Ask the Questions?

Your company is growing and you need to step up from the software you bought at Best Buy. You have several discrete problems that you must now solve. For example, with a growing customer list you have to deal with more service requests than ever, so you need a customer service module. You also realize that it's important to keep a history of the sales process. You want a better Quote to Order to Invoice process. Inventory needs an upgrade and everything should tie into accounting. Also, your web presence needs to be more functional.

1. Do you have an IT person on staff? Are they dedicated to maintaining systems and performing regular maintenance activities like backup and restore?
2. If you don't have an IT person then you have to ask yourself if you are ready to hire one? Taking a step up from off the shelf software to a robust small and medium enterprise solution is going to be a whole different technology experience. Are you still thinking that you can run an enterprise system yourself? How much maintenance is required?
3. By the way, have you considered the need for a regular restore? There is no such thing as just backup. A simple backup by itself is a waste of time and effort. On a regular basis you must also do the restore. This is where the skills for system maintenance are really required. In order to restore you need a second system; machine, operating system, database, applications, configured exactly the same as the production system.
4. How many different systems do you want to own? When you were a startup you solved each discrete problem with a discrete solution. But the business was 'knowable' then; you knew every customer, every deal, every bill to pay. Now you have a team working for you and you try to stay on top of things but it's hard. Is there a way to see the entire business in one system?
5. Would your business benefit from greater collaboration with partners/dealers, vendors, off-site employees, customers? How can you make it happen? Are you going to rely on email and the old fax machine?
6. It used to be enough to react to business because you always knew you could run as fast as the deals. Now with the increases in business it's more and more important to be able to plan for business. What do you need for strategy planning? Is it enough to own an accounting system? Do debits and credits answer all of your questions about the business?
7. You have a growth plan. Double revenue over the next XX months. But if you double revenue and costs increase at the same rate you have just worked really hard for not enough return. How do you grow your business like you want without increasing costs at the same rate?

A lot of Small and Medium Enterprise business owners talk about their lack of technology know-how. They plead ignorance to technology. But look again at the questions above. You have every ability to answer these questions because good technology questions are really good business questions. Don't get caught up in the hype. Focus on core business needs when you look at technology choices. What's it all going to cost me? How does it help me measure and improve and grow the business? You don't need to understand the latest languages and jargon to understand technology purchases.