Technology is Waiting for You!

RCS Influencer Thea Dudley says adopting new technology isn’t about being on the cutting edge of innovation but utilizing opportunities that can improve your business. 

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That long uttered mantra heard throughout history. Is that really true? Ain’t it broke? Or do you know? Just because the work is managing to get done doesn’t mean that the process is working. It just means that your employees have figured out a way to get their jobs done in spite of those antiquated, time-tested processes you have. Is it time you blew up one or more of your processes to see how to improve it? I shudder every time I walk into a roofing buddy’s office and see piles of paper that bear some resemblance to a mountain range. Short piles, large piles, piles on the floor when they have run out of space on their desk or an available surface, some leaning to the side, slightly askew. Hey my guy, what is the plan for all that paper?   

Being able to walk to your desk, assuming you can see it under the piles, should make anyone want to reach out and try a new application to solve the paper monster that exists in many companies. Imagine being able to have ALL your paperwork right there in the plan of your hand. In that lovely little smartphone. Access it anywhere.  

I am not asking you to be bleeding edge (you know that lovely slice where you are the very first to try something so you get all the challenges and problems that come with being a first adopter), I am not even talking about being cutting edge (that’s after some others but not the majority, adopt new tech and are still “enjoying” the remaining bugs), but utilizing what is out there to improve your business.  

Any tech that is not something that you are currently using is new. It is new to you. It usually takes some event, or person in your office losing their stuffing about a process or two that causes change and adoption of new technology, regardless of its’ form, to happen. 

New software, new application within your current system, product enhancement, whatever you want to call it, if you are not at least open to it, will leave you company struggling while others move forward. Eventually, it all catches up to you. 

I use the paper example. I love a virtual filing cabinet or use or any one of a number of applications designed to take the place of the endless rows of metal filing cabinets. Having a share drive with those virtual files set up exactly the same as your live and in person one's costs nothing, except some time and maybe a scanner if you have not made the leap to invest in that and pays off with time saved by everyone.   

Time may wait for no one, technology is waiting for you, embrace it.   

Thea Dudley is an expert credit and collections officer, having spent 30 years in the construction field working for contractors and distributors. See her full bio here.