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Stepan Ovchinnikov

Creation of the world in the company by implementing Bitrix24



Bringing order in the organization is a creative task. You must push yourself and your colleagues to perform qualitative changes. It can only be fulfilled by a strong-willed and wise leader.

This article describes how it can be done with the use of Bitrix24. We advise you to read the article Manifesto of Bitrix24 implementation, where the main "commandments", i.e. principles of work are summarized.

To experienced administrators and IT-employees we recommend to explore a high quality (though voluminous and complicated) training course (in Russian) on the portal implementation from 1C-Bitrix.

This article describes the sequence of Bitrix24 implementation steps within 7 steps - "days". Every step is not 24 hours, but a more extended time period, usually 1-2 business weeks.

We are going to talk about a small or a medium-size company without any experience in the serious automation of processes.

The key thesis is the following: the Bitrix24 implementation is based on the employees' constructive attitude and diligence. 
Work with people is about love and not about violence.


Along with this article which states out the principles to follow, we have prepared a complete guide to help you implement Bitrix24 if you're just starting out with the platform.

 

Chaos

And the earth was waste and without form; 
and it was dark on the face of the deep:
and the Spirit of God was moving on the face of the waters


If the organization does not have well-established processes and information systems (like Bitrix24), it is disorganized and chaotic. Things are done, but it's not clear how exactly, without systems and common rules.


When the processes are quite complicated, it is not enough to have a common sense and some spontaneously established rules to make everything function correctly.

At this point the chief officer terribly lacks the depth of understanding, facts, feedback. 
He knows exactly that people can work better, but does not know exactly how to achieve this.

You need a work system, established traditions of effective time consumption. Such system is developed gradually with the obligatory participation of the most intelligent and initiative employees.

In order to start you need transparancy of the work and reduction of losses in communication. You need the light to illuminate the existing processes and make the heads clear.

This light is Bitrix24 - the information system for collective work, which allows to make processes transparent, disadvantages - evident.

After the basic implementation of Bitrix24 you can set up workflows and create your own extensions to automate just your work.

Day one. Register Bitrix24, sell the idea to the responsible parties.

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God, looking on the light, saw that it was good: 
and God made a division between the light and the dark.

As a first step you need to register a cloud portal of Bitrix24, invite employees, create the structure and work groups by departments.

If somebody wants to criticize the implementation of the system and find disadvantages - it will be quite easy for him to do. The right way is to make sure that everybody is satisfied. At least at the beginning.

In order to make your employees accept the system and start working there you need to get support of the supervisors, informal opinion leaders, intelligent and initiative colleagues.

How can you do that? You should make a list of people, whom you want to talk to, in advance. Choose 1-2 problems relevant for each of them, and show how these problems wil be solved by means of Bitrix24.

Use presentations, articles, the trial version of the system. Check it yourself and convince your colleagues. You cannot implement Bitrix24 by an "order form above". You need to "strike a spark".  You will need your will further.

The following "solvable problems" can be demonstrated to the ordinary employees: forgetfulness of colleagues, unpredictable availability of shared resources, birthdays, holidays, lunch menu, etc. 

For supervisors there are other advantages: internal chat, daily reports, control of working hours, CRM as a common base of clients, and, of course, project tasks with the Gantt chart.

In complicated cases (mixed team, resistance, a lot of bureaucracy and management levels) you can form a "trial group" of the most loyal people, with whom you can try out the portal.

As a result of the first stage the cloud portal must be registered, the "opinion leaders" must know about the implementation plans and have a positive attitude, and you must have a clear image of the future.

Day two. Common invitation and involvement. Likes and tasks.

Let grass come up on the earth, and plants producing seed,
and fruit-trees giving fruit, in which is their seed, after their sort: and it was so.

As a second step you should invite everybody to the portal, tell them about its functionality  and offer to try it. Show its convenience, talk about the rise of transparency, access "from anywhere".

At first, you need positive. Bitrix24 is a simple, friendly, fast, convenient system. Convince people of it. The best idea is to hold a general meeting of the team and to appeal to them.

Use the speech blanks: "everything will be recorded", "nothing will be lost", "we will find it then in two clicks", "phone numbers and emails will be in the base", "the whole history of a client", "all the files will be available through the network".

