Making Software Your Friend & Business Partner

Who you turn to when you’re facing a business challenge really depends upon the nature of the challenge, right?

If it’s a financial question you’d probably turn to your financier for advice. If it’s a bookkeeping or accounting issue you’d likely consult your CPA firm. Legal questions send you straight to your attorney.

What if you want to make significant improvements to your operations? You want to make sure you do it as well as possible. Again, the right resource depends upon what it is you want to improve.

If you’re considering an expansion of your facilities you might turn to your real estate broker. Unless it’s the construction of an extension to an existing structure in which case you’d call upon your architect.

What if Your Challenge is Operational in Nature?

If you’re not satisfied with the way something is getting done in your company, who do you turn to?

You may be among the fortunate executives who have clearly identified expert consultants to help you improve physical processes. How things get from one point to another. Which vendor to select for specific sourcing. Improvements to marketing, sales, staff productivity.

In this era of digital transformation, many are realizing that the best and most cost-effective way to improve workflows and related processes is to automate as much as possible. In that case, you’d want to turn to your software developer.

My Software Developer?

For many years, a business’s software developer was a major corporation like Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, or others. It used to be that software is something you purchase or subscribe to. Once its deployed you have everybody use it the way its intended to be used.

That’s where problems with inefficiencies or an inability to maximize technology solutions begins.

What if the way the software was developed by the big software provider doesn’t exactly match the way you’ve run your operations, or would prefer to run them? You can certainly change the way you operate to align with the way the software works. Or you can develop “workarounds” so you can continue some of your own workflows but then route your way back to the software. Technical folks like to refer to that as a “kludge” (pronounced ’kloodge’). Fun word, but not fun to do.

The Fundamental Nature of Software Has Evolved

You find yourself enjoying doing business with a company because everything moves so well, so quickly, so responsively. It’s a good bet you’re working with a company that has realized and embraced the new relationship they can now have with their software.

Today’s software is far more modular and far more “open” than ever before. It’s far easier for a knowledgeable, properly trained software developer to adapt your software to you.

This means you can significantly reduce the number of basic, repetitious tasks that need to be performed by humans. Instead, focus your team on tasks that take better advantage of human skills and insight. You can fine-tune your workflows to keep everyone well informed on progress and identify anomalies quickly to resolve them before they become disasters. You can pretty much do just about anything you want, the way you want to do it, only faster and with less chance of errors.

What Does a Knowledgeable, Properly Trained Software Developer Look Like?

You select your Software Developer the same way you would any other professional. Do they have the fundamental skills required of members of their profession? In other words,

• Do they have expert software engineering skills?
• Can they understand the critical business needs that need to be solved?
• Can they design systems that closely accommodate your requirements?
• Can they create specifications you can understand and approve with confidence?
• Can they build the actual software in a timely fashion and within your budget?
• Can they quickly respond to your requests for further changes and improvements as you think of them?
• Can they keep the software tuned to you, your operations, policies, processes, and procedures?

Your preferred Software Developer must also possess a deep grounding in core business principles. This is just as important as their software-engineering capabilities. For them to develop a system that will do precisely what you want it to do, they need to be able to understand and appreciate everything you say about how your business. From how it operates to what is important to you. This enables them to ask all the right questions and fully comprehend even the most subtle nuances in your answers.

When you’ve found such a Software Developer, they and the software they develop for you become your professional business consultant, an advisor, and in the best cases, a “business partner” that you can trust to have your best interests as their objective.

When Your Software Developer is Your Friend, Your Software is Most Friendly

Saritasa aims for long-term “Valued Partner” type relationships. We befriend and benefit every client with our learned insight, our stellar design, and our practiced implementation of their vision.

Our clients don’t fear their software. They acknowledge that software is a tool to invest in and realize the ROI it generates.” They have come to see software as the business tool it is and know that any tool is only as good as the craftsperson who wields it.

Talk to us about making your software your friend.