Dashboard: The Software Isn’t the Problem

[Music] welcome to another 21 hats dashboard brought to you by our sponsor of the great game of business I'm Lauren Felman I'm here with Gene marks welcome back Jean hello Lauren great to have you here uh Jean you wrote recently in reaction to an article in businesses tier that was about the HR software called workday the article was headlined everyone hates workday and it was Dripping with anger and frustration and sarcasm it referred to using workday as torture but you came to workday's defense uh and I think for interesting reasons tell us why yeah the um my editor asked me to write this piece uh I I hadn't seen the original piece in the Business Insider and uh you're right it was like why everybody hates workday and I read this piece and I I emailed my editor back saying thank you so much for asking me to write something about this because it was it was just a bunch of whiners and complainers about you know work day you know oh it's not perfect I have to do this in it I have to do that in it it's it's nonintuitive and you know all this and I simply hate it and I get I can't tell you in the 20 years I've been in this business how often I hear that about the softwares that I sell and even the softwares that we come up against where people complain about the software you know and I just wanted a chance to say that like you know in nine cases out of 10 it's it's the company fault it's not the software's fault it's just not you're blaming the software and it's just because um it's your fault you don't take the right responsibility you didn't get it set up right uh you don't you're not using it there there was times we used to sell this product called uh Gold Mine which you know La for anybody that's over the age of 110 probably remembers it and gold mine um had this one it's it's CRM and I think I know some owners who do use it and they're they're not quite 110 yeah it's still around it's still around and the one of the features of goldb which a lot of uh companies don't know is that um it it tracks like key clicks the number of key clicks that users are making you know what I mean why and I can't tell how many times this is like 10 years ago or whatever I would be going into like a CL they'd be complaining oh we hate gold mined sucks you know whatever and I was say h okay let me take a look at something I go and I look at the key clicks and there's like 10 key Clicks in the past month you know and I'm like dude you're not even using this software and you hate it do you know what I mean it's always the software's fault and it's usually not today work I'm not going to sit here and say workday is the greatest software there well none of them are they're all just you know you're not going to get 100% perfect software but trust me when I tell you 2024 the software industry has been around long enough this is HR software and productivity and collaboration software they've been around long enough to get their act together when I when I tell these people that say I hate workday I'd love to take a look at their workday system number one I'd like to see how it's been configured I'd like to see how they're using it I'd like to see how much they actually paid for training on it I'd like to see who they used to get it set up the right way I'd like to see if they're investing in internal administrators people that are expert with it so that they could support their users I'd like to see if their if their managers who are responsible for for this system have a set of balls so that they can say to their you know to the actual employees you don't like it well you know we'll get you trained but software is software to shut up you know because it takes that as well to do that managers you know understanding what the systems are for and the systems are for the companies not necessarily the you know the employees all of these things I mean there's there's usually a whole bunch of different factors why the software isn't right and the other thing I will say to you Lauren again and I I just learned this hard way I will go into somebody that's using ABC CRM system and they'll be like oh we hate it and we want to change our crms and you would think as a as a reseller of competing software I'd be like oh goody goodie let's you know you know we'll replace it but I always ask like well you know what are you doing with it how did you set it up who's responsible for it now you know and have you talked to the software vendor and voiced your complaints have you paid for training on this software like because I'm like I know it I've learned it the hard way you hate the software you have now and you you know you hate the vendor knowing you you're going to buy my software and within a year you're going to hate me and the software too because it's you you know what I'm saying and and we have talked about this a little bit about CRM and how most people who have a CRM make use of you know 12% of its capability or something along those lines um but I have a couple questions for you one question I've never even heard of workday I've certainly never used it I have used Rippling which is you know also an HR software platform I used it as an employee um and I thought it was fantastic the ability to just go in and sign up for everything in one place one platform and not have to fill out all the papers you used to have to do back in the Dark Ages I I thought it was amazing and it was completely intuitive do you know why you thought it because I guarantee I bet you were an awesome employee I bet you your bosses loved you you came to work on time then why did they keep firing me Jean no well that's you're you picked the wrong industry you're in journalism but I bet you you're B you none of this quiet quitting none of this coffee know you know badging or whatever and on top of that whatever system they gave you you're like my name is La I'm gonna no no that's not true I