This is a guest post by Howie Bick.
Howie Bick is the founder of The Analyst Handbook. The Analyst Handbook is a collection of 16 guides created to help current and aspiring Analysts advance their careers. Prior to founding The Analyst Handbook, Howie was a financial analyst.
The Importance Behind Having A Strong Infrastructure of Systems
Companies and businesses throughout all industries have various systems, processes, or procedures in place. Throughout the operations of a business, there are lots of parties and people who need to coordinate, communicate, and collaborate on the projects or tasks they’re working on. Whether it involves multiple departments or cross-collaboration with other teams, having the right infrastructure of systems makes analyst jobs easier, more efficient, and productive.
The way a company runs its operations and systems is a key component of a company’s culture and the fabric of its business. Emphasizing efficiency and effectiveness within a company’s practices can contribute to a company’s success and enhance its business. Many businesses are always looking for ways to decrease the number of costs they incur, increase the amount of productivity they have, and create more profit for their bottom line. The systems and procedures a company can be keys to its success, and create competitive advantages for them within the market. By having the right systems in place, a company can become a successful business.
A Few Reasons Why
The systems within a company are often one of the main elements of its operation, and one of the core competencies of its business functions. These systems are also what shape analyst jobs. For some companies, they are the the backbone or the foundation of their business. Setting up strong systems which are efficient and effective can be incredibly valuable and crucial to a business’s success. The systems and practices a company utilize play an important role in:
- the brand the company builds
- the type of products or services it offers
- the type of operation it has set up
These are a few of the things that systems can enhance or elevate to a higher standard, and a higher level. Whether it’s increased productivity causing a decrease in costs through higher outputs, or lower costs to operate the business, resulting in a higher or better profit margin, the systems of a company have the potential to be a crucial element to its success.
Coordinating Between Teams
Companies that are large enough and have a significant number of employees often have multiple teams or departments. Whether it’s marketing, human resources, accounting, legal, or financial, there are tasks that involve multiple different teams or departments within the company. Analyst jobs also require extensive cross-collaboration skills.
By having a forum where teams can access the information they need, contribute the data they have, and make certain changes, production time can be expedited. Eliminating some of the constant back and forth that sometimes creates lots of miscommunication and confusion, teams can have a clear sense of what needs to be done or completed, and collaborate more effectively.
Having the right systems or architecture in analyst jobs that enables different teams to coordinate on projects or tasks they’re working on can enhance work productivity, eliminate any frustration or unnecessary ambiguity, and result in the best possible deliverable.
Projects
The projects assigned in analyst jobs take time, work, and energy to develop. The way a project or task evolves over time, through creation, iteration, and review often looks much different at the end as compared to the way it looked in the beginning. Being assigned to several different projects Throughout the process of getting to the final product, the projects go through various revisions, various enhancements, and various changes to meet the project goal the company or team is looking to achieve.
Keeping track of all the changes that are made, all the reviews that are conducted, and the feedback that is given is a valuable resource for company’s during the conducting of the product, and also after it’s been completed. By having the insight and information to understand what a company did wrong, where they made a mistake, or what contributed to their success can help a company correct the mistakes they’ve made or help replicate the success they’ve been able to experience.
The Importance of Organization in Analyst Jobs
Another reason to create systems or processes that help your companies or employees work together effectively is the value of organization. Organization is an important element when it comes to each individual employee’s work and to the overall company’s habits. By knowing where work is stored, where data or information is located, and having access to these locations can be incredibly valuable to any company.
Whether you have to look back and find an important document or idea, being organized enables companies and teams to be able to easily navigate the work they’ve done, and the progress they’ve made. Being unorganized makes it harder for these companies to operate. By arranging their projects, gathering their documentation, and categorizing the work, companies are able to relieve their operations.
Operations
The way a company operates depends on:
- the business it’s in
- the market it operates in
- and the type of processes or procedures it has in place
Having smooth and solid operations is something that can make a company more profitable, more enjoyable to work for, and a better all-around company. Implementing processes and procedures that help employees perform their job functions better will make each of your employees more effective, and more productive. By making employees jobs easier, or finding ways to eliminate time-wasting tasks, tedious assignments, or redundancies, you can help improve the company’s culture, increase the bottom line, and enhance the company’s operations.
Optimizing The Operations
Creating a system or an infrastructure where the company is able to operate more effectively and efficiently than others, can develop into a competitive advantage, and a separator for the company. This would optimize analyst jobs as well, ultimately allowing them to help enhance production rate and quality.
In specific to the times we’re all in, the companies who invested into their systems and processes prior to the pandemic, we’re easily able to transition and adapt to the working from home environment. Having shared servers, messaging platforms, and a centralized network makes it easy for employees to access their computers from home, stay connected to their colleagues, and continue working even from their own homes. The companies who had to figure out ways to change or adapt their businesses once everything happened, had to spend additional time, energy, and money to get to the place where their competitors or other businesses already were. Getting those systems up and running, can take away valuable time from your employees to be working, and create opportunities for your opponents or competitors to get ahead.
Reducing Any Uncertainties or Possible Mistakes
Making mistakes is an inevitable aspect of any business. Whether it’s something with machinery, employees, products or services you offer, there are certain issues that occur during the operation of a business. It’s sometimes tough to completely eliminate, but by having a strong infrastructure of systems in place, you can reduce the likelihood or the possibility that they occur. Businesses with strong onboarding and training processes prepare their employees to handle the workload given to them. It might be investing into the better machinery or equipment rather than the cheaper or lower cost option. It can also mean creating specializations within your company that focuses people on aspect or function rather than multiple, that way they can increase the number of times they perform it, practice it, and lean it.
By having a strong infrastructure of systems in place, you can reduce the likelihood or the percentage of any errors miscommunications. These systems used in analyst jobs often act as the baseline or the framework for the type of operations or practices you have. By having a set of systems that are strong, replicable, and repeatable, you’re able to maintain a level of consistency or quality that you can see within your business or the offerings you have. Whether through a machine, a person, or operation, the better the systems you have in place, the better they’ll be able to get, or the more you’ll be able to understand about the operations, and the more you’ll be able to eliminate or address any mistakes or errors that might occur.
Example
Here is an example showing Tallyfy’s interface for creating a client onboarding procedure, a repeatable process for most companies. Tallyfy enables your company to store information in these templates, enhancing your operations and decreasing the probability of making mistakes. Analyst jobs also include certain repeatable tasks, such as creating detailed business analysis, planning and monitoring certain projects, etc.
Conclusion
The Infrastructure and systems you have in place are important elements to any business. Whether it’s a manufacturing company, a real estate agency, or an advertising company, the systems a company has in place is one of the fundamental elements to its business and its operations.
By giving businesses a centralized forum or place to communicate, it can decrease any miscommunications, and increase collaboration among its employees. During the operation of project, there is often lots of changes, updates, and variations made to the work or task at hand. Over time, as companies try to analyze or understand the reasons why a project worked, or the reasons behind a certain decisions or change, by having a system in place to track and maintain all the updates and changes can provide valuable intelligence and information.
Strong systems or infrastructure have the ability to reduce the likelihood of any mistakes or mishaps that may occur by giving your employees or company a framework or a baseline to work off of. The systems in place have the ability to keep a business running by maintaining a certain level of production and therefore profit.
Having a set of strong systems in place has the ability to increase the amount of production a company has, reduce the number of expenses or waste in an organization, and build strong practices within its operations as well. The systems or infrastructure a company has in place have the potential to be one of the driving factors behind the corporate finances of a company and the success of the businesses operations as well.
