Simplicity and Flashiness Don’t Solve Complex Problems
From needs to solutions
There are different types of needs that arise for business owners and/or managers. Accordingly, there are solutions designed to satisfy these needs. As an example, two approaches can be cited to show that each has its own ways of solving the tasks at hand.
The first type is a request for process organization.
Their request evolves roughly as follows:
– I need to quickly process a sale for a client
– For this I need to maintain a product database and pricing
– I need to print it or create a fiscal receipt
– I need to quickly identify a product, so product labeling is needed (label printing + scanner) instead of searching
– I need to control product inventory at the point of sale/warehouse and accordingly do inventory
– I need to know the purchase price to form retail prices and calculate sales margin
– For this I need to receive goods to the warehouse
– I need to somehow calculate seller bonuses and analyze sales by product groups
– And so on.
Accordingly, the market produces many lightweight, mobile, and easy-to-use products for this type of need. The functionality of these products matches the request, and there’s no point expecting to find anything more.
The second type of request is a request for accounting and management.
Requests in this case would be something like:
– I don’t know how much our company is worth and what its equity is
– I don’t understand how my assets are distributed within the company, what works and what doesn’t
– I don’t know the return on my capital, how it changes year to year (because in the example above everything is usually measured in CashFlow terms)
– I need to measure my financial result
– How to improve process efficiency through analysis
– Accordingly, I need to determine selling expenses, operating expenses, administrative expenses, financial operations
– I need to manage my risks and reserves
– Depreciation, revaluation of balance sheet items including their currency component — things invisible in CashFlow but capable of breaking your back
– And so on.
Again, the market also has a large number of systems, both small and large, for this type of need.
Conclusions
But none of them will meet the definitions of “lightweight” and “easy to use” from the perspective of the first category of users. Because in simplicity there simply aren’t the tools needed to satisfy the second type of needs. This is important to understand.
All systems of the second type necessarily solve the tasks that arise in first-type requests as well.
Moreover, it must be understood that any company in the process of its development simultaneously undergoes the process of complicating its management system, and accordingly its accounting and analysis. Therefore, when planning your future, keep in mind that with programs that satisfy only the first type of requests, you will quickly find yourself in a situation where they become an obstacle to your development.