believe me I could give you plenty of other complaints Rippling was really easy and intuitive to use I I don't know if there's any difference between it and workday but but I think there is one difference between workday and CRM which I wanted to ask you about and that's kind of the the intended user with CRM you're talking about employees using the program um and if you know if they're not trained if they're not using it properly clearly that's all on the company one of the points that the Business Insider article made was that the people many of the people using workday are job candidates and that's why they hate it and it made the the article made the point that workday doesn't really care because its clients are the businesses and that the businesses seem to be okay with it so I'm curious you know a lot of the people who are quoted with you know being frustrated and everything they were job candidates you know businesses have a vested interest in them having a good experience they should want people to you know feel like this is a good process because it that's it reflects on the company that they're trying to get a job with is you you can't train those people is it still the company's fault if they're having a bad experience yeah it is I'll tell you the reason why because because I know workday pretty well by the way I'm looking at workday site I mean they have PWC and hula Packard and pfchangs and uh by the way the Mongolian beef at pfchangs I I warn it is too delicious a Thompson reuter a bunch of others that use workday okay this is um you know this is a software that is very customizable very customizable and and it is can be integrated in different way so it it's there if if I'm like at HR pfchangs for example you know and again the Mongolian beef but if I'm the HR person at pfchangs I am you know I would be listening to the the people these job applicants that are coming you know whatever and and if I'm hearing that they think it's a a hard system to use or you know whatever i' I'd be changing the system I mean I'd be customizing it I mean pfchangs has got their own portal in workday they can customize what the process is to apply for a job there trust me when I tell you workday will give you the tools to do that I don't want to pick on any one company but I guarantee you it's because the people at the company either you know don't give a or they're not given any resources to make those changes because maybe the bosses above them say we've got better things to spend our money on but it's fixable it's fixable it's not I I you know and I don't listen maybe I'll start getting some commission checks from workday after hearing this interview but I I can assure you that these problems are not workday problems it is the company that's using workday and it's that they are not investing in the training the customization the the the you know the the Consulting that they need to make the system work the way it really should work is that true for smaller businesses that employ it as well yeah every resize business because and it's that's also a really good point if you and I were having this conversation I don't know 15 years ago yeah there was a lot more of a cost to customize these systems they were a lot more rigid particularly for smaller I mean gold mine you you you won't even want to know I mean you you know you could have any screen as long as it was a black screen with three fields on it but today's you know even for small businesses today's CRM systems and HR platforms you know they're all cloud-based they're all extremely customizable as well it's just that again small businesses are no different than big businesses it's they have to choose where they're going to spend their money and you know oftentimes my clients choose not to spend on things like customization on training because they're spending on stupid things like machinery and equipment for their plant to produce products for their customers you know that's a joke right yeah it is a joke but when they but you know life is about choices so they make those choices and because of that their software is not as good as it could be and it could be much better got it all right next topic you wrote another piece recently about how Sam's Club is using artificial intelligence to stop shoplifting tell us about that yeah I have a great story about this okay so I'm not gonna name names but this was literally I wrote this article last week I got this um email this irritated email from U Sam's Club's PR firm because they had an issue with the column that I wrote the headline of the column says Sam's Club is now successfully using AI to stop shoplifting okay yeah she was upset okay and I'm I'm like I don't understand why you're upset the story is that you know you know when you go to Sam's Club and Costco and these big boxers you um you you you buy your Stu and as you're walking out you have to show the receipt to somebody standing there and then the person does like a test you know a check audit and some of the items and then waves you through do you know what I mean yes why is that person doing that why are they doing that because you know they they they want to say goodbye to you or they want to make sure you didn't forget something Jean they want to make sure you didn't leave it at the counter exact or comment on your oh that's a great TV set you're going to really I would suggest getting it on this mode right you know obviously not they have that person standing there to make sure that people aren't stealing stuff right I mean obviously okay well okay so so Sam's Club they're replacing these people they did it in 120 stores they're going to have it rolled out to all their stores by the end of the year where they're replacing their people uh with AI scanners which some I haven't I haven't actually done this which I I reported on it so I should have done it you know where you you walk out of Sam's Club and it literally