An effective way to talk about the portal "through the positive" is to start a discussion of a corporate party, office repair works, a present for the chieaf accountant and so on. Opinion polls and the photo gallery will be of help.

Any organization work is better if it is supplemented by a system of tracking feedback and comprehension. Give "likes". React to events. Support initiative colleagues.

But you shouldn't allow Bitrix24 to be just a "common chat" for the company for more than a few days. If you get carried away, you will have to fight against chatter, unwanted conversations, excess of humor.

Get to work. Start formulating your small orders as Tasks. Show the example of good practice: clear name, deadline, details, person in charge and assistants.

Provoke a "chain reaction", when everybody start setting tasks for everybody. To organize this carry out the policy "everything that needs to be done -  through the task". Praise for good wording and fast closing.


As a result of the second step the employees must use chats and the Activity Stream in Bitrix24 for work correspondence, set and track tasks for work orders.

Day three. Rules and restrictions. Separating goats from holy lambs.

Let there be lights in the arch of heaven, 
for a division between the day and the night,
and let them be for signs, and for marking the changes of the year,
and for days and for years

Employees are loyal and motivated, thinking about the benefits of the organization. Such true angels. "Holy lambs". And there are protest-minded, prone to strikes, selfish ones. "Goats".

The wisdom and the will of the supervisor can easily motivate and rectify his colleagues. In this case Bitrix24 will benefit the most. This system can summarize and direct the team's energy.

But if there are a lot of "goats", the supervisors ask: might the transparancy inflict harm on the supervisor's authority and relationship? What if inconvenient questions arise? Can there appear an internal opposition appears?

These are the right questions. The can and must be solved. The fact is that the portal does not creat a new reality, it increases the speed and transparancy of that what is ALREADY happening.

All the thoughts, discussions, even indignations, that are now occur in smoking rooms and corners, may start in the portal. It is in your favor. It is easier to work with negative, if you can see it.

If the implementation of the portal speeds up the establishment of order and the elimination of the goats insane employees, it means everything is as it should be, the organization has become healthier and the efficiency has increased. 

In order to avoid the repetition of Chaos on a new stage you need to make the rules of of work in the portal and demand them to be fo;;owed. Good rules are short, logical and fair.

Right after launching the Tasks we advise to introduce the practice of regular employee's work reports infront of his supervisor. The report shall contain the summary of facts, results and important emotions.

The benefit of reports is not so much in the strict control of employees as in forming the habit to remember what has been done on a dily basis. Some employees can in such a way be taught to analyze and draw conclusions.

A typical set of rules:

  • General rules for working in Bitrix24 (what issues shall be read and answered by everybody)

  • Areas of responsibility (strict instructions what needs to be addressed to whom)

  • How tasks are set and what to do, if you have rceived a task

  • Daily report. Structure, requirements. Rules of communication with the supervisor through the report.

If you "share" this article on social networks, we'll send you an example of a package of work rules in Bitrix24. See the details at the end of the text.

During the step of introducing rules you will have to be a demanding leader. A fist and a kind word are capable of more than just a kind word. But keep in mind: you cannot imlement Bitrix24 by brutal force.

When establishing order proceed carefully, but firmly. Once you understand what to do - do it. You are the most competent, intelligent and progressive person in the company. You hold all the aces.

The third step should result in establishing order in chat rooms, common application of tasks and daily reports. The supervisors should be the most active users of the portal.

Day four. Groups, CRM and workflows.

Let the waters be full of living things,
and let birds be in flight over the earth under the arch of heaven

Activity stream, tasks and chat rooms are suitable for communication in 80% of cases. However, in the remaining 20% they are inconvenient. "Wrote in the chat, set the task" - it's not a panacea. There will be a mess, especially with the growth of volumes.

This issue needs to be solved. It's important that exactly those 20% of work that bring 80% of money for the organization do not "fit in" -  sales, project work, complex workflows.

The basic functionality of Bitrix24 allows you to establish basic order. Everybody goes to work, everybody listens to you, everybody makes reports. It is like washing hands. The efficiency of work starts later. 

True efficiency can be achieved by combining active work (in the portal and in reality) of the majority of employees and the widespread implementation of the advanced tools of Bitrix24.

