What Technology Should Exist in Your Office?

Recently I was talking to a local government leader about the trials and tribulations in their city and their specific office. As we discussed a variety of topics, we ran into a number of items he mentioned could easily be fixed with basic technology to optimize simple processes.

We’ve all had that feeling in our daily jobs in government.

So how do we think through what technology should exist in our offices whether we are in HR, IT, budget, or program?

Here’s a couple ideas to think of places to leverage technology:

1) Spreadsheets to Systems – Are you using sophisticated spreadsheets to track a process?  Keep track of records?  Anything where you are doing sophisticated spreadsheets has a great opportunity to turn into a light-weight software solution so you can better consistently track results, easily share across teams, and not have to worry about one cell in a macro being off.

2) Paper Piles – Are you doing a lot with paper forms and paper records? Got them piling up on your desk or in file cabinets? We all know that we can do better in 2017. With technology, there are countless ways to capture that information in a digital way, scan that information into digital forms, and store in an easily retrievable way.

3) Red Folder Approval Process – Too often I heard in government that we are still getting approvals the way I started in early 2000s.  In my office, we’d have a red folder with a document to be signed and it would go through five layers of management for approval by moving that red folder for signature. If Domino’s can have a pizza tracker, it’s easy to use technology to track approval processes digital, use digital signatures, and store electronically so can easily recover the information.

What do you see in your office every day that makes you want to hit your head against the wall?

What technology should exist in your office?