The problem with legacy system devotion

For a lot of companies, the choice to adhere to legacy tech and spreadsheet-based business management is positioned as a financial one. Why spend money adopting new tech when your current setup does the job just as well?  But the reality is that in many cases, your spreadsheets will be quietly costing you money.

Spreadsheets and legacy systems make your teams work harder instead of smarter, with research suggesting that around 16 hours per week are spent updating or patching legacy systems, leading to significant lost productivity. It’s also harder to scale with legacy tech. Companies with higher digital transformation maturity have reported  45% revenue growth – something that a reliance on Excel is unlikely to deliver. And then there’s the issue of talent. If you want to attract and retain the best staff, you have to give them the best tools to work with. As testified by the fact that 91% of Gen Z workers say workplace technology influences their job choice.

Your customers expect more too. Personalisation is important to 73% of customers, and you need contemporary tech to deliver that. You also need it if you don’t want to fall behind the competition. By 2026, over 75% of organisations will have digital transformation baked into their business models. Regardless of the size of the business.

Why you’re never too small for the right tech transformation

Technology is no longer just for the big players. Just because you’re a medium or small business, you don’t have to make do with outdated solutions. Because that’s the thing that will ultimately hold you back. Your technology is the baseline of your business, and with Cloud platforms, SaaS tools, and AI-powered apps, even spare bedroom startups can access the sort of solutions that used to be the remit of enterprise-scale budgets. And that’s really important to know because the smaller the team, the less effort you can afford to waste. So, while spreadsheets will inevitably drain time with errors and manual updates, the right tools can help you to do more with less.

With smart investment, tech stops being an expensive luxury and becomes an affordable essential, which facilitates agility and bridges the gap between small and large-scale competitors. If you wait for your business to grow “big enough” to justify that tech investment, you miss your window of opportunity.

The question is, where do you start?

The key ingredients of a successful tech transformation

Data

It doesn’t matter what size your business is, you are sitting on an absolute goldmine of data. Your sales transactions, customer interactions, service logs, marketing touchpoints; they’re not just records; they’re insights waiting for you to properly use them. But with spreadsheets, you never will.

With contemporary tech, such as Salesforce, at your disposal, that data suddenly begins to deliver value. Data can flow seamlessly across your sales, service, and marketing functions. Raw numbers become actionable insights. And you have the power to make fully informed decisions based upon viable data and intelligent predictions. 

Tech stack

You have a tech stack. You do. You just maybe don’t realise it. You write emails, send messages, make video calls, accept payments, manage your customers, and update your website and social media pages. You’re probably using dozens of digital tools every single day without even thinking about it. The problem is that none of those tools are connected, because you’re using spreadsheets to manage your business. So, your customer service team doesn’t know what your salespeople are doing, and your marketing team isn’t connecting to either of them. Even your managers struggle to gain a comprehensive overview, because of all these different spreadsheets, creating all these different silos. When you replace your spreadsheets with an integrated data system, you bring clarity to everyone.

Culture

Have you ever noticed that most people don’t like change? Introduce a new till system into a shop and the staff will be in uproar. Try to remove the legacy systems from an office, and the results will be the same. So, before you can embark on any kind of digital transformation, you have to get your team on board. That means showing them the benefits, highlighting how the new system can make their working lives easier. Acknowledge that the change will need them to do more in the short term, to learn how to do things differently. But make sure that they see the longer-term value – to them, not just the business.

De-risk

Tech transformations can be a risky business. Technology is evolving at such a pace, it’s easy to make the wrong decisions. That’s why you need help to do it properly. Experienced consultants can help you to diagnose your current state, recommend the right tech for your business, and support you through implementation and training. That way, you gain all of the benefits, as quickly as possible, without any painful or costly mistakes.

Saying goodbye to spreadsheets can feel like a big step because they’re what most of us know. We were taught to use them at school. They formed the basis of our first IT lessons. And we’ve used them in every job we’ve held up until now. But while spreadsheets have been our workhorses, it’s time for them to rest. They no longer have the speed or agility that your business needs. And they’ve never been open to seamless integration. It’s time to move on to something new, and leave your spreadsheets behind you.

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