The implementation of groups, CRM and workflows shall be conducted according to the "tick-tack" procedure. At first a "tick" - positive and involvement, then a "tack" - regulation and control.

Groups are required in two cases. The first one is the creation of conditions for work of a team part on the project. Appropriate people are invited to the group, tasks are set, documents are loaded. There are no outsiders there.

The second case when the groups are needed is to organize communication of the departments, systematize its workflows. The right to create groups shall be given only to the projects or departments supervisors.

When a group is created for every project and department, soon you will feel the growth of chaos. It means that it is time to introduce requirements to the maintenance of groups in Bitrox24. What, where, how, what for.

The groups implementation is finished when everybody sees only those files, messages and tasks that they need and the administration of groups and people does not take too much time.

CRM in the hands of an experienced supervisor is a mighty tool for improvement of the client service. But you should start small. The first step is to write down all the clients and know the status of negotiations with each of them.

Use automation: creation of leads from letters and forms on the site, deals and clients from the online store orders, pop-up cards. CRM should return the time of the company rather than steal it.

CRM is implemented in stages. While the company is developing and changing, your style of working in CRM will be changing too. The supervisor's talent is to keep the balance between flexibility and orderliness.

Workflow management is similar to creating a park. It is like turning a forest land with rank vegetation into a pleasant and safe place. There are two approaches to the park creation.

An English park is always marked on paper by an architect, then the extra vegetation is cut down, long straight lanes are laid. The park is ready, beautiful, boring. It's just a pity about the trees.

A French park is created in two steps. First order is established: dry branches are taken away, flower beds are made. Then people make paths at their convenience. Only benches and signs should be placed there.

Workflows shall be implemented in the French way. First Бизнес-процессы нужно внедрять по-французски. First, convenient environment, then fixation of efficient methods. An axe is not forbidden, but it's not the only tool of a gardener.

All the rules implemented by you earlier (for tasks, CRM, documnet flow) should possibly be "turned" into workflows. It is neither easy, nor cheap, it's not an end in itself, but it's strategically right.

The fourth step of implementation is completed by transferring all the disordered actions into the correct tools of Bitrix24. Employees know the rules "without paper", order is established "on a solid B".

Day five. Control.

Let us make man in our image, like us:
and let him have rule over
 
every living thing which goes flat on the earth.


"People do not do what you expect. They do what you check." These words of the head of IBM shall be used as the control guidance.

Any work is sometimes routine and tedious. Even the loyal and motivated employees sometimes follow "the path of the least resistance". Only the very few have the self-discipline of doing things properly.

That means that even after completeing the basic implementation you will have to devote some time to control of rules and explanatory work.

An important feature is that Bitrix24 does not contain any means of automated control and "leading" the employee on the right path.  Bitrix24 is about opportunities, not about limitations.

Moreover, every moment a person can do not a single action, but a dozen of them. It provides flexibility, freedom for creativity, possibility to think and make decisions.

If "holy lambs" prevail in your company, it will provide the increase of efficiency. If there are a lot of "goats", for whom as much as possible should be closed, Bitrix24 is not much suitable for that.

How do you control? Control should not take more than 5% of the time for the controlled workflow. For example, it is not correct to read and comment a work report for more than 25 minutes.

We recommend the control by the "touch" approach. It means that you control work without getting deep into it, but only checking its readiness and asking random questions. If it's necessary - you can get deeper into it.

Bitrix24 has a number of convenient means of such "quick control". These include: a panel with work reports and time, "task counters", counters in CRM.

The system shall be established in such a way that the supervisor has the current information in form of "everything's fine" and the possibility to deepen quickly and establish order, if there is a signal of a problem.

Control is adjusted, if everybody does exactly that what he is responsible for and feels the "controlling touches". A constant content control "with deepening" is an exception.

Day six. Accounting orders, time sheets and salaries.

The great lights: the greater light to be the ruler of the day,
and the smaller light to be the ruler of the night.



There are often two centers of power in the company. One is a creative and initiative supervisor, an impetious "firestarter". The other is a boring executive "deputy", financier, accountant, "bureaucrat".

If the first one does not exist, the company will not grow and develop, if the other one does not exist, it will not be able to operate stably. These thoughts are expressed in a detailed manner in the works of Ichak Adizes.

