Technology won’t fix broken processes
Is your technology no longer serving you?
Perhaps your team has outgrown your current systems. People are frustrated with the amount of manual steps or workarounds. Your systems no longer connect seamlessly with each other. Or perhaps you’ve seen what a newer system or AI can do and you’re wondering whether there is simply something better out there.
So, do you go to market and start looking for a new solution?
Possibly. But there is a question I think is worth asking first:
Have you really looked at your existing processes and how your current technology is being used?
We are seeing a lot of organisations looking to technology to solve challenges that, when you get curious and start digging, aren’t entirely technology challenges.
Sometimes the technology genuinely isn’t fit for purpose. But sometimes we find documents spread across multiple platforms because there has never really been agreement about where they should live. People are entering the same information into several places. Teams are using the same system btu in completely different ways which means that leadership have no helpful data visiblity. Manual workarounds have gradually become part of the daily work process.
“The opportunity with tech change isn’t necessarily to replace one individual piece of software. We need to to look at how it is configured, how people are using it and whether the process it is supporting still makes sense.”
We have found that sometimes there is a documented process, but it can bear very little resemblance to what people are actually doing. And other times, the process isn’t documented at all. It might liive in someone’s head, supported by a spreadsheet, an email template and a series of steps everyone has simply learnt along the way.
And then sometimes we even discover that the existing technology can actually do far more than anyone realised. It might have upgraded in capability without you knowing and you might already be paying for a system which IS fit-for-purpose, but you just didn’t know to enable something new in settings.
The opportunity with tech change isn’t necessarily to replace one individual piece of software. We need to to look at how it is configured, how people are using it and whether the process it is supporting still makes sense.
This is becoming even more important with AI.
There are some incredible opportunities to automate processes, introduce agents and remove repetitive work. But before we ask “Could AI do this?”, perhaps we need to understand what this actually is.
How does the process really happen today? Why did we decide to do it that specific way? Could we do it better? Where does information come from and where does it go? Who is involved? Where are the handovers? What information gets entered twice? What is taking longer than it should? What workarounds have people created? Or what shadow tech are people using because the current way simply doesn’t work or takes too long? And what do the people actually doing the work think could be better?
One of my favourite questions in these conversations is simply:
I’d love to know more about why you do that thing that way..
Sometimes there is a very good answer. Sometimes nobody is quite sure.
We have seen organisations considering completely new platforms when part of the opportunity was actually to establish clearer ways of working and make better use of technology they already owned. We have seen teams manually moving information between systems when it can easily be connected with a couple of admin and system settings. And we have seen organisations excited about introducing AI agents where the first step needed to be getting everyone together and agreeing on what the process should actually be and (importantly) where the data is so introducing agents isn’t introducing risk!
None of this means necessarily that you won’t need new tech.
You may analyse the process, understand how your existing systems are being used, talk to the people doing the work and conclude that yes, you absolutely need something new.
But after that process, you can go to market knowing what you actually need. It makes for a better implementation of the right software and settings and a cleaner message for your team.
So, if your technology is no longer serving you, perhaps the first question isn’t “What should we replace it with?”
It might be:
“What’s actually happening in our processes today, and what do we really need technology to help us do better?”
If you need a hand with this process, of course we are more than happy to come and help! Give us a shout for a coffee.