The Importance of Planning…largely neglected by SMEs

“It's not the plan that is important, it's the planning”.
Dr. Graeme Edwards

Over the last two days the IIS team have come together and all in all the event has been a success and most objectives have been achieved in terms of the discussions, meetings and presentations that needed to be had.

Everyone is now familiar with the numerous new faces that have joined the team in the last 6 months, ideas have been shared, plans have begun to be formulated, processes for each functional area are being developed and improving efficiency and effectiveness overall is the collective goal!

A great emphasis has been placed on the need for more planning, not that it has been entirely neglected but the need to document it from a company, team and individual perspective has become increasingly apparent.

New research shows that a large number of SME’s have no written business plan.
Research by business insurance comparator SimplyBusiness.co.uk of 400 British entrepreneurs shows that 54 per cent of firms have no written business plan.
Jason Stockwood, CEO of SimplyBusiness.co.uk, says: ‘Limited time and resources are characteristic of growing businesses, and the recession will have stretched UK entrepreneurs further than ever before. Understandably, many have become so focused on working in their business that their time working on their business may have suffered as a result.’

At IIS we all understand the importance and value of planning and endeavour to make it an habitual practice across all departments. That is not to say that it is not something we haven’t considered or invested within in the past, but as we continue to grow the need for a more formal approach becomes increasingly imperative.

“If you are failing to plan, you are planning to fail.”
Tariq Siddique

Innovation the key to sustainable competitive advantage

Innovation can be described as the utilisation to new skills and knowledge to create a new product or service which will be of use within the marketplace.
Another way of looking at it is as idea selection, development and commercialisation.

Innovation is seen to be the lifeblood of any organisation, ensuring that continual change underpins activities and that competitive advantage can be sustained. Always striving to improve, creating something new to better meet customers’ needs beyond how your competitors are meeting them.

An innovation is something new, it must be better than what exists, it must be economically viable and there must be widespread appeal.

Maintaining the status quo has for some been the principal focus during the economic downturn but those who have continued to invest in continual and even small changes are likely to emerge ahead of their competitors as the economy rebounds.

"Business is about balance," says Jerry Gauche, Senior Vice President at National Oilwell Varco (NOV). "You have to invest for the future, as well as create a cash flow that sustains the business in the short term."

You should always create options for what the future may bring.

Innovation is something which should resound throughout your organisation rather than it merely being the focus of a small group of people that are known to be creative.
It comes down to your organisation being customer orientated and being truly focused on meeting customers’ needs. If this forms the base of your organisational culture than innovation will be constant driver without you having to even think about it; it should be a natural outcome!

At Intelligent Information Systems we are constantly driven by our need to continually meet customer needs and support them in making their businesses even better. Our development team are focused on developing innovative solutions to build upon SAP Business One to make it enhance existing functionalities.

Related Blog Post: Creativity the key to innovation

http://intelligentinformationsystems.blogspot.com/2010/08/boost-creativity-key-to-innovation.html

Intelligent iPhone Sneek Peek!

The latest addition to Intelligent Essentials is on the way.

The Intelligent iPhone App is making rapid progress. Here's a few sneek peek images of the App. Let us know what you think, and don't hestitate to pose any questions or queries you might have.

Hope your as excited as we are!