Planning Ahead:
Financing Tech to Streamline Operations

Transcript

Hi. I'm Matt Staninger, market research analyst at Oak Street Funding. Today, I'm going to be discussing how planning ahead and financing technology investments can help businesses streamline operations, improve efficiency, and position themselves for long term growth. We'll cover common challenges businesses face when getting started with technology and AI, practical first steps for adoption, and how to evaluate where new tools can create the greatest impact.

What challenges are companies facing when it comes to getting started with technology and AI?
This environment with AI is so fast paced. There are seemingly new types or features coming out every day. Even in the mainstream general landscape, you have the big players, so ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini. There's others as well. Then there's also trying to figure purpose of using AI for yourself. Figuring out what you can do to make your company more productive versus what you need to avoid it from doing, and that's key. Also understanding the cyber security component and learning the best practices of how to best protect your business is crucial, and that's going to look a little different for everyone as well.

For companies that feel overwhelmed, what are the first practical steps to begin adopting new technology?
As with many times where you are looking to do something new, take this as more of a crawl, walk, run adaptation.

A great way to figure out how to make the first move is to figure out with staff internally, “what is the most manual thing I dread doing every week or month?” That gives a good idea of an area to try to attack first. 
Before implementing anything, work with a champion in the organization that understands the process well and where the opportunity persists to help a department without hindering others.

Next, make a clear green, yellow, red system for technology. This should be a quick one-sheeter to tell employees what information they can use within systems. Green would be public data, so things like general inquiries, questions, or templates. Yellow would need further approval from management. This could be certain types of non-identifying customer data being used. Red would be proprietary and confidential data that should never be sourced to any public tools.

Then, pilot a change in one area. This could be just one area or within one department, but keep it simple first. As you identify that first area to make a change, give it time to work. It may not be an overnight fix, but time will help tell what impact it could have. Just like when training a new hire, you should not expect whatever process you’re changing to be completely up to speed the first or second time.

As you’re going through this change, find little wins within there. Maybe you have not immediately eliminated the need to do this dreadful task, but Maybe there is a portion of it that is becoming trustworthy from technology.

How can businesses identify operational bottlenecks and determine whether investing in technology will save time and money?
A few techniques can be used to help answer if someone is ready to invest in technology for particular processes. As I alluded before, there needs to be a champion with deep understanding of a particular process looking to be solved with technology. The process needs to go through what’s called a brown paper, which details every single step of the process, no matter how big or small the step is. If you can both detail this well and it is seen as a repeatable process that has inefficiencies, that’s where technology should be more highly considered. Then, you need to factor in the return on investment side. Be realistic at how many steps have unnecessary time being spent and how much time could be saved with technology performing them. A good rule of thumb is if you can make up your investment from lost time within 12 months, technology should be a no brainer. When doing that, be realistic. Say a process wastes an extra hour of time every time it’s performed does not mean the full hour will be eliminated. And, will it eliminate the same amount of time for everyone across the company or department, or would it only save that time for a super user?

You also have to factor in some of the qualitative pieces, though, too. As these processes are meant to eliminate staff frustration, you’re also looking to prevent things like burnout, errors, and churn. With the talent pool being limited, there is a high cost to potentially replace employees.

What types of technology tend to deliver the fastest return, and how should companies think about balancing upfront costs with long-term efficiency gains?
From a first-time perspective, there are two heavy areas that pop out to me. One is project management and communication tools. Things like Asana, Monday.com, and Slack can help centralize documents and necessary forms to save time and repeated questions of , “How do I get this?”

Second is lead response and automated scheduling. That tends to get really good ROI because it allows there to be a quick reply to a potential lead that keeps them interested in your company when they first submit an inquiry.

It can then eliminate leads slipping through the cracks or potentially finding another solution before someone can reach them. Likewise, it can save your employees time in trying to make communication with a new lead. Tools for this include HubSpot or Drift.

What does a well-planned approach to implementing new tech look like form start to finish?
This branches from the crawl, walk, and run approach. It starts with finding that process or two you can enhance to boost productivity and employee sentiment. Have a champion map out the process. Research common tools and products that specialize in the areas of your needs. Look at costs and returns on investment. Determine if you need a lender for financing. Stick to the plan and commit. As you roll out those first few wins, see what other areas existing tools can help, and continue to fine tune your business.

Thanks for watching. We hope this discussion has given you helpful insights on planning ahead and using technology investments to streamline your operations and support future growth. If your business is exploring ways to finance new opportunities, Oak Street Funding is here to help. We wish you success in the year ahead.