16 MiMfg Magazine September 2020
Premium
Associate
Member
Overcome Your Biggest
Challenges with Technology
By Mike Maddox • ASK
In February, none of us realized how COVID-19
would change the world. We had just finalized our
strategic plans for the year and felt the optimism of
a growing economy and a bright future. We had
great plans!
Well, as Mike Tyson once said, “everyone has a
plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
That is exactly how 2020 has felt for most of us —
like a solid, painful punch in the mouth.
Suddenly, we had to figure out how to operate
remotely, keep employees paid, apply for government
assistance programs, and somehow keep morale up
amid complete uncertainty.
As the initial shock wore off, smart business
leaders saw through the “fog of war” and began to
focus on three critical challenges: cash flow and expense
management, maintaining staff productivity, and
developing a pipeline to maintain growth. Technology
solutions are being implemented to address and
overcome these challenges while growing the business.
Cash Flow & Expense Management
Many manufacturers are looking to Managed
Service IT Providers (MSP) to help in this area. The
results are often surprising — allowing a qualified
MSP to leverage their processes and economies of
scale can lead to reduced costs. Equally important is
that the pandemic shed light on the critical need for
proactive cyber security measures that had been ignored
in the past. Again, manufacturers are finding that
qualified MSPs can provide this as part of their solution
set at a cost that is a small fraction of trying to
handle it internally.
Keeping Staff Productive
Microsoft 365 and its associated products —
Outlook, TEAMS, SharePoint, OneDrive, One-
Note — allows users to simply access all company
information via a browser. All your staff needs to
access their work resources is an internet connection.
The productivity benefits go way beyond access
though- these tools are all integrated and work
together to foster team collaboration, document
integrity, and information sharing.
Building Pipelines to Maintain Growth
Marketing teams have begun to focus on what is
truly important — asking themselves “how can we
provide value and help our clients?” New and creative
ideas are emerging which need to be communicated
to prospective clients. In a COVID-19 world, the
best method for this is digital marketing. In many
cases, comprehensive digital marketing campaigns
are proving to be more effective than the traditional
business development methods used in the past.
You can get punched and stay down or get back
up and come out the other side stronger for having
done so. While none of us would have chosen the
events that have transpired in 2020, this crisis has
inevitably forced us to become more focused on the
fundamentals of our business. Will you let this crisis
or the next destroy you or will you rise above it? 6
Mike Maddox is the President of ASK. He may be
reached at 517-676-6633 or [email protected].
ASK is an MMA Premium Member company and
has been an MMA member since June 2016.
Visit online: justask.net.
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