One of the biggest challenges in using any kind of software to boost productivity and overall production effectiveness involves attitudes. A lot of people are under the impression that if you’re suffering from a problem, you just need to find the right solution and the problem will go away. While to a large extent this is absolutely true, there is still a lot of room for improvement. There’s still a lot of wiggle room there. There’s still a lot of space that can lead to problems down the road.
You have to understand that solving a problem is not the same as solving that problem efficiently. Efficiency involves maximizing the value of currently available resources and reducing cost. You reduce time, you reduce expenses while at the same time producing the most value. There’s a lot going on in the equation and to just think that you just need to put a square peg in a round hole is enough to take care of the problem is to oversimplify things. This oversimplification comes with a cost. You’re actually operating at less than peak level of efficiency.
If you want to take your organization whether it’s a private business or organization or a public entity to the next level, you need to maximize efficiency. Unfortunately, just jumping to some software conclusion because you have a problem that that software supposedly addresses, doesn’t cut it. Accordingly, you need to adjust your attitude of throwing money at the problem. This is the first attitude that needs to go away if you want to truly unlock the fullest potential of software as a collective solution to your problems.
Second attitude adjustment that you need to make involves value. A lot of people think that as long as they buy software that does a job one time then they’re getting their full money’s worth. Absolutely wrong. You have to understand that there is such a thing as total use value. If, for example, you are given a choice between two products and one product costs 1,000 dollars and another product costs 10 dollars, you are probably tempted to think that the 10-dollar item is the better value. You are hardly alone. Most people think along these lines. But the problem is, you need to pay attention to actual use.
If it turns out that this 10-dollar product is only able to do a job twice before blowing apart, breaking down or otherwise becoming absolutely and totally worthless, then you might want to think twice. It may well turn out that the 10,000-dollar item is able to do the job millions of times.
If you were to do the math and average out the total cost of each and actual use, it becomes abundantly clear that the 10,000-dollar item is a better value. You actually got more use out of it. This use also has a dollar value because people would pay for that use. People are benefited by that use. This use adds value to their lives. Do you see how this all works?
This is a serious attitude adjustment because a lot of people confuse price with value. They’re not one and the same. They are not joined at the hip. By becoming clear on the key attitude adjustments described above, you can go a long way in maximizing the total value that you get from your use of software. Not only would you be able to use it more efficiently and productively but it can definitely go a long way in taking your organization, whether it’s a private organization or a public one, to a much higher level.