A lot of people out there talk about systemising a business, where you basically create processes for staff to follow when doing work in the business. The benefit of structure in any business is undisputed. And yet, there is confusion between processes and systems. In this article, we will help clarify the confusion and help you understand how to leverage each one to your advantage.
Processes are a set of steps, prescriptions if you will, that tell what needs to be done, and when, in order. The concept is very helpful and has been around for a very long time. Where most people fall short is when they introduce systems into their business. Our definition of a business system is a piece of software that helps facilitate or support a process.
The best way to leverage systems is to have the process worked out first, and then use the software system to support its implementation - ideally in a way where the two integrate together. You work out what the process needs to be, and then you put that into the system that helps execute the process. This can give you advantages like reliability, consistency and completeness while saving you and your team time and effort.
For most businesses introducing a new system, they usually experience one of two things:
1. Either they adopt the system hoping that it will tell them the right process, so they try to use "best of breed" and "best practice" solutions and end up trying to shoehorn their needs and requirements into something an IT guy dreamed of. Or,
2. They get a system that's "flexible" and that can be customised in a myriad of ways, so instead of them running their business, they end up running themselves into the ground trying to make sense out of something that's super generic, and configure it to make it do something useful for themselves and their team.
At Thanexa, we believe in starting with sensible defaults and giving people a complete, working solution that can be tailored quickly and easily to run their own processes.
We do a whole lot more too if you consider 1-click video and audio conferencing and online meetings, action management and reporting and so on. For today though, focus on just how you might be able to use Thanexa for your business. As long as you have the process you would like to implement, in Thanexa it's a matter of specifying that process on a list, complete with photos, videos, bullet points and even voice narration if that makes sense, then have your team run through that process visually over and again every time they need to.
Be sure to give Thanexa a try and see how it help your business use processes most effectively and your team get through more important work with less stress.