Business System Consultation Center - Our Business System ColumnVol.150 2024.04.01 Takahashi Minoru

Intuition and experience — individual-dependent work is what holds companies together

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


This time, I’d like to discuss
"Load Balancing."


Below, I will simply provide some concrete examples and explanations.


■For example, a sales management system
・Operators enter actual and scheduled business data, such as transactions
・The system calculates the correct unit price on the operator’s behalf
　　and generates invoices in a specified format


■For example, a quotation management system
・The operator enters the details of the business negotiation
・The system sends approval requests to supervisors on behalf of the operator
　　and notifies subordinates of approval or rejection on behalf of the supervisor


■For example, a document management system
・Instead of the document administrator printing or mailing the document,
　　The system sends the document to the recipient
・The system handles document replacement, withdrawal,
　　and redistribution, as well as distribution confirmation


■For example, EDI
・Eliminates phone and fax inquiries from customers
　　(Transcribing them into the system is time-consuming and prone to errors)
・Customers can access the information necessary for transactions on the website themselves
　　In some cases, customers can enter transaction data such as orders and shipments


■The same applies to e-commerce sites
・Discontinue accepting orders via phone or fax
・Customers enter the product codes, quantities, delivery dates, and shipping addresses
　　on the website and complete the payment process


■Example of self-service load balancing (proactive measures)
・Enter data into the system and update master data during quiet periods
・When things get busy, the maintained system data will help you with your work


■Example of self-contained load balancing (postponement)
・Since phone calls are a form of synchronous communication
　　they cannot be handled simultaneously with other tasks
・If you happen to be busy when receiving emails or chat messages
　　you can “delegate the task to your future self once your current work is finished,”
　　This type of workload distribution (postponement) is possible


■Not only in business systems,
I see the benefits of load balancing in recent video games as well
・Releasing the product with a certain degree of unfinished work and leaving part of the debugging to the purchaser
・Leave the application of program updates to the platform


■ Libraries also benefit from load balancing
・Instead of asking a librarian,
　　enter the book’s information themselves on a search computer


■For example, at a local restaurant
・Customers use touchscreens to
　　select items, place orders, and review their bills
　　This shifts some of the work traditionally performed by the staff to the customers.


These are just a few examples.


The system reduces the overall workload and errors for employees
and "streamlines" the workplace,
when considering what “streamlining” actually means,
evaluating it from the perspective of "load balancing" as described above
I believe it will help minimize oversights in the selection process.


I hope this is helpful.


That's all, Thank you for reading.

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