Clearvoice CMS

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Consider the following:

• According to Vodafone, not responding to an e-mail within two hours can cost a business £18,000 per annum.
• Home workers are 21% more productive than office-based workers.
• Technology training increases knowledge by 21%, minimises errors and saves approximately 1 hour per day.
• Integrated solutions, i.e. CRM, telephone systems and contact software can increase productivity by as much as 100%+.
  

Over the years a mutual distrust has evolved between those who know and those who need to know i.e. the salesman and the business owner. Because of this distrust, there is a reluctance on behalf the business owner to investigate the possibilities of technology as (a) no one has enough experience or time to check information and (b) there is a resistance to believe the salesman's patter. In essence there needs to be a change in the approach from vendors. Whilst this would be difficult at first ultimately it would be a win-win scenario - the buyer would be able to see the benefits and the vendor would increase his "hit rate".

If a change in the relationship does not occur then poor and uninformed decisions for the most part will continue to be made. It has been said that the rise of technology is no different to the industrial revolution. In the present day this means that organisations must accept and embrace the expanding role technology is playing in order to continue trading.

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Business Systems Training
When a business starts to experience problems, often the last area to be addressed is the technology, despite it being integral to the entire business process. This is often due to the lack of expertise and/or knowledge in this field and by that we mean an understanding as to the importance of technology and how it impacts on the business as a whole.

Every businessman or woman is expected to be fully aware of all of the benefits and ramifications of technology in their business, irrespective of any training they may or may not have had in their careers. What makes matters worse is that many businesses are shamed by their lack of knowledge and so are not able to fully benefit from the purchase of new technology. They use common excuses such as the company is too busy or it can't be bothered to investigate new equipment.

This negative relationship between “business and technology” will continue as there is no expressed correlation between the business process, success and technology. One only has to look at the role of the IT Manager; his job description states he is to ensure the smooth running of IT systems etc. It does not state that he must present financial solutions to business problems, nor does it state that he must redefine the business processes of the organisation in order to increase profitability; if it did the IT manager would be running the business! We accept that large organisations may have IT Directors who are capable of undertaking such a task, however, in the main, smaller companies do not have qualified IT personnel capable of doing so.

Our view is that before a business decides to employ the services of a business, executive or corporate coach, they must first review their technology. There are many beneficial reasons to do this, however perhaps the main one is that the emotional strain of admitting or accepting that there is a personal problem can be hard to come to terms with.

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Coaching
Business, executive and corporate coaching has expanded over the past 10 years into a multi-million pound industry. It is possible to conduct coaching sessions at work, home, holiday destinations and even some, not so welcoming, boot camps! Coaching is certainly here to stay.

But, does typical coaching mean admitting defeat or does it mean that you're ready to take your business to the next level?

Either way, when it comes to coaching, the business owner must expose an amount of information about his or her person and their business. This presents a situation where the problems which are prevalent within the business are due, on the face of it, to the personality of the owner and/or his or her business acumen.

Technology Performance Coaching
Before you decide upon a course of action that involves executive or corporate coaching, why not consider technology performance coaching? As mentioned earlier, there is an expectation for business owners to know what technology can do and how to implement it and merge it into a business process. A pretty tall order if no training has ever taken place. However it is a well-known fact that training an individual is far more effective than simply doing the work on someone else's behalf. Therefore, learning about how technology fits into your business and how it impacts on your people, could be a major step forward in moving your business to the next level.

First seek out a company that is capable of evaluating your technology infrastructure. A technology coaching organisation should be able to offer your business a formulated and structured approach to evaluating systems and those who use them, combined with support recommendations on how to improve performance and productivity.

It may appear to be somewhat new age thinking, but taking a holistic approach to technology is the first step to ensuring its peak performance. It also ensures that your business processes are in order and are not causing you stress, before you take the step of considering personal coaching.

Creating a work life balance assumes that you can prioritise and manage your workload. If your technology is wearing you down you will never be able to separate/differentiate between the issues you're experiencing and the factors that can help your business change.

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Typical Coaching Programme
To give you an idea about a typical approach to coaching a business owner, detailed below is an overview/schedule which will help you visualise the structure:

Information about the Company - a series of approximately 80 questions to illicit how technology in working in and for your business.

Department Review

• Marketing (who, what, when, where, why)
• Sales (as above)
• Administration (as above)

Technology Review

• ROI analysis Parts I, II & III
• Technology vs Productivity (Marketing, Sales & Administration)

Mystery Shopper (telephone evaluation)

Areas for Improvement by Department – Marketing, Sales & Administration e.g. Using Technology Analysis Circle.
(see download section, click here)

Long Term Management

• Technology Teams – identify members
• Review of Business – Technology vs Productivity (internally with staff)
• Production of Company Manuals
• Site Document
• Corporate Manual- Technology Manual
• Training Manual

Finally - Analysis of findings and recommendations.

Action

If you would like to discuss Technology Performance Coaching in more detail please contact us on 0800 970 9751 or email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it