Data Protection – The Human Element
“Everyone is replaceable.” a business owner once sternly told me at a company I was working with. While highly applicable in the industrial age, how does this statement resonate in the our modern business world so heavily dependent on technology and knowledge workers? Regardless of industry, more and more our businesses are dependent on the organizational aspect of information storage and understanding processes and design of technology infrastructure systems. How do we ensure this information is protected, transferable, and easily interpreted by the “next in line”? Is it truly possible to document every granular detail of our systems design, and our daily operational processes? Does the result always resemble a “needle in the haystack” ominous mass totaling thousands of pages of mostly mundane filler with a few critical points buried here and there? Here are a few thoughts regarding the organization and management of your companies most crucial information, which from my experience far too many businesses leave in the minds of key employees.
Diagram
Flow diagrams and clearly stated configuration documentation remains the tried and true basis for all electronic systems. Whether network infrastructure or social marketing efforts; the ability to easily locate devices, providers, credentials; and decipher hierarchy of process flow is crucial. Imagine the reader is presented the information without basis, no predecessor to explain nuances. Is the information clear and accurate? A single piece of incomplete or obsolete information can take hours or days to correctly obtain.
Have a System – Business Management Software
Implementing business management systems take processes out of people’s head and information flow becomes tangible, systematic, repeatable, and less apt to be individually interpreted. Just because you know that an inventory list exists in a spreadsheet named MyWidgets.xls on the N:\ drive does not mean anyone else will intuitively locate that information. The days of adequately running your business from a massive shared folder hierarchy and homegrown spreadsheets are long behind us. The upcoming workforce expects processes to be clear, defined, and a benefit to their position rather than a cumbersome burden to carry or maintain. If you don’t have it, your competition does.
Real-time Interaction
Early electronic systems required A LOT of work to maintain. This generated many IT clichés such as “The data OUT is only as good as the data put IN…”. It also created fear for many business owners, thinking that in addition to investing into a system, they will need to increase staff just to manage the system. Mobile devices have turned these assumptions upside down. Forward thinking and well designed business management systems interact directly with our workforce processes. This means we collect our information directly from the source, not after the fact as an afterthought or documentation effort. Features and functionality of our business systems need to be inline with other technology selections and choices we are making. We want our systems to be and stay cohesive with each other, as incompatible components can wreak havoc to the overall flow of information.
Dashboard Decisions
Just as our vehicles dashboard is crucial to safe and consistent travel, the information provided by our management system becomes a living, breathing aspect of our business operations. Owners who once boasted a sixth sense of “gut-feel” are systematically outperformed by those who know the “real-deal” from information provided by our management systems. Systems that are able to combine sales and operational data give us new insight to how our business performs over the life of a customer, from the first time we meet them to the Nth repeat transaction.
Summary
This perspective is not provided to sell or promote any particular product. It is however intended to help when considering the cost vs. benefit of implementing yet another layer of technology into our digital ecosystem. Business management software undoubtedly increases the overall complexity of a businesses infrastructure. With it comes the risk of yet another security vulnerability and dependence on a software vendor. However it seems an undeniable necessity to todays expectations of productivity and accountability.
