“It's easier for us on the leaves”: why do automation projects fail in Russian companies?

We are developing the Planado's field service control service - it is used by companies whose employees are engaged in the installation and maintenance of equipment, windows and furniture, cleaning, delivery, assembly, and so on. Using an application in a smartphone, the head of the company can find out where they are at a particular moment in time, whether they are doing the work on technology, whether they are cleaning up trash - there are functions for geo-tracking, checklists, photo reports.

Ordinary employees almost never like the idea of ​​introducing Planado - no one likes control. And not always the company's leadership has enough strength to resist. Today we will tell how lost one of customers.
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How we lost a customer

The management of one of the housing and utilities management companies from the Far East decided to increase the efficiency of their craftsmen who meet the challenges of plumbers, electricians and cleaners. The term “efficiency increase” is understood here as a rather simple control - who worked where and when, how long the order took. To solve the problem, we chose Planado, a service, although it was not created specifically for housing and communal services, but it is quite suitable for restoring order to the management company.

A few months later, management unexpectedly decided to roll up the project. We finally talked with the customer, and this is what we heard:

• The introduction of the Planado opened a Pandora’s box . It was quickly confirmed that employees took left orders (visible suspicious gaps in the schedule and prolonged outfits), were late (determined by geo-location), poorly performed work (when photographing the results of the check list, the camera was closed by hand).
• “ We have a specific contingent ” - it’s difficult for employees to work with new technologies - there are a lot of elderly and not very advanced people among them.
• “ You can fire them, but where do you get new ones? “If the masters are tightly controlled, they will have to be fired, and even finding such people was not easy. New ones are unlikely to be better, the leaders decided.
• Everything is normal in our country - the business as a whole is alive, and therefore there is no need for unnecessary difficulties.

We finished it with this argument:

The equipment fails - within a few months, almost all of the smartphones that were specially purchased on the occasion of the introduction of the Planado, were “broken” or “lost”.

The final conclusion: “we would be better in the old manner, we should keep our records on the leaves - it's easier for us”.

How bad

Real business in Russia is not a fashionable startup. A huge number of entrepreneurs have to work "on the ground" and face not the most decent employees who cheat the company, break deadlines, the unexpected go into the bout and disappear.

To establish at least some work and bring the company to a plus under these conditions is already a feat. Further development is not enough for everyone.

On the other hand, management companies live in the same way. And to stand out from the gray mass is not difficult at all - just start working better than them. And this is just helping to achieve, for example, technologies like Planado.

The result: “yes, the whole system should be changed here”

There is an old Soviet joke.

Talk in prison:
- What article are you sitting on?
- For political.
- What did you do?
- I'm a plumber. Summoned to the city party. I looked and blurted out: yes, the whole system needs to be changed!

What happened in the situation described? In fact, the head of the company capitulated to negligent subordinates and acknowledged that in fact they are the ones who run the company.

We are sure that to endure employees who break and lose equipment, if only the authorities do not know about their labor “achievements” - means to kill their own business. Dismissing can be scary, but getting rid of bad workers is only a plus for the company, even if you have to look for everyone again.

We ourselves were faced with a similar - a few years ago we had the opportunity to remotely manage a small business. Among the staff were equipment installers. It was difficult to control them from another city, as a result, all the above problems flourished - “left” orders, lateness, poor quality, theft of consumables, unwillingness to report, etc. As a result, I had to change the entire project team, because bad employees laid out the whole team, even those who were once good. A year later, the replacement had to be repeated. It was only the third time that we managed to adjust the processes, and as a result, this business was working stably and subsequently was successfully sold. If we then did not show rigidity, then most likely we would simply close the company and fix the loss.

The entrepreneur always has a choice - either move forward despite the difficulties, or leave everything as it is. The second option is simpler, but all this will work only until the moment when competitors introduce new approaches to quality assurance. And then it will be impossible to compete with them.