Sometimes entrepreneurs and business owners look more like firefighters than managers. The main reason is the Lack of Organization Control (LOC). As a consequence of LOC, problems explode like fire in our faces, driving all our attention to putting the fire out at significant monetary and time costs. We know most of these incidents are preventable, but the information does not flow promptly, making them more inflammatory. We offer the tool to access all the information in real-time about what is happening in your organization anytime, anywhere. GoBsmooth will give Total Organization Control (TOC) quickly, easily, and inexpensively.
When we launched GoBSmooth we targeted Tampa as a cornerstone market for our success in the United States and Globally. Joining the Tampa Bay Chamber was the first step. By connecting with Tampa Bay’s vibrant business community GoBSmooth will be able to help and grow with the members by being the best tool for their business management so the future of their organizations we built today.
Despite extensive studies and efforts to create an organization management platform, it is only now, with GoBsmooth, that achieving this is genuinely easy. We built the pillars of today's organization management on the original theories of the two management geniuses, Peter Drucker and Michel Porter. Drucker introduced us to "Management by Objectives" (MBO) which is the grandfather of today's "Objectives and Key Results" (OKRs) and other concepts that we use daily in management. We must remember Porter's Competitive Advantage, Differentiation, and Value Chain concepts.
However, thousands of efforts to create a model or platform to simplify and integrate these complex concepts thoroughly and produce results have failed. Most of them have been complex platforms to implement, difficult to learn and use, that yield minimal results for the effort and cost to implement them.
The successful platforms have been financial accounting systems and sales management systems in the last decade. However, then there have been thousands of programs specialized in specific tasks such as CRMs, databases, internal communication systems, projects, tasks, to-do lists, calendars, and so on.
Recently Microsoft has tried to stick together all their different Software, with mixt results. Today's manager must manage all these programs if we want to integrate what we want to achieve as much as possible. Having 10 or 15 programs for different aspects of operations becomes unsustainable when we need to grow and expand, training becomes complicated, and all the programs improve and change. In short, it is very complex to manage and have a dashboard that allows one to easily see and access the organization's information.
One of the reasons is that this is the first time anyone has tried to design a whole platform that manages Druker and Porter principles.
The time has come. GoBsmooth is the platform conceptualized during ten years of research, experiment, and testing, based on proven management concepts. We ensure usability, easy implementation, collection, and storage of valuable company and customer information, inadvertently. Organizational knowledge is in the hands of those who need it. We know what is done, by whom, how, and were.
The pillar of this platform is the value chain. Most people hearing this will either need to learn what it is or think it is challenging. We have taken care to simplify this, but before we delve into our simplified value chain, let us review what a value chain is:
- The value chain is a concept that describes a company's entire chain of activities in creating a product or service, from initial receipt of materials to delivery to market and everything in between.
The value chain framework comprises five primary activities - inbound operations, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service - and four secondary activities - procurement and purchasing, human resource management, technology development, and company infrastructure.
Performing a value chain analysis of the organization's value chain allows us to identify primary and secondary activities and sub-activities and evaluate each point's efficiency. A value chain analysis can reveal linkages, dependencies, deficiencies, and other patterns.
The value chain concept was first described in 1985 by Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter in his book "Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance."
Nearly 40 years after Porter's publication, adjustments to it are necessary to adapt to the times. In addition, it should recalibrate to small operations, which, although certainly, all these activities have to be contemplated and developed in one way or another, in small organizations may fall on one person, making it difficult to demarcate and efficiently execute them.
At GoBsmooth, based on a simplified value chain, our framework is called the first-level Process, the second-level Activity, and the third-level Task. This simplified value chain is loaded already into the platform, so no one has to worry about building a new one.
It consists of four processes:
- Operations
- Sales
- Marketing
- Administration
Each Process has no more than five activities underneath them. Everyone adds a Task at the time of planning. Only must assign it under which Process and Activity it belongs when entering it into the platform. However, in the platform, the Value Chain is 100% adaptable to the needs of each one.
When entering this platform, the appearance is clean. A simple daily calendar appears with all the tasks pending, completed, and not completed (it can be viewed weekly and monthly). The administrator can see everyone's tasks. When creating a task, we need to tie it to internally or to a client, a process, and an activity. All activities and Tasks start with a verb for action.
