7 Signs Your Business Has Outgrown Its Current Systems.

The systems that help a business get started are not always the systems that will help it grow.

A spreadsheet created to manage a handful of customers can become a business-critical file used by an entire team. A simple Microsoft Access database can gradually expand into something that handles thousands of records. Manual processes that once took a few minutes can become hours of repetitive work every week.

None of this necessarily means the original system was badly designed. Often, it simply means the business has changed.

The challenge is recognising when your existing software, spreadsheets and processes are no longer supporting the business — and are starting to hold it back.

Here are seven common signs that your business may have outgrown its current systems.

1. Your Team Is Entering the Same Information More Than Once

Duplicate data entry is one of the clearest signs that your business systems are no longer working efficiently together.

Perhaps customer details are entered into a spreadsheet, copied into an accounting system and then entered again into another database. Or information collected by one department has to be manually retyped by another.

Apart from wasting time, this creates opportunities for errors.

A customer's address might be updated in one system but not another. A product code could be mistyped. Two departments may end up working with different versions of the same information.

As a business grows, these small inconsistencies can become increasingly difficult to manage.

A better system can often remove much of this duplication by creating a single source of reliable data and allowing different processes to use that information without repeatedly entering it.

2. Important Processes Depend on One Spreadsheet.

Excel is an extremely useful business tool. For many tasks, it is exactly the right solution.

Problems can arise when a spreadsheet gradually becomes responsible for far more than it was originally intended to do.

You might have a workbook containing thousands of rows, complicated formulas, macros, lookup tables and links to other files. Perhaps multiple employees need to update it, or there are several copies with names such as:

Sales Report Final.xlsx

Sales Report Final v2.xlsx

Sales Report Final REALLY FINAL.xlsx

At that point, the spreadsheet may have become an unofficial business system.

Common warning signs include:

• Staff being unsure which version of a file is current
• Formulas being accidentally overwritten
• Files becoming slow or unstable
• Multiple people needing to edit the same information
• Complex macros that only one person understands
• Difficulty controlling who can view or change information
• Reporting becoming increasingly complicated

This does not always mean Excel needs to disappear completely.

In some cases, the right solution may be to keep Excel as a familiar reporting or user interface while moving the underlying data into a more robust SQL database. In others, a dedicated application may be more appropriate.

The important question is whether the spreadsheet is still helping people do their jobs — or whether people are spending increasing amounts of time working around its limitations.

3. Staff Have Created Lots of Workarounds.

One of the best ways to understand whether a business system is working is to look at what employees do outside it.

Are people keeping their own spreadsheets because the main system does not contain the information they need?

Are there Word documents, handwritten notes, email folders or separate databases being used to track parts of a process?

Do employees frequently export information from one system, manipulate it manually and then import it somewhere else?

These workarounds often develop for perfectly sensible reasons. Someone needs to solve a problem quickly, so they create a spreadsheet or manual process that gets the job done.

Over time, however, dozens of small workarounds can turn into a complicated network of unofficial systems.

The result is often duplicated information, inconsistent processes and a lack of visibility over what is actually happening across the business.

If staff regularly need to work around your software, it may be a sign that the software no longer reflects the way your business operates.

4. Producing Reports Takes Far Too Long.

How long does it take to answer a relatively simple business question?

For example:

• What were sales last month?
• Which projects are currently overdue?
• Which customers have outstanding actions?
• How many jobs did each team complete?
• Which products are performing best?
• What is our current workload?

If answering these questions involves opening several spreadsheets, exporting data from different systems, copying figures into another workbook and manually checking totals, there is probably scope for improvement.

Reporting is an area where inefficient systems can consume a surprising amount of staff time.

A report that takes three hours to prepare every Monday represents more than 150 hours of work over the course of a year.

And that is just one report.

Well-designed business software can often automate much of this work. Instead of spending hours assembling information, users can generate reports directly from live data — sometimes at the click of a button.

The benefit is not just time saved. Faster access to accurate information can also help managers make better decisions.

5. Your System Is Becoming Slow, Unreliable or Difficult to Maintain.

Older systems do not necessarily need replacing simply because they are old.

