People are remarkable at adapting to change. Our no-code business systems? But not so fast. Your admin inbox could explode with trouble tickets if you enter a wrong value or remove an existing admin account.
This is especially true for core business applications, roads, and bridges to your daily operations. Minor interruptions can cause revenue loss. It can cause problems in your quarter or month by logging deals that are not correct or accidentally reopening support tickets.
This article will explain why these systems are so fragile and what IT and your business system team can do to make them more resilient.
Systems of business are by nature fragile.
Business systems that do not require code are designed to delight end users and allow administrators to create new features. The CRM will enable salespeople to log their activity, and administrators can create business rules. These systems are not designed to allow admins to manage these applications over time efficiently.
These systems make it easy to create but difficult to maintain.
Zendesk’s rules are an example. Zendesk can be a powerful tool when used correctly. Mid-sized companies use it to create “business rules,” which are automated and triggers that do things such as to send auto-reply emails or escalate urgent requests. Until recently, it was impossible to organize these rules in the interface. Zendesk has released a folder structure that is perfect for them. However, most companies still prefer to export these rules to Excel to organize them.
You can also use NetSuite’s Changelog. Although it captures some information, it doesn’t provide enough detail to explain why or who made the changes. Companies that wish to comply with SOX regulations will have to deal with this problem. The solution is not simple: Administrators must manually document each change made, even outside the system.
Consider that not all of these systems allow people to coordinate changes. How does your APAC team determine if your EMEA team has changed an important rule? How can other North American groups double-check a North American team’s plans to make a change?
These limitations are problematic because business systems are software product that runs your go-to-market and more. Software brittleness is a problem. Software brittleness is when you add new functions, rules, or features without considering the entire system. This makes it fragile and buggy. It can easily fall like a house made of cards.
There are few to no safety checks when business systems fall. The CRM syncs data to the ERP and the data is lost forever. The new support system owners cannot respond to the business’s needs if they are unsure of why the business rules exist. This is the biggest problem with most business system sandboxes. The things that your team creates in the sandbox cannot be “pushed” into production. This means that your team must build it again manually. This is a wasteful practice, can lead to human error, and creates the seeds for future failures.
You can fix it by following the business system deployment cycle.
There are many analogies between software development and business system development. (Even if you don’t have any code, it is still possible to build software. These problems are well-tested by software developers.
Take a look at the lifecycle of software development applications. This breaks down the process of making modifications into a sequence that increases quality. Plan, develop, test, deploy, and monitor. This same approach can be applied to business applications by your organization, and you will avoid costly quarter-wrecking breaks. This will allow your teams to collaborate and prevent papered-over issues and “technical debt,” which can only be seen when the whole CPQ system fails.
These business systems make it easy to create but difficult to maintain. You can borrow other methods, such as ServiceNow or Jira, to track tickets and extract your system configuration to git. It’s up to you and your team to work with vendors to find solutions that simplify managing these systems.
Salesforce is one of the companies that has responded. It now offers no-code/low code tools through its developer mode SFDX. This allows users to release changes without any code and includes DevOps-like tools and tools for automation and testing. NetSuite is also following suit. However, many of these solutions are still not sufficient.
Your business applications that do not require coding are vulnerable. Sometimes, it can be fatal. Software development and DevOps methodologies can help you make your team more resilient to change. This is something that humans are very good at. Your systems should be as well.
