|
Departments Calendar of Events
Corporate Profiles
Economy Trends
Plastics Watch
Technology Corner
People & Places
Literature and Web Showcase
Product Showcase
Plastic Pipeline
Fabrication Services Showcase
Sign up for a complimentary subscription to 
an educational
e-newsletter, published by IAPD, highlighting the material of choice for today's applications.
|
by Shawn Chambers
Information technology, in its purest form, is about getting the right information in front of the right person at the right time to make the right decision.
IT is not about dual cores and the number of CPUs in your workstation, or the biggest flat-screens or stereo USB microphones. It’s not about Windows 7 vs. XP. It’s not about Microsoft vs. Google or Linux or any other red herring in the quest for getting the order. Information technology is about processing — about manufacturing facts and figures into useful, timely information that leads to positive customer experiences; so much so that customers can’t help but tell someone else about the magnificence of your people, products and capabilities. Everything else is just noise.
But, somewhere along the line I think that message has been lost. Or, perhaps, it was never defined. Rather, information technology is relegated to gidgets and gadgets that sit on desktops and in padlocked back rooms, and being depreciated on the P&L statements each month. IT has become noise.
Technology-produced noise
Noise comes in the form of speed bumps created by misplaced or misused technologies — things that interfere with the relationship: a new order entry system that won’t let users successfully post customer orders; a new high-tech VOIP phone system that makes it difficult to transfer a phone call; incompatible VPN protocols that don’t allow you to connect to customer information from a hotel or coffee shop; or failing a customer’s delivery needs because a packer doesn’t understand how to print a packing slip.
Noise manifests itself in the misspelled e-mails, the incorrectly entered orders, the incorrectly labeled material — it’s everything that your customer can use against you to erode your margin if you want to keep doing business with them.
I fear that the volume knob on the information technology noise machine is
about to get turned to 11.
In its most basic form, information technology allows us to encapsulate and communicate a message. In its most advanced form it’s a big red arrow pointing toward opportunity. It doesn’t make the decision but it can narrow down the possibilities to one of two choices, fish or cut bait. The lesson learned during this last economic crunch is that we do better with less technology-produced noise — all that stuff that gets in the way of our co-workers having genuine, passionate, human relationships with our customers. Such technologies have to minimize the things that interfere with the most basic of value propositions, “I’m available when you need me to listen to your needs and deliver a mutually profitable solution beyond the capabilities of my competition.” That said, my dear and faithful readers, I fear that the volume knob on the noise machine is about to get turned to 11.
Quest for more information technology
Surviving these recessionary times probably involved prioritizing individual performance, productivity and contribution within the organization. This would no doubt lead to a trimming of decision makers down to a small cadre of essential planners and organizers capable of juggling multiple projects. What made this possible was the simple fact that everyone was working toward a common goal where each expenditure was weighed in terms of customer benefit, and every process change was prioritized in terms of making it easier for a few to manage many. But, now, as new hires begin to reconstruct departmental walls, the self-serving needs of department managers begin to shift the organization’s hive-like focus away from the customer and the quest for more “information technology” begins. Agendas may once again return to empire building more so than increasing customer value and streamlining processes — the very projects that protected these people from the cost cutting machine.
The more computers one has in their department, the more printers they have, the more supplies needed to support that equipment, and the more productivity tools that need upgrades and individual training simply adds to the size of the departmental treasury and soon you have equipment being purchased for no better reason than, “If I don’t spend the money, I won’t get it next time.”
Invest in value-based transactions
An increase in budget dollars shouldn’t be an incentive to relearn the old ways of building localized armies of high powered workstations just to reinforce one’s operating budget. Bigger is not better, but more customers buying more often at a higher margin is, and your information technology infrastructure should be an investment in that direction.
First, invest in upgrading your ability to build demographic profiles within your contact management system based on industry segment, applications for plastic, and some quantifier as to the expert abilities of your buyers with respects to the products they buy. Then, start reducing all the bits and pieces down to a meaningful forecast of where those industries are headed — plant the seeds of opportunity in growing segments and harvest the best you can from those that have matured. Then, divide your buyer demographics into novice, basic, advanced and expert user. You can deliver more value by solving more problems for the novice and basic users than the advanced ones so focus your resources where the greater margins lie — in value-based transactions.
Once the data is gathered, then you don’t need anything fancier than a spreadsheet application with the ability to sort columns from top to bottom. And, as far as a workstation — as long as it will run the spreadsheet application then you’re good to go! Of course, talent is a requirement in the development of this system but you can rent that by the hour.
Earlier, I suggested that the most basic use of information technology is to encapsulate a message and communicate it. So, find your top growth industry segment and sit down with a person knowledgeable about related applications for plastics. Pick a product and write three simple paragraphs with the headlines “Features, Advantages and Benefits” using no word or phrase more sophisticated than what one would find in a grade seven text book. By no means is this a slight on any reader, it’s all about eliminating speed bumps — reducing noise. This exercise in simplicity forces you to reduce complex industry jargon and concepts into something that just about anyone can understand, and if they understand it — then and only then — can they measure its usefulness. With your message encapsulated then the last step is communication and, again, nothing sophisticated is required here — snail mail, e-mail or fax. Or, you might choose to drop it off with the only attachments being a smile and a handshake.
Sometimes, we have to realize that we’ve made the world far more complicated than it has to be. We need to put information technology in its place, that of a tool in the art of decision making: reducing the possibilities and complexities of the world around us down to a simple choice between chocolate or vanilla while keeping the noise on mute.
Shawn Chambers is the IT manager for Piedmont Plastics’ Canadian operations and blogmeister of The Plastic Spork Blog. He may be reached at Piedmont Plastics Inc., 90 Venture Drive, Unit 8, Scarborough, ON M1B 3L6 Canada; (416) 281-4300, fax (416) 281-1641, e-mail: schambers@piedmontplastics.com, www.piedmontplastics.com.
|
