Technology can play an important role in creating lean and efficient processes. It helps to reduce or eliminate duplications and delays in the workflow, as well as speed up operations by automating specific tasks. It can also save businesses a significant amount of money and time. Businesses are investing in digital technologies in order to leverage the numerous benefits they bring to the table, for both the organization and its employees.
Part of Alberta Women Entrepreneurs’ “Digital Transformation” series, the course “Creating Efficiencies Through Digital Operations” helps business owners discover, streamline and remove repetitive operational tasks within their organizations, allowing them to free up more time. The purpose of the course is to help women entrepreneurs take the first and most important steps in order to embrace digital tools, and as a result - become more efficient in their operations.
“I liked the conversations with the other business owners, comparing some of their struggles and things we had in common,” Jennifer Nielsen reported. Her company, Iron Hide Woodworks, saw exponential growth in 2020, and have since expanded to a new 3300 square foot shop. However, even though this was great news in 2020, she expects to see some changes in the months to come, and she and her partner are taking a proactive approach to any foreseeable challenges.
The course included three sessions for a combined six hours of live, interactive learning with access to a network of experts and coaches. The session topics included process digitization, enabling team collaboration, and optimizing with meaningful data.
Claire Montgomery, Owner of Claire’s Cleaning Services, found value in the way the sessions were delivered. “I was so impressed with how the session was laid out. If you had questions you were welcome to chime in, and there were opportunities to be separated into smaller groups so that you could actually have conversations and get feedback from other businesses. So, it was a really great networking opportunity, without feeling like you have to force yourself upon other businesses and push network marketing. I felt you were able to connect with the presenter and there were opportunities for discussion and questions.”
Claire began her residential cleaning service in 2012, at that time she was the only employee. Since then, she has grown her fleet to a team of nine employees serving over 100 clients in Edmonton. She discovered many of the digital tools that were applicable to her business within the course, and she implemented them right away. She was able to increase efficiency in her operations as well as improve communications between her team members and their clients instantly.
Each session explored new technologies and compared processes which could be automated to increase efficiency. Throughout the course, participants also had an opportunity to connect and network with like-minded women entrepreneurs.
“It gave me a different viewpoint on what an online presence can look like and what digital communication means. I think the assumption is that digital communications and online operations is something that is just applicable to companies that are retail or do a lot of their sales online, and I found quite the opposite in terms of tools that you can use to make sure that your team is communicating effectively with each other,” she explained.
One of the focuses of the course was learning to identify gaps in operational effectiveness, and how to build a digital workforce by mapping a team’s current needs. Participants also explored technologies such as Customer Relation Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).
To create efficiencies in operations, businesses also need to know how they are doing, and be able to measure their performance against an established benchmark. Establishing appropriate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the overall company and for each business function is an important step in this process.
While gaining insight from industry experts and each other, the group explored data management strategies and established data goals, including learning about data collection tools such as: Google Forms, Microsoft Forms, Google Analytics and Harvest. Other reporting and data visualization tools such as Microsoft Power BI and Domo were also discussed.
As a Marketing Manager, Jennifer Neilson was interested in learning how to streamline processes for the real estate firm she works for, so that each year their business could potentially take on a new city. Jennifer is also a mom, and the co-owner and marketing manager for her own company Iron Hide Woodworks. So, upgrading some of her own operational processes to digital platforms and automations has helped to save her a lot of time.
Jennifer’s biggest takeaways from the course were learning the Microsoft suite in more depth, and the introduction of “power apps” which have helped Jennifer make communication easier between her team members.
“One of the things my partner and I talk about all the time is our ability to recognize a problem before there is a big problem.” Jennifer explained, “For example, we had great growth in 2020, but we are also expecting that when people get vaccines and things open up again we will probably take a bit of a hit, because people will be spending their money on travelling instead of on their homes.”
The second session in the course was about team collaboration. This included finding ways for team members to work better together, and even ways in which the business can interact better with their customers and suppliers. Team collaboration tools like Slack were introduced and were compared to Microsoft Teams and Google suite.
“Slack was absolutely amazing for us.” said Claire, “We could maintain everybody’s confidentiality, it kept things really professional, we could have specific group chats for supply pickups, discuss if someone was sick or if there was a Covid situation. All your information is organized and your conversations are saved.”
It is important to know what areas of your business are doing well, and what could use some extra help. Looking at data visualizations and analyzing it can help when creating a strategy. The third session in the Creating Efficiencies Through Digital Operations course was about data management. “Most people don't realize that they have a lot of data”, said Cailtin Lopez, course Instructor. “We ask, ‘what kind of data do you have?’, and ‘what kinds of things would you like to know from your business.’”
Collecting consumer data helps businesses to gain a much better understanding of the way their consumers behave online. It also helps to define their overall demographics, and identify the ways in which they can improve the overall customer experience.
Claire Montgomery was able to put her data to work for her right away. “I am now so much more focused on the data and how that affects operations. We discovered through just analyzing data and looking at previous operations that we were finding most of our clients through word of mouth. We know how long our clients stay on for, and we figured out what the sweet spot is in terms of how often we see our clients. So we were able to make some good changes that will bring us to the next level of growth, based on being able to look at the data and know what it is telling us.”
The course is delivered in an interactive, applied learning approach. Business owners are encouraged to actually build a plan around their company. Because the course is not lecture style, the participants have found real value in discussing available options, challenges with current processes and successes with specific platforms.
These digital technologies have been around us now for some time, and they have been evolving and becoming more sophisticated. Today, almost every company is investing in technologies to scale up their operations and achieve better results. The organization that manages to maintain a right balance of these technologies can increase their efficiency and conquer their respective markets quickly.
Businesses with more than two employees can benefit further by joining the Bold Leadership program which takes an in-depth and comprehensive look at digital transformation. This online program, which is led by experts will help you create a digital strategy, learn essential leadership skills, and actually implement one area of your strategy.
“I am continually blown away with AWE. There have even been some sessions and workshops that AWE has started offering that I know I am not quite ready for, but it's great to know that as you continue on with your steps in your small business and you reach new levels of growth and new setbacks there always seems to be something that AWE offers that is applicable and affordable.” - Claire Montgomery, Claire’s Cleaning Services
More information about AWE’s Bold Leadership programs can be found here.
Interviews:
Caitlin Lopez - Instructor, Go Productivity
Jennifer Neilson - Iron Hide Woodworks, Real Estate Marketing Manager
Claire Montgomery - Claire’s Cleaning Services
