Module 7 Blog Discussion - Part 1

Based on your assessment, did you find a solution?  How confident are you in your chosen solution?  

If you haven’t found a solution, what challenges are you facing?

My assessment of the BUSINESS management systems software was very encouraging and gave me good ideas. I realized that by organizing my data and having it all under a single umbrella and therefore more easily accessible, I could become much more efficient with my time and produce more, thus improving my Real Estate capabilities and service towards my clients. However, after discovering the areas of greatest need, I realized that at the moment, given I am working on my own and I don’t have a permanent team nor do I have a steady employee, I do not need to increase my costs by contracting with a company to provide a software system and IT services. Currently I do have, through Coldwell Banker, an amazing array of recently revamped software systems and technological support that I pay for on a yearly basis as part of my required association fee. The reason I would consider an independent service is that because, due to its size and number of different needs such as advertising, marketing, communication with associates, employees, vendors and clients, legal department, international resources, Coldwell Banker could not secure a single provider that could grow with the company and still furnish all the services the company needs to succeed. All the software providers engaged by the company are presented within a single website for Coldwell Banker associates. However, in some instances these do not interact one with the other, so there can be lost time, effort, an increased learning curve and extended time spent with IT support getting around the disconnect. Two huge benefits, though, are the excellence of the dedicated IT support team and education for Coldwell Banker associates and the fact that the cost is kept under control given Coldwell Banker has secured some extremely favorable contracts with these software companies. I am better off staying put with what I already have although at times I might have to do a little more work than otherwise necessary.

Given your current problem, what barriers to success do you foresee?

The problem that I see in keeping all my information, client contacts, etc. within the Coldwell Banker intranet is that although I have access to everything they provide, the company has access to everything that I forge although I am considered an independent contractor.  It all goes both ways! I do have to double up in some cases in order to maintain some true independence, so time is wasted and certain processes repeated. For this I do rely on programs such as Excell and Microsoft Word. Again, a problem is that although I could save everything on the cloud adn have it readily accessible, not all ends up under a sigle umbrella. If I were to select BUSINESS software services, I would have complete control over how I manage, store and use my data, while receiving support what seems very good IT support but I would certainly be spending more time personally dealing with resolving issues and developing necessary documents, forms, etc. for my business.

Utilizing the DICE framework, given the barriers that you see, what steps can you take to minimize the risk of failure of your change efforts?

The DICE framework applied to my project of implementing the BUSINESS software program I selected using my charter indicated the outcome would be “Likely to Succeed”. Upon considering all the different elements of the DICE framework: Duration, Team Performance Integrity (me), Commitment (me), Effort (me) my overall score based on the patented formula was that of an 11.5. Very encouraging to realize my proposed “initiative is likely to meet its objectives”. In order to minimize failure, I would need to make sure that the learning is ongoing and to have regular sessions with the software provider to resolve hurdles that might surface along the way. Given I am on my own, burnout could potentially be a factor if I were to implement a new software program, a permanent assistant might be a critical requirement at this point which would increase my costs.