I sat down with Bryan Merrigan, MetroPark, New Jersey Office Managing Partner, Grant Thornton, to learn a bit more about performance improvement in technology.
What is Performance Improvement?
Simply put, performance improvement is improving the results of a company. It should be the responsibility of a performance improvement function, within an organization, to do process monitoring and function monitoring that identifies where there are improvement opportunities. The changes in business today are so great that they require a continual examination for efficiencies. After that, you can put together a performance improvement plan that drives the areas that you want to invest in, so that you maximize the returns and benefits.
For those companies that don’t already have a performance improvement plan, and are saying, “OK, where do we start?” I think that it’s a matter of, first of all, listening to your own employees.
Next, you look for the pain points. Employees usually have a good sense of where the “pain” is, and where the challenges are, and where the difficulties are. Then, it’s a matter of taking a strategic approach to identify the possible solutions to those pain points. Identifying the solutions might mean bringing in people who have different perspectives, and who have broader experiences, such as management. It can also be looking at what competitors do.
What are the three main areas that can be optimized with performance improvement?
By considering a number of different areas it can mean looking at a company from a perspective of the finances, such as where the spends have been and where the revenues are coming from. Companies can determine what strategic opportunities to pursue from a revenue perspective, and what areas may have costs that can be reduced or costs that may be out of line with benchmarks in the industry.
From another perspective, it can be viewed as internally measuring the processes and the efficiencies and effectiveness of process areas within the company to improve. It might be financial metrics, which can be something like cost per individual or cost per invoice. So, it could be a dollar-based metric, a process efficiency metric or another numerical metric.
Then, technology is a third perspective. Technology is a main driver today in performance improvement. It’s a matter of identifying opportunities… and then diving in further to identify where processes can be changed to make things more efficient or effective by applying technology.
What role does tech and digitization play in Performance Improvement?
Technology can be applied to both identify where there are areas for improvement, as well as being the enabler for improvement. Technology today can change business models in terms of allowing significant outsourcing of functions and causing massive changes in how historical functions have been organized.
Technology can help performance improvement with benchmarking — looking at how other companies are doing similar kinds of activities and processes. Tech can accelerate the feedback you get. It allows real-time feedback on the speed at which certain processes are occurring. These are clearly for the more repetitive kinds of processes, and allow for a real-time evaluation of how the processes are performed.
I think this is a time for companies to sustain their investment in technologies that can lead to process improvement, because those companies that don’t will not be positioned well once the economic environment picks up.
How can these lessons and skills be implemented to be future-proof in the coming economic uncertainty?
I think the key in this is to stay the course. Most companies have some level of performance improvement plan. Then, the question then becomes, “Do I keep this plan, or do I slow things down — or even stop things?” I think it’s not a time to stop. I realize there are financial pressures, but those companies that stay the course are those that will thrive in the long term.
Even though right now there may be a lot of competitive pressures and a lot of uncertainties, history has shown that those companies that take advantage of the current situation to improve operations are those that thrive when the climate starts to turn around.
To learn more visit www.grantthornton.com
To get in touch with Bryan, reach him via bryan.merrigan@us.gt.com or direct at: 732-516-5577