Technology can be expensive and complicated if not applied and architected with your goals in mind. Taking a Minimum Viable Solutions (MVS) approach allows you to not just add IT systems but add value to your business and add to your bottom line.
Technology decisions
As a business owner, if you ask yourself: How do I do more with less? The answer in today’s world is usually to introduce multitude of technology into your business. When evaluating technology you often here jargon like Cloud, Business Intelligence, or Digital Platform. Just trying to understand the terminology takes a lot of effort much less deciding on which is the right one to use. As a result, business leaders often shy away from even deploying simple solutions that can make your operations and services scalable.
Minimum Viable Solutions
By focusing on minimum viable solutions, you can simplify your decision making and spend your time effectively on business outcomes. Do one simple thing that is easy to control and understand on its own. Minimum viable solutions give you a way to generate actionable insight into certain processes. Finding and implementing solutions in an Agile process, requiring building, learning, adjusting, and rebuilding something that makes a noticeable improvement in some area. Focusing on building minimum viable solutions is powerful way to streamline your decision making around technology on deploying only the necessary features and rationalizing your IT spend. For example, a manufacturing company may not actually need state of the art ERP system, when their biggest pain is around visibility to their inventory. They could invest in some mobile devices that allow workers to record real time usage of raw materials in their CRM system. This insight is enough for the fabricator to make better purchasing and pricing decisions. Focusing on targeted solutions that address specific pain points is effective for tackling big issues like improving operational efficiency or customer experience on a small budget. In the long run, these minimum viable solutions can be improved and in the short term simply your technology decision making and be transformational to your business.
Where to start
Start by asking yourself the right questions. Huddle together to define minimum viable solutions. Start with a small slice. What are my pain points? Do I have time to research how I can solve these? Am I partnered with right technology suppliers that can implement solutions for me?
You will find that by looking for solutions over technology, you will simplify your thinking and be better served.