3 Reasons Software is Holding Your Company Back
Summary
- With companies introducing more and more software platforms, it’s leaving room for important work to fall through the cracks.
- There are many different software choices out there for every need, and companies may be using the wrong software that doesn’t fit their needs.
- Most software is not aimed at strategic transformation, causing companies to remain stuck in the operating cycle at the expense of growth transformation.
Introduction
It’s safe to say that every company utilizes an array of software, ranging from inter-office communications to software designed for assembly lines. It’s gotten to the inevitability stage of adoption in companies—it’s not a matter of if you have software, it’s a matter of which software you utilize.
While software can be incredibly useful and has changed the status quo in business, companies are continually adopting platform after platform and piling them all on top of each other, causing a disarray of platforms not operating harmoniously towards their goals.
In reality, there are three main ways that the use (or misuse) of software might be holding your company back compared to competitors.
Reason 1: You have too many platforms
The average day in the life of an employee might involve something along these lines:
See where it gets to be too much? Not only is having too many platforms time consuming, it also leaves open the possibility for lost work, missed messages, and miscommunication between software. Employees who aren’t as technology savvy also get left behind by a barrage of different software platforms.
According to research by BetterCloud, surveyed companies have increased their SaaS (Software as a Service) platforms used on average from eight in 2015 to 110 in 2021, an increase of almost 14x. Assuming that 110 number holds true across the country, how are companies supposed to keep a consistent path forward with that many software platforms pulling them in different directions?
Another problem presenting itself is people gravitating toward “best of breed” software while their company utilizes a similar competing platform. For example, as a content creator, I utilize many “best of breed” design platforms unique to my environment, and it causes problems in file extensions and editability of projects. These preferred platforms just add more complexity to an already complex system of software.
Software simplification can greatly benefit a company, and this starts with examining current platforms to see which ones are not actually benefiting the company as originally planned.
Reason 2: You're not using the right platforms
With the mass amount of software platforms all competing for the top position in their targeted industry, it can be tough to choose software that actually benefits your company. It’s necessary to research with keyword searches and word-of-mouth, but these routes aren’t always reliable.
Many software platforms boost their reputation with false ratings and sponsored “10 best X platforms” with their software at the top. It can take a good deal of time to find actual, non-sponsored reviews, and even then, it’s tough to compare and contrast the many options out there. And when it comes to word-of-mouth, what is good for one company is not necessarily good for your company.
The result ends up being companies with the wrong platform for what they’re trying to do, or ones that don’t work as well as they claim. As an example, I had a situation in the past where, with what seemed like a top-of-the-line email campaign platform, we had our entire CRM changed because of a miscommunication in the servers. This cost us a full week of work and frustration, and the problem never once showed up in reviews or customer service articles anywhere.
Thinking about just the one instance, now consider a company with the assumed average of 110 SaaS platforms. How many of those platforms are truly a good fit for the company? How many of the platforms are causing issues from within, or not properly aligning the company in the right direction?
Perhaps, you need a transformation-focused platform to rationalize all these automation “islands” that harden operations silos and stunt value growth.
Reason 3: Your software is not contributing toward transformation
Software can be very useful for the day-to-day handling of business operations in areas like lead nurturing, project management, and team collaboration. Where most businesses fail to utilize software to its full potential is in the area of strategic transformation.
Some task management software like Asana or Monday allow a basic amount of transformation, but aren’t allowing a company to align, engage, and empower its company on a strategic basis.
Having a strategic transformation platform enables business leaders to focus their efforts on crucial areas like strategic planning and business value growth, shifting from a surviving/operating organization not focused on growth to a thriving/transforming organization with a connected growth culture.
What platform out there is best for fixing these three software problems through strategic transformation? We provide one of the only SaaS strategic transformation platforms- the Pivotal Innovator™ Platform.
The Pivotal Innovator™ Platform
Our software-as-a service (SaaS) platform is designed to automate and integrate strategy, execution, and innovation processes in your company. Delivered in the cloud and completely in browser, it is a unified and transparent environment that can be implemented easily to achieve its intended purpose of accelerating business value growth. We work with you as part of our Business Value Growth Solution to customize the Pivotal Innovator™ to fit your company’s needs and practices.
Interested in seeing how the Pivotal Innovator™ Platform can help your business?
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