What is Operational Efficiency and How do I Improve it?

We talk a lot with our customers and prospects about operational efficiencies.  It’s a pretty cool buzzword, but what is it really?

By definition, operational efficiency is "the ability of an organization to reduce waste in time, effort, and materials as much as possible,"  while still producing a high-quality service or product.

Sometimes that means removing the need for people, implementing AI, machine learning, etc.  Sometimes it can be as simple as speeding things up and getting information in the correct hands faster.

There is always an opportunity to improve upon operational efficiencies, but it's generally ignored or looked at as low priority when there are too many other tasks to address.  I believe this is a missed opportunity to take action for all companies. There is a famous quote,  “revenue feeds ego and profits feed families.”  Operational efficiency is a profit conversation that all businesses need to be having.

Large companies will go to large accounting firms to plan, execute, and streamline their strategies.  They'll spend millions, if not billions, on improving their operational efficiencies.  Coordinated Business Systems serves that role for small to medium size businesses.  The interesting thing is we generally pay our clients to do business with us.  What that means is we are generally reducing costs and redirecting those funds to pay for the solutions we provide.

These efforts are the most successful when we look at the hard dollars being spent, reduce the spending, and allocate the savings towards a sensible solution. Nine times out of ten those hard dollar expenses come in the form of print.  Whether we move machines around to maximize efficiency, remove devices that aren’t used much, or manage toner supply, we can take the savings and put technology in place to create operational efficiency.  

If you have areas in your business that are slowing you down, engage us.  We can tell pretty quickly if there is a technology fix.

I think it is important to note that this is not about replacing people with machines or technology.  It is about enabling your business to grow without the need for additional people.  It is truly a win, win, win!