is able to scan everything in your cart somehow maybe it's RFI tags or something and compare it to your electronic receipt and like immediately know whether or not something doesn't jive it's does that automatically with AI which is you know pretty awesome right yep and you know Sam's Club their their press releas is that they're saving you know their their customers time like something like 20 something percent of their time is being saved leaving the store um than it was before when somebody had to manually check it and I think that's cool you know I mean I I get that um but they're they're using AI to stop shoplifting Am I Wrong am I missing something because this PR person was like no you're getting it all wrong you know we're using it to improve the customer experience and save time of the customer because their club members would never shoplift is that the point she was trying to make you should see this exchange of emails and by the way she was a great PR person I mean she was really going to bat for her clients you know what I mean but because she wanted me to change it she said it's accurate and I'm like I'm not sure I understand what's inaccurate here you're using AI to stop shoplifting that's what you're doing right you know what I mean like that's you know I realize it's you know making it faster for customers to get through but that's what you're doing with this techn anyway the whole you putting that story aside we we agreed to disagree the point of the of the article which she didn't really care about was that Ai and 2024 you know when people are are asking particularly smaller companies right now it's a big company game you know and I gave some examples I mean I I referenced some articles uh xinity now you know you know you can literally Connect into for you and I just pulled the plug on our Cable Systems I realized but if we were still customers we we can connect to our cable Infinity is Comcast most people don't know that if they don't have Comcast they can literally connect diagnose and fix problems with a voice automated AI you know system you know I mean chat system KFC Taco Bell Dairy Queen I think they're owned by the same corporate giant or whatever but they're using they're using cameras in their Outlets to listen in and watch employees and and judge them to make sure that they are uh upselling stuff you know like you want fries with that or you know extra sauce or whatever um and then paying them based on that uh police departments in major cities are now using these AI cameras to look at events and then automatically write up the reports you know you watch you know you you every you know NYPD Blue back in the day or even CSI today and you it takes all these times to write up reports police are always grumbling now ai is going to be doing that for them Walmart has autonomous foot Fork list Bank of America has two billion client interactions with their AI tool the reason why I'm saying all these examples is because it's the big companies that are spending on AI right now it ain't the small businesses small businesses are playing around with chat GPT and you know they're you a little bit of Microsoft co-pilot and Google there's all coming and it's all going to be filtering down to us over the next couple of years so we have to be patient but the AI game right now is in the big corporate world and did I tell you this story last time we spoke like I I called up uh I think I was at a Hilton and I called up the front desk to ask like how late their restaurant was open I had like a two-minute conversation with a robot before I realized it wasn't a human you know no you did not tell me that yeah literally and it was it was like this like sort of younger female voice oh hello Mr Marks I'm like oh hi you know how late is this restaurant open and she gave me the answer and I'm like oh okay that's not late enough are there any other restaurants open later and then she starts listing it off and then I'm like listening close like this is like this is a robot did you tell her she should try the Mongolian beef at PF CHS they did not have a PF Changs anywhere nearby but that would have been that would have been an excellent suggestion because that Mongolian beef is to die for anyway you're now getting me off topic Lauren the the point of this whole conversation is that if you're running smaller midsize business and you want to invest in AI right now at our level it's it's the chat gpts and the Google gemni and the anthropics you know fine for generative AI Microsoft co-pilot Salesforce and Google workspace there's little AI automations going on right now which is great but the a the AI money is being spent by the big corporations right now and what Xfinity is doing what uh the police department is doing and Bank of America with these chat Bots and whatever that will all be oh we the Sam's Club example um you know they have an system of AI that can detect trust me within you know within the next couple years there'll be a lot of smaller software vendors that will copy that system and then be able to resell it at lower prices to smaller retailers you know um but we have the big corporate giants that are ironing out those bugs right now um in advance that's where the money's being spent in 2024 and that was the point of the article did I see uh that there's a new version of chat GPT out is that something that dude yeah yeah yeah yeah can I talk about that a little bit so it's not just GPT but it's it's also Google project Astro both announcements happened last week uh chat GPT is 4.0 Omni and let me tell you what it does do you ever see the movie her with a Johansson walking face apparently there's like these developers and Sam Alman see they're like obsessed with the movie Her okay it's not a Scarlett Johansson thing although if it was I understand but it's not it's her voice right yeah it's just her voice and it's you know it's a guy who falls in love with an