As the world continues to develop and technology and the Internet become more ubiquitous, all business will ultimately become automated. The rule of business is that it must grow or it sinks.
Inflation is the order of the day, and companies need more customers or higher prices. To achieve these two elusive ideals, obviously they need to create better products that do more and are more innovative. If at any point, a business stops this process of growth and development, it begins to lose market share.
At the same time, competition is fierce. At any moment, a competitor could come out with a product that is easier to use, does more for the customer, is cheaper, looks better or possesses any other myriad benefits that will enable them to steal market share. For example, banks are continually updating their Internet banking sites to make them easier to use and the success of these efforts is related to customer satisfaction or attrition.
The automated world
The relationship between business and software is very simple. Either a business sells software directly or software assists that business in providing its product or service to market. The number of businesses that have no software involved are very few, and getting fewer. Even artists, for instance, need to bill for their work, and software makes this process simpler and less time-consuming.
Industries like the travel trade have moved their services almost completely online. The customer can carry out the same tasks as the travel agent, tickets are issued as e-tickets, people can book their flights, hotels or tour packages and even check-in online. Other industries, like the property industry, are following with online searches for houses based on personal criteria.
Even domestic work has started to be run by software, with advances in robotics meaning that vacuum cleaners or lawnmowers can do the job on their own, without the need for human intervention. Bill Tazelaar, a regional sales manager at Leuze Electronics, a company that is active in robotics software, says: “If we can help customers make their product, package it, label it, and ship it out in less time than they did it before - even if it's only a few seconds - then we're helping them to make a profit. That's what it's all about.”
Perpetual reinvention
What companies and industries need to do is perpetually reinvent themselves through business process automation.
Len Weincier is owner and director of GuruHut.
Taking this all into account, it becomes obvious that what companies and industries need to do is perpetually reinvent themselves through business process automation. And the way to do this is through software development. There's no point in viewing the process as a finite activity. It just isn't. As boring as the adage “the only constant is change” may be, it's also true.
In the business world, everything changes. The market, the consumer, their needs, the suppliers, the product, the technology, the programming language and the whole way of doing business are in a constant state of flux. The only way to respond to this is for companies to continuously develop. The tool for this is software.
The lesson here is to accept that software development is an ongoing process. Decision-makers shouldn't think longingly of the day when the developers will be off-site, or dust themselves off at the conclusion of a rollout, but rather engage with it as a process that will become as inherent to doing business as HR, accounts or front-line staff.
The mindset shift away from the idea that a massive system overhaul, once completed, will change the face of the business forever is going to lead to lots of disappointment. Even a newly renovated reception area looks tacky within a decade - and that's just furniture. When talking about technology, the obsolescence is much quicker, the need for reinvention far greater.
However, I'm not suggesting that companies should move the water cooler, shift some cubicles and make a permanent office for the resident software development team. Projects should end, deliverables should be met and goals should be achieved. Good software developers want to deliver a solution and get out, not establish themselves within an organisation, but decision-makers should accept that as soon after they've seen the back of the development team, they or someone like them will be back.
By turning their thinking to a process of ongoing growth and development, and continuously responding to change, business decision-makers will find their engagement with both their customer and their solutions providers will be more effective. There will be no need to accept things the way they are, because the business will be constantly evolving and improving.
Share