Solutions That Government Can Learn From Business
The General Accounting Office (GAO) of the federal government estimates that waste
, of money, time, energy and opportunities, amounts to one-third of some government agencies' annual budgets. Clearly, we can do better. In the mid-year primary elections of 2010, two candidates in California ran expressly as business leaders, determined to bring sense and accountability where it always has been promised and rarely provided (at least that is their mutual pledge). Now, governments are not really like businesses in many ways, but in the ways that they are, some good things can come from using evidence-based management practices to streamline ever-costlier state (and national) budgets.
Computing, networking, data storage and communications expertise will be vital in any such undertaking. Business solutions companies with just this kind of experience have already helped innumerable companies make dramatic improvements in operating efficiency. Many of us want to band together and steer our nation toward fiscal prudence, but the most practical way to do that is by starting right at home with our own businesses. It is always the right time to do the right thing, and in this case it means an ongoing and evolving process of attentiveness. This simply means being aware of the enterprise as a whole, and of the component parts it comprises, so that we are being as efficient and productive as possible.
Business in the Digital Age
Today, nothing will work (not your manufacturing plant, your consulting service, your startup firm) without a firm foundation of the latest resources of the Digital Age. The new digital (and some remaining analog) equipment is what we use for writing, drawing, accounting, communicating, calculating, processing, repurposing, storing, recalling and recording. If not quite entirely helpless, without these modern aids we would be spending a lot more to do just about everything. With computers for accounting, others for inventory, still others for Web-based applications and perhaps even a server or two, you may have grown up with your business, learning to handle what is now called IT because you had to. If your business gets too big for you to wear as many hats as you are used to, you need to decide what your time should be used for.
If you have always been the idea person, and your IT duties are stealing your creative time, you may need to get a new business solution yourself. These are just the kind of decisions that government agencies need to make, too, about the proper and efficient allocation of resources. If you are more valuable creating, create. You can get the networking and computing expertise over the Internet, remotely, if you want to take that route. You could take a look at your phone system at the same time. If you have not seen the security, performance, redundancy, reliability and flexibility benefits of fiber-optical networks, you definitely need to look into those, too.
All-important attitude
It is not any specific decision or technology choice that signifies that government officials understand the need for business-driven practices in some areas. It is the overall attitude that is, especially at first, so very important. There must be a willingness to change, to accept hard truths, to be completely candid and so on. The fact is, these have not been winning political stances, ever, as the decades-long avoidance of dealing with national budget deficits indicates. So, if and when we do see true openness to new ideas and honest admission of failure, it will be a first clue that something good just might be around the corner. Attitude is all-important.
Every business owner in America, in the world, has to have that same attitude, and review things regularly. Without a regular assessment of what is going right and what is going wrong, the latter will tend to dominate the former and it is soon over. If you are falling short in other areas because you are needlessly wasting time in routine network and computer duties, not to mention all the backups and system crashes, it may be more cost-effective for you to make a deal for remote network management. If you prefer seeing folks face-to-face, that always can be arranged, too. The most important thing, by far, is that you get the support you need, in the areas that you need it, so that you can focus on doing your best work.
If you are not ready to put a costly IT professional on the payroll, a broadly capable business solutions firm is the way to go. You can work out a custom package of computing, voice, networking and storage needs unique to your situation. It is a great way of getting a comparative advantage (early 19th century English economist David Ricardo coined the term) and will set the tone for a new, more efficient, more successful enterprise.
by: Jennifer Quigley
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