The Toothbrush Test
Are you getting the most out of your tech stack?
We’re living in the age of the app, where there is an app for everything. In fact there’s a hundred apps for everything. If you look at your phone right now, how many apps do you have on it? And how many apps do you have that do exactly the same thing? (I can’t criticise as I have five different apps on my phone each dedicated to delivering me food).
Having too many free apps on your phone is one thing, but as these “low cost” applications compound the bills can quickly become turn into tens and hundreds of thousands per year.
The Toothbrush Test
When you look at your programs (or any product) its helpful to use the Toothbrush Test.
This is a test used by Larry Page, CEO of Google, to decide which companies he likes. According to the New York Times, when Page looks at a potential company to acquire, he wants to know if the product is, like a toothbrush, “something you will use once or twice a day.”
This was the logic that we applied when we completed our last internal audit
Do we use it every day? Is this an “Add-in” or just another “Add-on”?
If the answer was yes to both then we kept it, and if not then we cancelled. We managed to remove 5 subscriptions which objectively were adding next to no value to our core activities.
An Oversubscribed Firm
A Marketing agency that we partner with recently completed a full audit of a Brisbane accounting firm’s subscriptions and was able to save the firm over $40,000 in subscription costs. When they reviewed they found multiple apps that performed the same function, a plethora of spare licences or licences for ex-team members and apps that had been signed up for and long forgotten.
This logic shouldn’t just be applied to apps, are you really getting value from your server or is it time to move 100% away from it? Have you half implemented a new practice management app but still have some team members clinging on to a legacy system?
If we use tech in the correct way it can be a time saver and revolutionize a business, but frequently if not managed the correct way it can overwhelm team members and be a resource drain.
If you want to learn more on this topic and other relating to the success of a modern firm, we’re holding a webinar on the 13th February where we’ll discuss topics such as these.