When entering a task in the calendar, it automatically sends an email informing the of the planned Task. This email contains a link to any other calendar that the task owner can add to appear on as many calendars as it wants.
What happens behind all this is fantastic. It creates a log of all activities, internal or related to the customer. The administrator can easily see who, when, how, and where each person has interacted with the customer or schedule an internal task. Our platform has a mobile app that allows geo-position of the user and can upload photos of the Task. The task completion is recorded when a note describing the results of how the Task was carried out is posted. The notes and attachments generate an automatic report that can be viewed internally or be sent to the customer.
Having a log of all the organization's actions with a client is a powerful element in managing the relationship with it. Being able to identify failures beforehand and correct situations before they can get out of control, as well as to demonstrate and clarify any doubts about what was done, allows us to reassure the client that he is in good hands.
Another indispensable element in our platform is Knowledge Management. The only indispensable knowledge management to perform is the daily things we do. Moreover, this knowledge is available to anyone who needs it. That is why every defined Activity can be tied to the knowledge of how it is done. In this area, the user can add images, link videos, and everything needed so that everyone can understand clearly and without excuses how to perform each Activity.
As a software company, one of our main activities is remote assistance, which is part of the operations process. In the knowledge management module, we tie to the operations process and remote assistance activity all the required procedures to do when receiving an assistance request. Any collaborator who performs remote assistance has a description of the procedure to follow in a couple of clicks. This allows us to prepare new collaborators and, when we have doubts, to have access to what we need to know at that moment.
The main menu is on the left of the screen where the first item is the Dashboard, which displays a organized set of charts and tables from the data of all the tasks being entered into the calendar, percentage of activities dedicated to operations, sales, administration, and marketing. Having life visualization of these activities allows us to make decisions immediately. When our company realized that only 2.3% of our total company activities were dedicated to selling, we immediately decided to restructure our sales department, which has had a remarkable effect.
In chart tasks is simple to visualize how many Tasks have not been done, who has not done them, which customers are lagging, who of all the collaborators has more load per Task, who has less load, who takes more time to do tasks, and who takes less time to do them. Of these aspects, it is until today that we can see, based on data, the reality of the company's operations. All this charts and information allow for quick decision making for desired changes and management of the Tasks and Activities.
Additionally, we have a valuable report that, among other things, shows how much time we spend as an organization with a client who put in more hours, which an employee attended to in a week, a fortnight, a month, etc. Who attended to a client according to Task and many others.
Above this, we have a Billboard area where any announcement, from birthdays of the month to publishing suggested or required readings, and any other announcement deemed necessary to keep the team inform, engage and manage the corporate culture
Another indispensable area of the platform is the training area, which, when new employees have all the videos, they need to learn how to use the platform. Also, the manual of GoBsmooth, if prefer to print and read it. The great thing is that it also uploads all the training needs, such as introducing new products. A notification area tells if someone has been invited to participate in any task or has a corporate announcement to view.
It is incredible the effect GoBsmooth has on any organization. We were our first customers and quickly realized that we had something compelling to have absolute control of the organization finally. Some people think this is for controlling people, but we are looking for something else. With this tool, we can see who needs support and how we can support our collaborators. Make inform decisions with real time data, manage the corporate culture, organize task and activities, have a knowledge base at the finger tips or our collaborators that is instructive for their optimal performance.
Users that plan their Task a week before will have an organizational edge. The fact that administrators can see what is being done allows things to flow more transparently from the top down and from the bottom up. Having access to information makes us more efficient.
The effects of GoBSmooth on organizations are tangible. Some have reduced 30% of time on supervision, people improved their efficiency by 25%, and customer satisfaction increased by 40%. Only this, in economic terms, can be reflected in the financial statements.
The not-so-tangible effects, but equally important, are at a cultural level within the organization; without a doubt, the company lives in a more collaborative, open, and transparent environment. Discussions are based on data and not perceptions. Employees can demonstrate their workload, and it is easier to adjust and manage change this way—these unexpected effects when we launched this platform internally.
Contact us, and we will be happy to do a customize demo for any organization and provide a trial time to acquire the platform without any commitment.