Following the Footprints
You could have the latest GPS tracker on your snowy walk, but by far the simplest way to stay on track is to follow someone elses footsteps. Even skilled professionals need guidance – and who better to provide it than their counterparts in other companies, suppliers, and customers? Andrew Grove, of “High Output Management” fame, talks about this – creating communities of people who are doing the same job in different companies or divisions, to share expertise and technology.
“That’s great John, but my competitors won’t share and I don’t want to share with them!” – we hear this a lot, but look a little further and you’ll see the most prominent companies in your industry probably share knowledge openly – through speaking at conferences, taking part in industry standards bodies, and writing about new techniques and technology they’re using. The cynics among you will easily spot the advantage – it’s great marketing! Positioning yourself as an expert that others in your industry will follow, while you still have the advantage of doing something first, better, or more cost-effectively.
We often help clients on this front – building a trusted relationship with the leadership and IT staff, providing our opinions, connections and ideas when they come to us with the strangest of issues – like a method for connecting two completely different e-commerce systems to share gift cards.
The Footprints are Gone!
In the “blizzard” of new technology (please excuse the puns, I do love them) those footprints quickly get covered up – every week a new tool or technique arrives which might help some aspect of your systems and processes, and thankfully, there are people out there with the time to try these things out and – wanting to be recognised as experts – write or talk about it. Even your internal staff will sometimes have the time to learn about and try new things, and since they understand your business, they’ll be able to quickly spot high-impact low-cost changes. Combine that with allowing them time to keep up with their trusted guides, share their expertise and learn from others, and you’ll have a team who can create low-risk improvements specifically for your company.
With the support of our friends across the e-commerce industry, we’re constantly adopting new technologies and skills – and our clients trust our ability to navigate the path, having built up confidence in our expertise as the relationship develops.
Making your Own Footprints
When your business is known for sharing expertise, with customers, suppliers and competitors following your footsteps, you’ll find people actively wanting to share their expertise with your team – an odd kind of reverse guidance, where you’re seen as an expert who can validate the expertise of others.
Despite not being a large company, at GetJohn we find that our willingness to share brings out the best in others in our industry – whether it’s discussing the latest security issue, collaborating on which tools will be easiest to manage, and being invited to speak at events.
There are Two Sets of Footprints
When you’re making your own footprints in the snow, it’s much easier when you have a partner to walk alongside. Imagine then – taking all your knowledge and “encoding” it in software. We see this done well in specialist software for specific industries, or general software for specific situations – like warehouse management. This is how we work at GetJohn – learning every detail we can about your business, and imprinting that knowledge on the software we build, so that your automations will follow the path you’ve set.
Thanks for reading this far – you realised there’d be a sell at some point, didn’t you? Our GetConnect platform doesn’t just connect lots of different systems together, it factors in over twenty years of industry experience and product-specific knowledge for handling purchase orders, invoices, shipments, user authentication, and more, including correct handling of taxes, addresses, names, and currency amounts. When we work with you, you’re walking alongside us, navigating the right path for your business.
