Help wanted – the help you need to be competitive.

A couple of weeks ago, we concluded our series on how the world has changed by asking the question: Do you know what type of help you need? My speculation was: probably not.  If you missed that series, have a look here and here to get caught up.

This week’s article will discuss the types of help that exist in the marketplace and how you can use them.

What is help?

A product or service is often interpreted as helpful if it meets at least one of the following criteria: It lowers your costs; assists you in some way; increases the likelihood of your success; or does the work for you. Generally, if a service doesn’t meet at least one of these criteria, then you end up feeling like you weren’t helped because you still have some version of the problem you were trying to solve in the first place.

Many people approach software as a magic pill that will solve all their problems if they just buy and install it. If this has happened to you, you aren’t alone, it happens to everyone at some point.

No company can fully run their operations using only one enterprise software application. Enterprise software is great - many software companies call themselves an “enterprise solution” - and they may be. Still, you can’t run your business with one software solution - no matter what any vendor may tell you.

Enterprise software is great for solving specific problems, even groups of problems - accounting, manufacturing, HR, asset management, etc. When very large software companies sell you their ERP software - which has many different modules to address some of the specific issues you may have - they are really selling you individual applications that almost never work the way you need them to out of the box.

Everyone has heard of the horror stories of ERP implementations taking years and costing millions only to be disappointed in the end. This is often because of the size and scope of the problem being addressed and the customization required to make it work for the specific customer. These implementations can cause such organizational scar tissue that companies will stick with their ERP system well past its prime because upgrading will require additional customization to transition to the next version - which promises to be painful and generate more scar tissue.

Other enterprise solutions don’t try to do as much as ERP systems, and they remain focused in scope. The issue here is that you have more than one challenge you are often trying to solve. Because of the costs (dollars and time) that each solution requires or the evolving needs of the business as it grows, many companies approach the problems one at a time. When all of their point solutions are implemented, they still don't have a portfolio of point solutions that enables them to run their business the way they want - something is missing.

I don’t have anything against enterprise software or ERP solutions. I just know that they aren’t enough to solve the challenges that you face in your business when you are serious about competing to win. And, my customers agree with me.

Why is that?

The model for a software company is to build software that can be sold to the mass market - this makes for great profits. Each software solution in your portfolio solves a specific set of problems, has some limited capacity to custom configure it to your specific situations, and provides APIs to connect with other solutions. This is standard in the industry - and it isn’t “wrong” for them to operate this way.

Software companies are focused on bringing their software to as many companies as possible. They can’t customize and connect to everything your specific operations require - that isn’t their model. Most enterprise software solutions, however, provide a method for connecting to their solution - an API.

So what happens? 

Find out next week as I continue to explore the help you need to be competitive.