The labor market is currently very challenging. Finding and securing skilled labor is getting more difficult and costly. The default solution of hiring more people to solve your scalability challenges is no longer viable and might not ever be viable again. Print businesses are being forced to figure out how to handle more volumes with less labor. The labor available is also of a lower skill level at hire so you can’t hire and assume labor will “figure things out on-the-fly.”

Software combined with well-defined processes will allow you to continue to grow your business with the labor you have. According to the Conference Board, “the increase in automation and technology has greatly accelerated during the last 18 months as businesses have been forced to think differently about their operating models.” I like to think about software as the enabler for repeating business processes. For example, you create lots of estimates every day, and the Print MIS/ERP software you use is part of this “business process.” Do you have a documented process for estimate requests and delivery? Most people look at me sideways when I ask that question. The thought bubble I imagine over their head is “we do that all day, every day, why would we need a documented process?” 

Documented processes wrapped around a trusted system of record (your Print MIS/ERP) is your ticket to freedom from so many chaotic components of your business. Just try it for one business process. For example, change requests—they happen more days than not, but how consistent is your process for handling them? When a change request goes poorly it creates chaos. When a change request goes poorly, and you have a documented process, the first place you go is the process (not the people). Process failure is so much easier to address than people failure. If you don’t have any defined processes, you set people up to fail.