As I listened to the conversation my discomfort grew. I asked some pointed questions and the answers I received confirmed my suspicions.

I knew that not only were none of the packages they were considering the right one, there wasn’t a package on the market that would solve their problem. So, how was I so sure?

It’s not because I’m a techno-wizard. It’s not because I have a sixth sense. It’s not even because I think I’m a genius when it comes to business.

It’s because there is one way to know for sure that technology is not the solution.

An Important Lesson

I’ve been around a lot of software implementations in my day. It’s really exciting and rewarding when things turn out the way you want them to. Even with all of the hard work and the inevitable hiccups, the payoff can be fantastic. I’ve had that experience.

However, they can be excruciatingly painful, especially when they don’t work. I’ve seen that happen also, way too many times.

Years ago I learned a critically important lesson from my boss who had just completed the Executive MBA program at Kellogg University. He passed on this bit of wisdom to me. Here it is: Technology is an accelerator.

Did you catch that? Technology is an accelerator. In other words, it makes things go faster. So, if you stink at something and decide to throw some technology at it, you’re just going to end up stinking faster. And you’re going to spend a lot of time and money to achieve that negative result.

Here’s a very simple test you can apply to decide whether or not technology is the answer to your problem. If you can’t figure out how to do something the old fashioned way, e.g. manually, don’t implement technology to try to make it work better.

Best Examples

Two of the areas where I have seen this most often is with CRM and Inventory packages. In the case of CRM systems, companies sometimes have a hard time accurately tracking the leads and opportunities that come their way. They think implementing a CRM system is the answer.

They dream about how it’s going to give them quick access to great info and pretty reports that will help them drive more sales. So, they go out and spend thousands of dollars and dozens and dozens of hours to get it in place only to find out that they’re still having many of the same problems.

The reason for this is really very simple. GIGO – Garbage in, garbage out. The processes and systems they had in place were insufficient or defective. Putting in a CRM package is not going to fix that. Why not?

A computer can only do what it’s programmed to do. First, if you haven’t figured out how to do it, you can’t tell the computer how to either. And it can’t figure it out on its own, at least not at the time of this writing. Second, if people won’t make the appropriate inputs into the current system, they’re not likely to do it in the new system either.

The Rest of the Story

So, back to the story with my client. From the answers they gave to my questions it was clear that the problem was due to a lack of discipline. People weren’t doing what they had been instructed to do. That’s one of the most prevalent problems that I find in companies that are struggling with a process.

Giving people software or technological tools isn’t going to change that. Depending on the skill level of your employees, you may even be introducing new levels of complexity that will make things worse.

We give technology too much credit. We think it will solve all our problems for us. But that often isn’t the case. It’s only a tool, an accelerator.