Three technology lessons businesses can learn from our clients
We’re in an enviable position at Inland Digital: We get to work with clients that are keen to transform the way they do business. Technology is not something you ‘set and forget’ in your business, it’s always evolving, and to see our clients work with technology to drive better results is something we love.
There are some great client stories on our website, and I thought I’d take the opportunity to highlight a few here to share some lessons from our clients on how technology can help you improve the way you deliver for your team and your customers.
“We don’t always know our future needs.”
Sometimes it’s not just about what’s happening today, but also what you’ll need into the future. As technology moves rapidly, it has an impact on how you run your business, so you need to make sure that anything you roll out has the future capability to move as you need to. On top of that, you need a partner who is willing to work with you to help you on the journey.
That was important to our client, McCormack Barber, a leading independent real estate agency, who wanted a long-term technology partner. To quote Managing Director. Peter McCormack, “We were keen to work with someone that wouldn’t just ‘dump’ a piece of equipment on us and leave; we wanted ongoing communication and new ideas on how technology can help us.
“We have that ongoing investment with Inland Digital. It’s a reality that we don’t know what we’re going to be dealing with over the next 3, 5 or even 10 years with the rapid rate of change we see in business today. Inland Digital has taken the time to understand our business and build solutions that work for us.”
The lesson in this: Find someone that will work with you long term on technology. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, so be prepared to think about the business today and what you’re also likely to need in the future.
“Find one process and change it for the better.”
You don’t always need to change every process at once, it can be more beneficial to find one pain point and work it out before rolling it out business-wide.
Our client, Hughes & Co Lawyers and Conveyancing, did just that. Cost disbursement had been a manual, laborious process. Technology provided them with an answer that enabled them to not only automate the process of collecting disbursements but also to integrate this directly into their existing backend legal management software. As the firm’s Director, Stephanie Hughes, put it: “Our print management system is now fully integrated with our existing practice management software. Real-time reporting is also a real highlight for me, as I can easily access reports, check print and copy costs by matter number, and even drill down to what device and office. We found it so effective, we have since had Inland Digital roll it out in our second office.”
The lesson: Start with a process that is causing you pain and find a technology solution. Once you’ve bedded it down, roll it out to other locations or even better, pick a new process to work on!
“Get on top of business information and make it work for you.”
We live in a time when the amount of information we manage across our businesses has never been bigger. Client data, supplier information, internal processes…the amount of document management can be staggering. Finding a tech solution is realistically the only way to ensure you are staying on top of the challenge.
Our client, Appledale Processors, decided to tackle this head-on. A leading produce co-op with a growing base of digital and paper-based information, they made the decision to invest in a technology platform that would digitise their business documentation and store it electronically. The benefits of this, from better managing key business IP to decreasing the time taken to manage data, were huge. As put by Office Manager, Leanne Pearce, “One of our biggest challenges at Appledale is the sheer volume of documents that come through the co-operative every day. We needed a new process that provided a disaster recovery solution, as well as an efficient way to digitise and file our documents. It was important that this process was simple and easy to use for our staff.
“We have significantly reduced the time spent retrieving a document; if the file was in our office, this process could take over 15 minutes. Now, we simply go to wherever it is saved on the system and use the document. A task that previously took at least 10-15 minutes is now completed in no time at all.”
The lesson: Look at digital transformation. You need to manage your business data, and having a solution for that is critical to the way you run your business.
Transforming business is more than just a tagline for us; it’s core to what we do every day. Keen to discuss how you’re dealing with digital transformation? Contact me here, and we can arrange a time to discuss what’s happening in your business.