The most common reasons multiple disconnected systems negatively affect your business.
Years ago, your business was new and growing. You needed to keep up with information quickly, so your company bought a number of computers and dot-matrix printers to make paperwork easier. More than a decade later, you bought a state-of-the-art CRM program to streamline your customer service issues. About the same time, the warehousing department bought a program that kept track of inventory better than spreadsheets. Around the time of the Y2K scare, the board recommended an internal program for expenses. And now it’s 2019 and you have to open six or seven different programs every time you boot up your computer.
Not only are multiple disconnected systems frustrating to deal with on a day-in/day-out basis, they are also likely damaging your bottom line. Even if your company bought the very best program of the year, technology moves quickly. Here are the most common ways that multiple disconnected systems hurt your business.
Why Multiple Disconnected Systems are Hurting Your Businesses
- Multiple systems decrease efficiency. Duplicating data entry doesn’t only waste time; it often results in keystroke errors.
- Average data entry errors are between 3% and 5%. The same record in many different systems may receive a typo in one program, and not in the next – making pairing the two records nearly impossible.
- With multiple systems, finding complete information requires several clicks through several programs. This does not happen quickly. Either copy and paste the customer number you need, or write it down and type it in several times to get reports from each of your different programs.
- Various systems may contain different variations of the same data. Which address or phone number does your customer prefer? Is it the one customer service uses, or the one his salesperson has in their files?
- Imported information doesn’t always sync. A simple task may require you to research the other systems on file. You have to stop what you are doing and begin a new task to fix the information you have or to determine why it is incongruent.
- Several windows open in the background tie up computer bandwidth and slow everything down.
- Reports from older programs may not sync on the same schedule as newer ones. They can be outdated if data is not refreshed in real time — usually manually — creating even more wasted time.
- Each system used to manage data has ongoing costs associated with them. Licensing fees, maintenance fees, training and support fees, customer service fees.
- New hires need to learn multiple interfaces for the numerous types of software they need to know how to use. This is simply adding to their training.
- Upgrading systems for specific programs can happen on varying schedules. Some systems are old, so the maintenance costs are high or support is not available.
- When some departments don’t have access to other systems, communication and information blocks occur as a result.
Reducing Your Business’s Systems Reduces Spend
Reducing the number of systems reduces the dollars spent on duplicate services from different providers. SMB Suite offers complete, integrated systems that are a perfect fit for your business. Systems that speak to each other can find those pesky mis-keys and typos. Staff members are also more productive, as they can spend less time tracking down answers and more time helping clients. New employees have fewer programs to learn and fewer ways to make mistakes, and your company will always have the most up-to-date software. Finally, solutions from SMB Suite give your staff a single point of contact in the rare event that issues arise. If your business day is slowed down because of multiple disconnected systems, contact us today!