HOUSTON BUSINESS REVIEW

COST-EFFECTIVE IT: IDENTIFYING OPPORTUNITIES
By Richard Sonnier

Houston Business Show Commentator Richard Sonnier, of the Information Technology Services firm Nimble Services, provides weekly information on our show about information technology issues. Mr. Sonnier can be reached at 281.445.4800 x 250 or via email.

Last week, I outlined 8 steps to save money with IT. This week I will focus on the first step: identifying repetitive, manual operations for automation.

Automated Teller Machines

It is getting hard to find a human bank teller. The ATM is reducing the need for human tellers and making banking available in many more locations. This is IT automation at its finest. Originally, ATM's were used to provide 24 hour service to bank customers without increasing labor cost. Today, ATM's are installed in bank lobbies in place of tellers. Banks have taken a very repetitive, manual process and automated most of it with the ATM and the associated IT. According www.payscale.com, the median salary for a bank teller in Texas is $22,500.00 and that does not include training, taxes and benefits. Thus, banks save this labor cost; and their customers get greater access and efficiency.

Mc IT

Recently, I was traveling in Denver, CO. I purchased lunch at McDonald's from a machine. The automated order kiosk let me select my order and then charged my credit card. I was very impressed. The system allows one cashier to take 5 orders at once. Thus, McDonald's achieves a 5 to 1 productivity gain; and I believe it will be faster and more accurate than the traditional method.

Identifying Your Opportunities

From these examples, you can see what type of opportunities we want to find. You want to find a function in your business that is:

1. Important

2. Well defined

3. Routine

4. And is large factor in productivity

Once you have identified the opportunity, you need to design the automation, which is next week's topic.