Many applications continue to perform valuable work for years — sometimes decades.

The more important question is whether the system remains reliable and maintainable.

Warning signs can include:

• Increasingly slow performance
• Regular crashes or errors
• Difficulty running the software on newer computers
• Problems integrating with modern applications
• Unsupported technology
• Growing databases that are becoming difficult to manage
• Frequent fixes being required just to keep the system running

Another concern is what happens when changes are needed.

If adding a simple feature has become unexpectedly complicated because every part of the system depends on something else, the underlying architecture may no longer be suitable for the business.

That does not automatically mean a complete rewrite is necessary.

Sometimes an existing system can be improved, modernised or migrated gradually. For example, an Access application might continue to provide the user interface while its data is moved to Microsoft SQL Server for improved capacity and reliability.

The best solution depends on the system, the business requirements and the problems you are trying to solve.

6. Only One Person Knows How Everything Works.

Every business has employees with specialist knowledge.

But there is a difference between valuable expertise and a business-critical process that only one person understands.

Perhaps one employee knows how to update a complicated spreadsheet. Another knows which sequence of buttons needs to be clicked to produce the monthly report. Someone else understands the collection of macros that has evolved over the last ten years.

What happens when that person is on holiday?

Or leaves the business?

Systems that rely heavily on individual knowledge create what is sometimes called a key-person dependency.

This can make everyday operations fragile and can make growth more difficult.

Good business software should help standardise processes. It should make the correct way of completing a task clear, reduce reliance on undocumented knowledge and make it easier for new employees to get up to speed.

Automation can also remove many of the complicated manual steps that previously existed only in someone's head.

7. Your Business Has Changed, but Your Software Hasn't.

This may be the biggest sign of all.

Businesses evolve.

You may have introduced new products, opened additional locations, taken on more employees, changed your pricing model or added entirely new services.

Your software may still be based on how the business worked five or ten years ago.

As a result, employees have to bend today's processes around yesterday's system.

You might hear phrases such as:

“The system doesn't really do that, so we use this spreadsheet instead.”

Or:

“We have to enter it this way because that's how the software works.”

Technology should support the way your business operates — not dictate it unnecessarily.

If your organisation has changed significantly while its systems have remained largely the same, it may be worth reviewing whether those systems are still fit for purpose.

Does Outgrowing Your Systems Mean You Need to Replace Everything?

Not necessarily.

One of the biggest misconceptions about modernising business software is that it requires throwing everything away and starting again.

Sometimes a completely new system is the right answer.

But often it isn't.

Depending on your existing software and requirements, the best approach might involve:

• Improving an existing Excel or VBA solution
• Upgrading a Microsoft Access database
• Moving data from Access or Excel into SQL Server
• Automating repetitive processes
• Connecting systems that currently operate separately
• Developing additional functionality around an existing application
• Replacing one problematic part of a process rather than the entire system
• Building bespoke software for a process that cannot be handled effectively by off-the-shelf products

The first step should be understanding where the real problems are.

Replacing software simply because it is old can be expensive and disruptive. Equally, continuing to patch a system that no longer meets the needs of the business can become increasingly costly.

The right solution lies somewhere between the two.

Is Your Current Software Helping Your Business Grow?

Businesses rarely wake up one morning and discover that their systems have suddenly become unsuitable.

It tends to happen gradually.

One extra spreadsheet becomes five. A manual task takes a little longer each month. More people need access to the same information. Reports become increasingly difficult to produce. Employees develop workarounds to compensate for features the system does not provide.

Eventually, the cost of working around the existing system becomes greater than the cost of improving it.

If some of the signs above sound familiar, it may be worth taking a closer look at how information moves through your business and where staff are spending unnecessary time.

At Clearly Software, we develop bespoke business software and improve existing Excel, Microsoft Access and SQL-based systems. We can help identify where your current processes are causing problems and recommend a practical solution — whether that means improving what you already have or developing something new.

If your business has outgrown its current systems, get in touch with Clearly Software to discuss how we can help.