little to no infrastructure needed. Buy a laptop, jump on WiX, spend a nominal fee for a domain and website, leverage standard templates, and launch your site. It’s so easy a chimp could do it! Case in point, I built this site on WiX.
Unfortunately, as your PS organization evolves, there frequently becomes this morass of tools that don’t talk to each other. The tools often do the same thing but for different departments and have no known value proposition to the company other than what may have been originally thought about at the time of purchase. Additionally, these tools may be driving major inefficiencies in your processes which impacts your team and your clients. It pays for services organizations to give thought to and build a framework around how they will select, purchase, implement, maintain, and use tools within their company.
Establish a Tools Management Framework
No single tool will provide everything a business will need but with some planning and forethought, an optimized toolset that effectively complements and supports the business is a very real possibility. The key comes down to how you manage the selection, purchase (if purchased), deployment, maintenance, and use of these tools. As your business evolves it is logical for the tools to evolve as well. Often, they must become more robust, need to scale, or must fulfill new needs or business requirements.
The key comes down to how you manage the selection, purchase, deployment, maintenance, and use of these tools.
Early on, I believe the PS organization must establish a tools framework that helps manage tool identification, selection and/or development, and deployment. This is truly the only way to effectively align tools with your business. Tools and technologies can range from email to code for the deployment of your software solution. I have seen where technologies were embedded into software solutions that later became obsolete. In the days of client-server solutions, nothing was worse than explaining to a client that they needed to go out to eBay and purchase some old piece of software no one carries any longer so that the client-side of the solution worked. Yes, this happened to me and no, it wasn’t funny. OK, maybe a little.
Here are some examples of the key considerations for your tool’s decision framework
Is this part of the core solution offering for our clients?
Is it dependent on some unique components?
What happens if those components become obsolete?
What is the solution that would eliminate the need for these components?
Is this a proof of concept?
How will this scale with our business?
What is the cost of not doing this versus the cost of doing it now?
1 year from now?
3 years from now?
Who is and how many people or clients are helped by this tool?
Is there something we currently own that could fulfill this need even though it might not be done as well?
What is the cost of the inefficiency of that solution?
Will this integrate with our current tools?
Is this consistent with our current technology stack?
If my business were half the size it is now, would I still need this tool?
What if my business size doubled?
This gives you an idea of just some of the questions that should be asked, early on in a PS organization's evolution, as various tools and technologies are considered. Too often early decisions come back to haunt businesses from a cost perspective or limit the capabilities to deliver to your clients. I’ll dig deeper into this framework and share a decision tree and templates you can use in a future blog post.
Other considerations around software selection
Too often people rush and purchase software or tools that they believe will work for the latest need, instead of looking at the possibility that they can modify the existing process to retrofit the software they already own and get more out of it. While I don't normally recommend forcing an inefficient solution, depending upon the position of the company at that time, it may be more cost-effective and may allow you to move faster than bringing on some new tool.
As companies begin to look at tools, and software, in particular, I frequently see them capture a generalized set of requirements, often focusing on things that their current system does not do, instead of the entire set of requirements. They use this summarized list of requirements as the basis for a purchasing decision. The assumption is that the new software will deliver everything they currently use and need and therefore they focus mostly on the new stuff. The keyword here is ASSUMPTION! I’ve witnessed a host of clients that found out a core need from their old system isn’t available on the new system they just purchased. They then complain that that feature is industry standard, table stakes, and it is unacceptable that the new solution doesn’t provide it. It somehow then becomes the service provider's mistake that the software doesn't operate as expected for a requirement that was never articulated.
I’ve witnessed a host of clients that found out a core need from their old system isn’t available on the new system they just purchased.
Where I see this happen the most is when all stakeholders are not involved in the definition of requirements, review of potential solutions, and final selection of the tool or technology. Yes, we frequently don't have time to have everyone involved in all the various initiatives a growing organization is actively pursuing. But many tools and technologies can have such a tremendous impact on people and process efficiency, it is imperative to prioritize these initiatives and engage all the stakeholders so that there is proper representation.
As discussed in the post on who the client is (Do you really know who your client is?), the actual users are often only partially involved, or not involved at all in the selection of the software. They then are given the responsibility to implement it. This typically creates problems in the implementation. If your users love their current software, they will do everything they can to make the new system work exactly like the old one that is being replaced. This often leads to presumed inefficiencies with the new software and drives dissatisfaction. Having a solid process and input from all stakeholders for evaluating, purchasing, and implementing new tools and technologies can save your business from some very costly mistakes.
Having a solid process and input from all stakeholders for evaluating, purchasing, and implementing new tools and technologies can save your business from some very costly mistakes.
If you are looking for new software or tools to drive improvements in your processes, be upfront about it and make sure that the users are onboard. They need to know that you expect them to change the process to take advantage of the new software, not change the software to match their old process. New tools and systems are a chance to improve and enhance your business. Approaching them from the perspective of “there has to be a better way,” is commendable, but if your teams not on board you won't realize the benefits you hope for.
Tool implementation considerations
Proper tool implementation is just as important as proper selection. Delivering SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions for nearly 20 years, I've seen a lot of clients spend tens of thousands of dollars on a solution for their business and then try to short-change the implementation. If you don't:
involve all the necessary stakeholders
prioritize the implementation tasks
ensure everyone is properly trained
and commit the necessary time to test
it is you that have not met the terms of the agreement, not the solution provider. This is not to say that some providers are not to blame for part or all of these issues. Solution providers have an onus to hold clients accountable and providers must have a solid implementation process, that if followed, ensures the best chance for success. However, you must hold yourself just as accountable for the solution's success.
When you decide to implement a tool or technology, especially one with a far-reaching impact on your business, commit to doing your part in making it successful. Commit to involving all the necessary stakeholders. Be sure you follow the tool providers' process. Ensure you train your people and fully test the solution to ensure it is set up properly. You will lose much more in time, money, confidence, and reputation by short-changing the implementation, than if you simply commit to implementing the tool properly upfront. I'll share some more details and templates for tool selection and implementation in future blogs.
When you decide to implement a tool or technology, especially one with a far-reaching impact on your business, commit to doing your part in making it successful.
A tools management framework, established early on in a service firm's evolution, can help that firm save substantial time and money by reducing the impact of poor or inconsistent tool decisions. It starts with deciding on a tool and technology stack that provides both flexibility and room to grow. Then engaging all the relevant stakeholders in the requirements gathering, review, and selection of tools and technologies, ensures key features are not missed, causing longer-term problems, while identifying critical improvements that must be part of the solution. Finally, ensuring that your firm supports the implementation by engaging all the right people, allotting the appropriate amount of time for training and testing, and ensuring that you take advantage of new processes and functionality that can be achieved with the new tool.
Optimizing the process of evaluating, selecting, and implementing new tools and technologies is really where great PS organizations can get the most out of these kinds of efforts. Lay these frameworks out early and you reduce costly risks to the business. I realize you sometimes just need to pull the trigger, but if you have a solid framework, you can at least fast-track the thought process, better understand the long-term risks, and give your team the best chance for success with a great implementation. Take the time to build out a tool management framework, before you simply add to the ever-growing mountain of shelf-ware your business owns.
For over 30 years I’ve worked with and in professional service organizations in the IT services and SaaS spaces. In that time, and with a lot of help from some tremendous people, we’ve developed a repeatable process whereby these organizations have enjoyed tremendous success delivering high-quality solutions to our clients. The Professional Services Ecosystem™ is a key construct of that success.
Comments