Business System Consultation Center - Our Business System ColumnVol.62 2016.02.01 Takahashi Minoru

The trap of feature-rich package systems

Thank you for your interest and continued support.
This is Takahashi from the Marketing Plan Research Laboratory.


For the continued smooth operation of a system,
the presence of employees serving as system administrators is indispensable.


People who are suited to be system administrators
"all business operations covered by the system"
“all the functions provided by the system”
and have a general understanding of both.


System administrators serve as a bridge between the CEO, the front-line staff, and the IT team,
organizing diverse requests into a single coherent path
and plays a key role in clearly defining the exact system requirements.


In the systems we provide,
the person in charge is generally the president.
(This means the president also serves as the system manager.)


This is because the scope of the systems we provide is often narrow,
and it is relatively easy for the president alone to grasp the entire picture
and make optimal requests to us.


However, when the system’s scope of functionality expands, this approach no longer works.
For example, it’s only natural for the president to think, “I’ll ask the accounting department about accounting matters.”
(Large systems usually come with a wealth of accounting and financial functions.)


Operating a system that cannot be fully understood by a single person or a small team
"Including unused functions in updates, resulting in the continued payment of unnecessary update fees"
"Entering data into functions that don’t generate necessary outputs (wasting labor costs)"
“Cases where necessary data entry is frequently omitted (reducing the reliability of reports)”
These issues—collectively known as “system-induced corporate strain”—occur frequently,
and ultimately carries the risk that
This carries the risk of leading to such a situation.


If you are presented with a proposal for a system with too many features,
it might be a good idea to start by requesting a customization
"Please identify the unnecessary features and remove them from the menu."


That's all, Thank you for reading.

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