The reder of this article is probably an initiator of implementation. But you need to rely on bureaucracy. When everything starts working, you need to record the order at the "legislative level".

You need to combine the bureaucracy in your company with the bureaucracy of Bitrix24. This will benefit both systems.

It is worth mentioning the KPI of employees and departments. The system of performance assessment according for the key indicators and motivation in accordance with them is a trendy and  proper management technology.

You can learn about the essence of the technology and its implementation tactics, for example, from works by Alexander Lityagin (GOAL system, MBO, management by objectives) or from adherents of a balanced scorecard.

We can only answer how to implement this system by means of Bitrix24. There are no ready-made tools, you will have to use several adjacent sections.

The indicator of working hours can be counted through the tasks or work time tracking, "work reports" are good for tracking "the share of the credited days" .

Numerical indicators for "sales", calls, accounts are easily tracked in a semi-automatic mode through the CRM and its reports.

"Long" meaningful tasks "for the quarter" or "for a year" need to be set as the tasks, and you should require regular reports and evaluate them in an integrated and subjective manner.

The lack of a specific KPI calculation section may create a feeling of a disadvantage of the system. Indeed, it would be convenient if there was such a secion.

However, the implementation experience shows that the requirements of organizations to the KPI system and "reports for supervisors" are so different that no "unified solution" alone will work here.

If you actively apply the formula, numerical weighted indicators, you should adjust the KPI and salaries calculation in google docs-tables "over" Bitrix24. In such a way it is done in INTERVOLGA.

If the majority of KPI is not based on what is already being calculated in Bitrix24, you don't have to pull these these calculations into the system. The Bitrix24 implementation does not exclude other IT systems, but allows to consolidate them.

Timesheets, KPI, vacation schedule, approval of outgoing payments, approval of contracts, storage of shared files, payroll must work on the basis of Bitrix24.

How it can be done is described above. There is nothing new here. But the fixation "by order" and the involvement of "heavy artillery" shows that there is no way back, the system is set up and is already on stream.

Day seven. "Taskmaster method", freedom and initiative

Be fertile and have increase, and make the earth full and be masters of it.


Man has become the most powerful animal due to the nervous system, the brain. The same feature - be sensitive and react correctly - shall be pumped in the companies as well.

Companies are managed by people. No robot will replace a supervisor, and there is no need to strife for it. At least if your product is the people's creative activity and not M16 bolts.

Bitrix24 is the supervisor's long arms, penetrable ears, sharp eyes of the supervisor. It is the peripheral nervous system of the organization. It is right, if its development does not lead to the brain malfunction.

At a vertain moment everything described will work by you. You will ask yourself: what's next? Well, first of all, congratulations. You have made a revolution. You have set your company on the most advanced tracks.

These advanced tracks are not Bitrix24. They are your employees, their involvement and enthusiasm. It is the common energy of "holy lamb"-people that will lead you to the goal The "goats" will not be able to prevent you from it.

In the last, seventh day of the world creation in the organization I would like to give some advice.

About programmers. Technical people can be managed only by someone like them. Only an overgrown programmer mature enough to understand the interests of business can manage these employees.

Don't introduce the KPI for programmers as a "number of code lines" or "percentage of mistakes in the module". Only apply the "taskmaster method" in the form of deepening and bugging their brain (it is usually called "micromanagement").

For deepening in this issue I advise you the materials of the Stratoplan school and several articles by Igor Ashmanov. Then choose an overgrown programmer and talk to him about the goals of business.

About accountants. The accountant's KPI is the director's peaceful sleep and the absence of penalties, and tax minimization. No matter how you formalize it - the account should understand it. 

As a rule, accountants don't need the management automation either, the "taskmaster-chief accountant" can solve ALL the management problems by this benign disease.

About all the others. Do not confuse the levels of consciousness.  If a person does not realize that the task of the director can not be ignored, it is not  KPI or logarithms that must be introduced. He must be flogged.

Conclusion

Everything which he had made was very good.

Before any formalization and automation there must be a man, his desires and thoughts, his own motives and your dialogue with him. Work with the team personally and continuously.



  
INTERVOLGA is responsible for implementing Bitrix24 portals in all aspects: methodology, training, business processes and software improvements.
Contact us, we will help with not only words.
  • 22.05.2016