Tech Connect: Information is the heart of your business

As we all know, business transactions can be very simple: You give me an apple and I give you 25 cents.

Or the transactions can be very complex: You order a complicated piece of customized equipment that I agree to make. To fulfill your order, I must do everything required to manufacture the equipment to your specifications and pass many quality standards until the equipment is delivered in its final form - a process that takes many weeks from beginning to end.

The above examples are the two extremes of business transactions. However, at the most fundamental level, a business, big or small, is all about sharing information in one way or another.

Internally customer orders are processed, items are delivered or services are rendered, records are kept and transactions are accounted for. Externally sales agreements are reached (with varying levels of complexity), goods and/or services are delivered and bills are paid.

In both cases, information flows.

The flowing of information in a business has been discussed, books have been written and industries have developed to make that process as efficient and as productive as possible.

Information technology, the world I live in, is full of people trying to make information more useful, flow faster, be better integrated - well, you know what I mean. We are constantly dealing with information and information management.

Let's suppose there are two companies with about 15 employees each that have bought technology to help them manage their businesses. They are very similar in all respects and compete in the same industry. They differ in how they have chosen to manage their IT functions.

At Omega, a distributor of packaged goods, the owner really knows his industry. After urging from his accountant and office manager, he bought the first computers several years ago.

His office manager worked at another company that used computers, so she was put in charge of IT. The employees each had a number of customers they took care of from beginning to end on their own computers.

The office manager set up a simple paper flow system in which the employees took handwritten orders, then entered them into the computer. They used their assigned computers and their own filing systems to keep track of the orders.

Each employee then turned fulfilled orders over to the office manager, who saw to it that the sales were accounted for and payments were collected.

The system worked quite well until one of the staff went on vacation, had an extended leave or quit. It then took a team effort to figure out those orders.

Customers usually started to complain about delayed shipments. And the warehouse manager usually jumped in to complain about how the delay was interfering with her ability to do her job.

The Alpha company across town was the exact size as Omega in terms of revenues and competed in the same industry. Alpha company's owner was a very competent manager but didn't have as many years in the industry as the Omega owner.

However, he was trained in building systems of information flows and was very knowledgeable about the proper use of IT. He introduced computers early in the game and moved to a server with file sharing as soon as he hired his third employee.

Each employee followed standard procedures and everyone's files were stored according to a standardized filing system and secured on the server. Orders were handed out by the office manager, who kept an eye on the work flow so that the workloads were balanced.

The office manager also watched the information flow using custom reports and made sure that problems or discrepancies were handled quickly. The office team started out each morning with a report on how the team did the previous day and how the warehouse was doing in shipping.

When an employee was out for any reason, the office manager would assist to ensure orders kept flowing. When an employee had an extended leave, such as for maternity, a temp was hired and the orders were distributed accordingly.

Now, which company had the happiest, long-term customers? Which one had the best morale? Which one was most profitable?

Alpha, of course.

The heart of Alpha's information system was a well-organized, computerized filing system residing on a dedicated server. For those of you who do not use a file server (yet), you will find that a server with the right software is more expensive than a computer workstation.

But the incremental cost should not stand in your way. Having all your information organized in one place that is secured, protected and backed up makes your IT system worth far more than the sum of its parts.

Information is your business, after all.