The magic wand exercise is one of the most effective ways to evaluate potential vendors, particularly when looking for business technology such as telecom solutions. Those tasked with making the buying decision forget about budget, logistics or any other issue that could impact the buying process and pretend they have the ability to change anything about their business with a single purchase. Essentially, they are waving a magic wand over their problem and making it go away.
While the magic wand theory can't work in practice, once the realities of business decision making are brought back into play, it's still an effective way to identify needs and determine how to meet them. That's how return on investment is generated. A small business that wants to improve its telecommunications infrastructure has to know exactly what areas of the infrastructure need to be improved and how that improvement will be facilitated. That increases the value of the small business VoIP system or any other solution the company ultimately buys.
An article in Computer Weekly suggests companies should take an even bigger step back and examine needs from a problem and solution point of view, in which technology is only an option. Mick Hegarty, General Manager of BT Business, spoke with the news source about this in greater detail.
"If it helps, literally draw out the process on a big sheet of paper and look at where steps could be removed," Hegarty said. "If you need advice, take the sheet to Business Link or to your accountant, ask how they would make the process more efficient. One way may be by using technology – and that's when you start to think about IT."
In some cases, your needs could be even broader. You may say you need new telecommunications systems to improve your organization's communications with your customers. But what's the end goal of that initiative? It may be to grow. As a small business, this is typically the driving force behind all decisions. You want to grow, and to grow you need to improve external communications. To do this you need better communications technology because you want to implement more efficient outbound and inbound call management techniques. This could come in the form of a small business phone system like a VoIP solution.
This is how you go from waving a magic wand to identifying the solutions that can fulfill your needs and offer you a strong ROI. An Allworx phone system is an ideal solution because the provider prides itself on helping small businesses turn into larger organizations. Once your needs are understood, your investment into an Allworx solution can start delivering a strong return.