Matt LeBlanc (not the actor) lines up his toiletries in the order in which he uses them. I’d say he takes “doing more with less” a little to the extreme, but that’s his job as an efficiency expert.
The whole point of upgrading to Office 2007 is to utilize new or improved features.
LeBlanc was the subject of a piece last week on NPR’s Planet Money program, and his profession is a particularly timely subject in the current economic climate where “more with less” is the mantra and efficiency and productivity are the only goals. (Listen to reporter David Kestenbaum’s interview with LeBlanc.)
LeBlanc works for a global shipping company, and his role is to find ways to streamline processes. He is sent to different locations and told, for example, to save the company $500,000.
As he explained in his interview with NPR’s David Kestenbaum: When he tells people that he can save thousands of labor hours just by moving a printer, they don’t believe him.
This company, PC Helps Support, is also in the efficiency business. (We’re a desktop application and mobile device support provider.) But instead of demonstrating how moving a printer can save money, we show how eliminating shadow support and increasing productivity can influence their bottom line.
Like LeBlanc, we are met with some resistance. A significant number of IT leaders believe there is little or no demand for software support, and thus don’t provide it. As a result, employees find costlier ways to solve problems:
• An employee asks a colleague (the office tech “expert”) for assistance with a problem. While it may seem harmless, it’s actually taking two employees away from their primary job functions to solve a problem. That’s double-downtime.
• Self-help, which is a proven time-waster.
• And no help at all, which means employees are finding unreliable workarounds.
Look at an Office 2007 migration as an example. The whole point of upgrading is to utilize new or improved features. If your employees haven’t a clue how to use the software, and neither does your internal help desk, what good is your investment? Where’s the ROI?
LeBlanc says there are eight types of waste, which he memorizes with the help of an acronym, Tim T. Wood: transportation, inventory, motion, talent, waiting, overproduction, overprocessing and defects.
In the case of an unassisted Office 2007 migration, a few of these apply. For one, talent: If your IT department is fielding “Where’s the File menu” calls all day when they could be working on mission-critical projects, do you think you are using their talents to your company’s benefit?
Likewise, your company probably didn’t hire the office “tech expert” – every office has one – to help her neighbors with their VLOOKUPs and macros. Are you using her skills to your advantage?
For more about Office 2007 & Windows 7 migration assistance, download our free kit here.
About Jenny Sweeney
[...] Office 2010. The cost savings and downtime avoidance are significant. (See a previous blog post, “Efficiency Redux.”) Tell us in comments how your company is handling the upgrade. Share and [...]