Business systemisation is a way to create clarity for staff and streamline the daily operations of a business. Let’s look at what business systemisation really is, why it’s important and how you can make it work for you.
Business systemisation is a way to create clarity for staff and streamline the daily operations of a business. Let’s look at what business systemisation really is, why it’s important and how you can make it work for you.
What is business systemisation?
You may have heard of business systemisation by some other names such as business process improvement, or even process automation. Systemisation isn’t necessarily the same as automation, though. In fact, it’s a step you should probably take before considering automation.
Where automation seeks to use technology to automate certain tasks, systemisation is the process of building systems into your daily work. As the owner or manager of a business, creating systems makes it easy for your teams to get things done more seamlessly.
Systemisation can occur using technology to embed certain workflow processes, or it can simply be a written document, like a procedure manual. In many ways, systemisation performs a lot of the tasks that you as the business owner should move away from in order to grow the business.
Why is it important to systemise your business?
It’s important to build systems into your business, otherwise you end up repeating work that isn’t necessary. For example, let’s say you’re a business consultant and every time you meet a new client, you take a page of disorganised notes that you then spend hours interpreting into a workable format. A better system is to have a pre-designed form where you can capture information easily, and convert that information into specific tasks.
Without this type of systemisation, you’re working blind and doing a lot of work you simply don’t need to. The same can be said for most repetitive or mundane processes within a business. Systemisation saves time, and in business, time is money. It’s also important for clarity and consistency. If you don’t have systems in place for your staff to follow, you can’t expect your customers to receive consistent service and information.
What are the signs you need business systemisation?
Broken processes are usually pretty easy to spot if you know where to look. Some examples include:
- Leads falling through the cracks
- Deadlines not being met
- Customers complaining of conflicting information
- Staff performing repetitive, time-consuming tasks
- Re-work due to inefficient systems
All of these are key signs that you need to work on systemisation. In the case of a very small business, a start-up or entrepreneurship, another dead giveaway is that you, as the owner, are spending far too much time on administrative tasks and have no free time to work on finding clients or marketing your business.
How to systemise your business
The first step in systemising your business is to identify which processes are broken or inefficient. Once you identify them, work out the individual steps that it takes to complete the task or process. This provides a workflow that you can now use to find a solution.
Spend time looking at the processes, and identify which steps can be improved or even removed completely. Then consider whether tools such as software can automate or improve the process.
It can be a time-consuming exercise to systemise your business, but it’s something you only need to do once. When you have robust systems in place, you benefit from them every single day, and you’ll likely only need to make minor adjustments to your systems along the way.
