Top 4 Ways to Ensure Success when Building a Custom App to Streamline Business Processes

4 Tips to Avoid Common Pitfalls

Increasingly, companies are seeking ways to streamline their business processes. Whether the goal is to do more with fewer resources, improve customer relationships or increase profitability, streamlining processes can offer excellent rewards. In many cases, having a custom app to streamline business processes is the best approach to achieve the desired results. However, there are four things that you should consider if you want to avoid the pitfalls that sometimes accompany such custom builds.

1. There are some tasks that computers can perform better than humans, but there are other tasks for which humans are better suited. Computers need fixed rules and logic chains. Humans, on the other hand, can react to unexpected events or new context in the blink of an eye. Regardless of how great your new software might be, it cannot replace the “human touch” in all instances.
2. Your employees must have the right tools for the tasks they are asked to perform. For example, an automated calendar software cannot replace a well-chosen CRM. If a project management system is needed, you should not try to make do with a kluge of emails, spreadsheets and shared documents. Talk to your employees to discover their “pain points” so that you can align tasks with the proper tools.
3. Remember to incorporate analytics capabilities. Without a way to analyze key metrics, you could be missing opportunities to increase your revenue, improve your customer service, find untapped markets or other data that could help your business to grow.
4. Maximize your automation of data entry. Humans can make mistakes, and manual data entry is a tedious, time-consuming job. Custom software can allow you to automate data collection and validation, giving you access to cleaner data in less time. For instances where manual data entry is required, custom software can give your employees the ability to populate fields from drop-down menus, toggles or check-boxes to expedite the process.

At PhaseAlpha, we do not believe in “cookie-cutter” solutions. We get to know your business needs and goals so that we can develop the ideal custom solution for you. If you are interested in learning more about the various ways we can help you streamline your business processes, drop us an email at info@phasealpha.com or call us at 913.648.9200.