Order of People, Process and Technology

We often hear from experts that “People, Process, Technology” the critical success factors for any organizational. In an era of COVID-19, How do you approach these 3 factors to solve business problems? In which order?

If you are business leader and trying to solve a business problem, correct order of people, process and technology is most critical factor in scaling and moving business forward.

After 11 years in business and working with over 400 companies, I have seen business leaders struggle with this order. There are so many books and content publish on this topic but never approached differently for different roles in organization.

In this video, I will walk you thru from business leader’s perspective, how to approach people, process and technology, and order to solve business problems.

Also, I will share a common mistake and recent lesson learned for our team.

Note: This order does not mean what is most important or less important but approach to solve business problems. Of course, if comes to importance, People will always be most important, but this message is about an approach to solve problems.

Here’s steps and order on how you must approach but make sure to understand and document business problem clearly that you are trying to solve. Once you have understanding of the problem then follow this order:

Process # 1: In business word, whether it's business issue or new growth or existing challenge: First element to tackle should be Process: You must document a business process that will solve outlined issue. You need to make sure that your outlined process includes solution for outline problem for both short term and long-term basis. Document process

Technology # 2: Once process is well documented step by step, technology should be next to review, which technology or tools are best to deliver on outlined process. Business leaders should review process and automate as many steps possible to add efficiencies and avoid dependencies. If multiple tools required to achieve entire process, you will need to review integration for multiple tools and technologies. And last critical steps for technology should also include training for your staff.

People # 3 : Once process and technology is streamlined, then plan human resources to deliver on process for both short and long term basis. You also need to ensure that your team is equipped with required skills sets and training is available to run your business process.

Lessons learned: We are technology company and tools, systems are always available to us. So, it's very tempting for our team to start with technology first rather than process. However, we learned hard way many times that every time we skip process - we end up wasting time on retooling or working backward to document process.