Why Are Spreadsheets a Thing of the Past?

Why Are Spreadsheets a Thing of the Past?

I can always tell when my boss is working on a spreadsheet – you can see the frustration on his face. 

I’ve asked him why we haven’t switched to a more advanced and easier to navigate system. He’s always claimed that spreadsheets are easier to work with than more complex models and they are less expensive, too. 

But do spreadsheets provide us with all of the amenities of other modes of data organization? Can you keep all your information in one place? Integrate your communications within your spreadsheet? Or create a standardized sales process? 

No, you really can’t. Here’s why spreadsheets are moving on out:

Working in them is a hassle.

You have to keep multiple sheets for different tasks. Searching for data through exhaustive spreadsheets takes time away from other important tasks. Your team is busy doing manual work, which can easily be automated with any CRM. Do you spend time washing dishes by hand if you have a dishwasher available to you?

They’re missing features.

A spreadsheet is just an organizing tool. It doesn’t offer additional features, such as integrating your email and calendar. Spreadsheets are a separate record you have to maintain by hand. 

This can impact sales, customer relationships, and time management. Why use different tools to keep track of multiple things when you can use one?

They don’t show data trends. 

Because you have to manually create sales reports to analyze sales and other metrics you might be missing key information. When a program collects and analyzes the data for you it can help you see patterns or areas for improvement you may not have noticed. You can find a new key ingredient to sales success. 

They’re don’t allow for easy collaboration.

Spreadsheets don’t offer an opportunity for your team to collaborate. It’s a static document that lives on one person’s computer. With a model that multiple people can access and contribute to, you can get your whole team on board with keeping up with your company data and impacting your business positively. 

They aren’t a scalable solution.

As your business grows, so will your need for staff to keep up with your spreadsheets. More data, metrics, and customer connections means a growing number of hours spent on maintaining the information you put into your spreadsheets. An organizational model that can grow with your business will save you time and money and a one time investment in a CRM will be more profitable than hiring additional staff. 

Many businesses and organizations are shifting toward a more advanced and efficient data management system and you can too. Tomorrow isn’t too early to find the right CRM for your business and break free from the tedious spreadsheet. 

Why do Leaders Need to Embrace the Automation Age?

Why do Leaders Need to Embrace the Automation Age?

Talk to any software developer today, and within minutes, he or she will bring Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning into the conversation. 

The world is quickly adapting to automation, however, there’s still a sector that remains untouched by automation: leadership. Why is it important for leaders to learn about and embrace automation? Let’s take a look.

Spread of Automation 

Deep learning is rising at an exponential pace, and its impact can be seen in our daily routine. From facial recognition to home automation, it is gradually becoming an integral part of our life. The main aim of automation is to create an efficient work system. 

Automation at Work

Large scale industries have already used automation in assembly lines for a long time. The move toward automation has drastically reduced the manpower required for bulk production.

In the office, we have AI-based service robots to reduce our manual work. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is replacing the high-volume repeated tasks to cut down the laborious work like calculation and record maintenance. 

Impact on the Workplace

Since automation is replacing the tasks we’re used to doing ourselves, what are the workers going to do now? Even though the need for workers to complete repetitive tasks has been reduced in every sector due to automation, there’s still plenty of work to be done. Now, your team can pivot their focus to tasks that machines cannot complete, those that require creativity, people skills, and collaboration. 

The Leader’s Role

Leadership plays a significant role in determining what is most important in a working environment, and it’s their responsibility to decide how to incorporate automation into the day to day work of their company and team. Leadership teams will have the opportunity to re-evaluate how to allocate the extra time that becomes available when repetitive administrative tasks can be automated. 

Leadership should focus on creating a culture of development and learning, where staff can be fluid and flexible with the introduction of automation. Team members can be assigned to supervise automated tasks for accuracy or analyze them for efficiency. Additionally, this is a great opportunity for your team to work together to determine how automation fits into their day to day work and how they want to spend their extra time. Leaders can prioritize motivation, empathy, and collaboration during this time. 

Leadership needs to embrace the creative side of their team to keep work fulfilling. Creativity is something that’s uniquely a human skill and can never be automated. 

Failure to Adapt

Failing to accommodate the incoming advancements in technology can directly impact productivity. The team may lose enthusiasm with continuous monotonous work, and sticking to old methods and processes will never cut down the operational costs. New technology aims at increasing efficiency and reducing spending, so leaders who don’t embrace it are missing out on an opportunity for savings. 

Automation will change things in your business and it takes human work to figure out where it fits into your team. Leaders should take these changes as an opportunity to not only improve efficiency but also to find out what else their team can add to their business when automation is taking care of the busywork.