Note: Running Fridays in FromGregsHead.com, is a continuing series of tips brought to you by Greg Price. These run Saturday mornings during the BusinessMaker’s Radio Show on KPRC 950AM. Audio files can be found on the PKF Texas – Entrepreneur’s Playbook® page of the PKF Texas website.
Are you getting the financial information you require from your business application? Have you asked your users how long it takes them to get the financial information so they can make timely and fully informed decisions? Our research shows that most of the users of business applications take what they can from their databases and then massage the numbers through several extractions to arrive at hopefully an accurate accounting.
How did we get this way? Weren’t the millions of dollars we invested in such large scale business applications like SAP and Oracle supposed to make life easier? Well the thought and goal was admirable, but the practicality is that the Power of People contributed to this failed strategy.
Both financial management and information technology management can work together to solve the issue if they collaborate in solving this problem. The key is not which technology to use, but getting the people to use the technology the way it was intended. In today’s workforce we generally see two types of workers. First is the Baby Boom generation that grew up with mainframe computers and business at business. Second, is the Millennials who grew up with PCs, PDAs and in general have been using technology since birth.
So you have the perfect storm for information breakdown, one group that understand process but goes manual to get its needs answered. And the other group that doesn’t understand process but get its need through technical sources.
Make sure both groups understand how both process and technology work together and how your business application works the way it was intended.