Imagine a normal day at work. You have a task to complete. You have received the task by email. You almost missed it, because when you looked in your inbox, the message had been pushed down quite a bit as there have been a lot of emails during the morning.
An ordinary day at work
You start by switching from the email program to application A where the information is located. You find the information you need by selecting from menus and jumping between tabs. Then you switch to application B, where you also make selections in the menus and do a search to access the information you need. You can’t find the right information in application B if you haven’t already been to application A to read it first, because that application allows you to search for what you need. What do you do now? Well, you go to application C to quickly check one thing, at which point you bring information with you which you then enter into application B. Then you switch to application D to do the same thing; retrieve information that you enter, also in application B. Now you sit down and reply again to the e-mail you received, where the task was stated. You write a couple of paragraphs in the letter where you enter information based on what you have found from the different systems. This means that the person from whom you received the task can take that information and in turn put it into their applications.
There will be a lot of switching between applications
A study, which I referred to in a previous weekly letter, showed that on average, during a typical day at work, we switch between 22 applications as many as 3,500 times. It’s incredible.
In the manufacturing industry, we talk about the word set-up time, which means that when changing a machine or changing a product in a machine, it takes time to set up the machine so that it can do what it is supposed to do. That time is not productive as nothing is produced during that time. The same is true for all the switches we make when we sit and switch applications to do a job. We don’t create value at these times, but our way of working means that we spend a lot of time around, before we sporadically create the required value.
Is there no better way?
Well, thanks for asking, that’s exactly what it does. Imagine instead that you go into an application where you have set up so that you can collect virtually all tasks. You do not receive them via email or via any other application, but via this, central, “task application”. You choose a task that you want to take on. When you open the task, you will see that your colleague in another department has done their part in the overall task. You also see that the supplier who worked on a part of the task has also done his work. And, you see what the customer has written and done as well. Now that you’ve looked through these parts, you see your work task. There you see that you have been served all the information you need to perform the task. You don’t have to look for it. It is information that is automatically retrieved from applications A, B, C and D. Everything that you previously had to search for yourself has now been presented to you in an efficient way. You will also see in the task that your AI helper has gone through the information, summarized it and suggested an action. Based on all the information in front of you, you can now make a decision and carry out whatever it is you need to do. When you have done what is required of you in your task, you note what you have done and what you have concluded. You then mark the task as completed and the information is automatically entered into application B, the application where you previously sat and wrote so much. A message is then automatically sent to the stakeholders who need to receive information and if the case as a whole is not ready, the task is passed on to the next colleague, supplier or customer, to continue the work with whatever it is they are to contribute.
No more searching
No more searching. No more writing in applications about things that are already written in other applications. Instead, you can focus on solving the task at hand. When you’re done, so are those who need to know. And the matter flows on to others to take over.
But…
– But Matts, we already have this in our case management system, you might say.
– No, in all likelihood you have not, I would say.
The important thing to understand is that this is not a regular application, but one that is only focused on driving the flow. It is not something that you buy from Supplier One from whom you procured applications A and D, nor from Supplier Two from whom you purchased application B, and so on.
If you are looking for your usual application providers to handle this, you will be disappointed. Firstly, they don’t talk to each other to satisfy your needs, and secondly, they develop solutions for the market and not just for you. And what if your needs are not the same as everyone else’s? Are you getting what you want or do you need to adapt? You probably have the answer to that question yourself.
Does that sound like a utopia?
Maybe, but this is what I and we at Clean Stream have been working to create for 20 years.
There is. It is possible.
What is needed, however, is to think differently. Not to be stuck in the pipes when it comes to the organization and not the pipes when it comes to the various applications.
The stovepipe approach does not lead to success. It’s like digging a pit and once you’re standing there, at a depth of two meters, you find that you can’t see much more than what’s just around you, in the pit. What happens in other pits remains shrouded in mystery. Only by shouting between the pits can we try to communicate with each other. Compare that to endless meetings in your business.
If you missed this month’s webinar, where I spoke and shared thoughts on the above, you can watch the recording of it.
Would you like to talk to me about what the above description could look like for you and your business? Do you want to know if it is possible?
Contact me and let’s have a chat online. Get in touch now, even if you can’t make it until August, at least we’ve put the time in our calendars. Looking forward to helping you and explaining more about how you would benefit from a different approach than the silo approach.
