Written by Andy Roost, Brainiact Northgate
Making smart decisions is crucial for success. One key aspect of this is ensuring that every piece of equipment, technology, or process you invest in is “fit for purpose.” This means it must be well-suited for its intended role. By applying this principle, you can significantly improve your business outcomes, efficiency, and financial health.
To make sure something is fit for purpose, you need to clearly define what you want it to achieve. This involves considering various factors such as usability, features and benefits, serviceability, IT compatibility, and total cost of ownership. Understanding these elements helps you make informed decisions that align with your business goals and ensure that your investments truly support your purpose.
Why you should aim to be fit for purpose
Making sure that your business investments are fit for purpose is crucial for several reasons. The main benefit is you save money for your business. When you buy equipment or technology that fits your business needs, you avoid spending money on things you don’t need. Being fit for purpose also boosts productivity. The right equipment can help you do more work faster and better. But you need to be sure you can handle the extra work. For example, if a new machine can produce twice as much as your old one, do you have enough staff and storage space for the extra products and can you sell the extra stock? Maybe you’re better off with a different machine that allows you to handle the output. Otherwise, you might end up paying for the capacity you don’t need.
When you buy equipment with the question, ‘Is it fit for purpose?’ you’ll make better decisions.
The key factors of ensuring fit for purpose
When considering new investments for your business, it can be overwhelming with the countless factors involved in making a decision. Here are the most crucial factors that will add the most value, be it operational or financial, that you should focus on:
Desired outcome
The first step is to clearly define what you want to achieve with this piece of equipment for your business. Many business owners focus too much on the features of the new piece of equipment without considering what they need the piece of equipment to do. What specific business outcome are you trying to achieve? What are the nice to haves and can you afford them? Or, better yet, can you afford not to have them?
Staff usability
Consider how easy it will be for your employees to use the new equipment and get the best out of it. If you’re moving from an older, mechanical piece of equipment to a newer, software-driven solution, how will your staff adapt? Change management becomes a key component here. You’ll need to adequately train your team so they are comfortable with the new technology and can utilise its capabilities to the fullest. This may involve additional training costs, but these are necessary to ensure your team can achieve the desired outcomes with the new equipment.
Features and benefits
You also need to understand and correctly interpret the features and benefits of the new equipment. Glossy brochures and sleek sales presentations can sometimes exaggerate the importance of certain features that may not even be relevant to your business. Evaluate critically whether these features will provide real, tangible benefits to your business, or if they just sound good. For example, if a piece of equipment can double your production rate, do you actually have the capacity to handle this increased output in terms of manpower and delivery logistics? Have you really understood what it is you’re buying and the implications it will have on your business? You also want to avoid paying for something you will not use.
Serviceability
When looking at new technology, think about its serviceability and the total cost of ownership (TCO). This means looking beyond the initial purchase price to include costs like transitioning, ongoing maintenance, and consumables. For example, a high-volume printer might be cheap to buy but expensive to run if you think about the cost of all the ink cartridges you’ll need. You need to put strategies in place to ensure lifetime costs are kept at a reasonable and manageable minimum. Understanding these costs upfront helps you budget accurately and avoid surprises, thus avoiding unnecessary financial strain on your business.
IT Landscape
In today’s digital age, many new pieces of equipment need to integrate with your existing IT infrastructure. This can have significant implications for your business. Can your IT landscape/infrastructure support the new technology, or will you need costly upgrades? Will it disrupt your current workflows? Think about how implementing new features like AI might affect your current setup and if any changes are needed to make everything work smoothly.
Staff preferences and biases
As humans, it’s natural for us to stick to what we know and prefer – it makes life easier. But make sure these preferences and biases don’t affect your purchasing decisions. Just because I personally like BMWs doesn’t mean I’m going to buy a fleet of BMWs for my plumbing business. At the end of the day, I need to figure out what is the right tool of the trade for my budget and for what I want to use it for. Focus on the objective benefits of the new technology for your business. This leads to better outcomes and avoids the risk of investing in equipment that doesn’t meet your needs or unnecessarily over meets your needs.
Total cost of ownership
When evaluating the new technology, have you fully allowed for all the costs involved, not just the purchase price? You need to ensure that every feature offers tangible benefits that lead to better outcomes for our business. Sometimes, it’s hard to see the immediate value of a new feature, but it’s essential to do so to balance costs with potential revenue or operational benefits. By taking the time to scrutinise the vendor’s claims and thoroughly understand the TCO, you can make informed decisions that truly benefit your business.
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All these factors together help develop an output specification that justifies the features and benefits. The goal is to find the right technology that balances business, operational, and financial outcomes, ultimately improving product or service delivery outcomes for your Customers.
The CARE model
To help you make the right equipment for the right purpose, I recommend using the CARE model:
- Conceive: Create an output specification based upon data & perspectives garnered from the old but attempt to incorporate aspects that address the future opportunity that this asset needs to solve or address.
- Assemble usability: Gather all the facts and insights to ensure the technology meets the operational and financial criteria.
- Reflect: Engage with internal and external stakeholders to cover all bases that could be impacted by the introduction of this new asset. Avoid surprises.
- Engage: Once you’ve completed the previous three steps, it’s crucial to communicate clearly and get everyone on board with the new solution. This helps ensure that the new technology becomes a part of your business and meets expectations. The key is to ensure that the uptake is there to ensure a return on investment.
It’s not just about buying the latest gadget; it’s about what it will do for your business. You need to look at the whole picture, including how the equipment will be used, what it will produce, and the impact on your operations before and after implementation.
To make informed decisions, it’s essential to do thorough research. This can involve consulting with other businesses that have used the equipment, seeking advice from industry experts, or hiring specialists who understand the specific needs of your field. Don’t just rely on the vendor’s perspective, as they are motivated to sell their product. Instead, get a comprehensive understanding of what the equipment will do for you.
Selecting new technology or equipment for your business is a complex process. You need to understand your desired outcomes, evaluate features and benefits, consider staff usability, and assess the total cost of ownership.
Taking the time to thoroughly evaluate new technology before you invest in it not only saves money but also enhances productivity and operational efficiency. At the end of the day, the key is to stay focused on the business outcomes you need to achieve and to ensure that every investment you make is truly fit for purpose. This will help your business thrive in an increasingly competitive landscape.