AI voice this is like a 15-year-old old movie or whatever you know what I mean 10-year-old movie anyway um this didn't happen to you at the Hilton did it does this this Omni version you now talk to it and it it talks right back to you and then you talk to it and it talks right back to you and it Converses and it picks up your tone of voice if you're happy or you're sad and it remembers you from last time and it has like a little back and forth going on with you so for example um there's this really hilarious video that I'm showing at the North Carolina CPAs this week when I speak to them this guy has like on his phone he's got the um chat chat GPT the new version and it's looking at him and he's like hey man I've got a job interview this afternoon how do I look and Chad GPT is looking at him and saying you don't look great you should probably shave you know he put like a hat and Chad n that hat wouldn't be very good for you to use you know that that literally that's the technology it's like a back and forth thing and Google is doing the same thing on its project Astra you take your phone now and it will recognize you know Google lens can you know can recognize images and then search for them now its new version of AI recognizes what's around a laptop a sofa a cabinet your office and it can recognize what it is and describe it and talk to you about it you can point it out the window and it's like oh I see you're in downtown Philadelphia or you're in Princeton New Jersey or whatever and I can give a background on it as well you can do all that right now it is the Lauren you and I honestly you and I will be in wheelchairs in a nursing home together 20 years from now wearing diapers and we won't remember a lot but we will remember the spring of 20124 because it is the birth of this you know this conscious sentient AI it's it's starting right now and within the next few years you will have machines that will recognize you and talk to you as if they are humans it is it's already here it's just get sensient is a dangerous word do do you really mean that thanks for itself it really will and yes it will think for itself that is exactly what I mean that exactly and I know I know people get freaked out and scared by it and I realize everything in this world is you know there's risks and rewards to everything it doesn't freak me out it excites me um and if it turns out that we're all living in The Matrix or it blows up the world like Terminator so be it we'll be dead what's the difference um they these announcements came last week are these new services from Google and chat GPT available right now have you used them yes and no um no I use the chat GPT one on their browser but it's not yet available on the mobile device they're rolling it out the Google stuff is called project Astra not available yet that's where you take your phone and it recognizes stuff around you it's coming it's it's just they're just showing to the world they're making tools available for Developers to start developing applications based on that code set but for you know the common public now we're still just dealing with gemni the other thing that Google announced which was big was that they are changing search in a in a very concerning way Lauren you know like if you go and you search for something like you know what's the best food to eat in you know in New Orleans you know it will um instead of giving you links to articles of best food in New Orleans it will instead search the web and then tell you what the best food to eat in New Orleans is you get me that's how Google search is going and then it will list the links way down below in the page and that's a little scary have you used perplexity uh I have not used it for I played with it like on the demo version but it does the same very similar stuff right I don't think it buries the links I think it's more upfront about where the information comes from yeah Google's not necessarily going to bury the links they will still be accessible but but for most people they're just going to go with the answer and it's it is a little scary because Google's AI is going to be the like looking at all this information and then answering questions as if it knows the answer and a lot of news organizations are freaking out you know because if you search for I don't know you know you know hurricane in Houston or you know tornado in Houston or something now you get a bunch of news stories about it um where Google is going is it's just going to give you one news story that's made up of a bunch of others so instead of clicking on the story and going to the publisher site which they get you know they get clicks for that now suddenly you're just reading it on the search page and you know on Google search and it is freaking out the news industry as well justifiably so right exactly but before we leave this topic I just want to make one thing clear I don't want to get any angry emails this week uh so I want to be clear no one has ever shoplifted from a Sam's Club okay are we clear I'm glad you said that that is exactly right the the the system that they put in is only to improve customer experience that's exactly okay glad you got it wanted to make that clear genan what are you working on anything we should look for this week yeah I'm writing um right now I'm gonna write a piece for Entre entrepreneur about taxes and getting audited just a little bit of a help you know help piece and um um you know Forbes are going to be writing on some of the developments more details about the chat GPT and Google releases and how they're going to impact small businesses so you can look for that later on this week I will very much look forward to that Jean Marks is a CPA who writes weekly on small business for the guardian the hill the Philadelphia inquire the Washington Times the Chicago Daily Herald Forbes and entrepreneur you can also hear I'm on ABC radio's eye on the world with John Bachelor Jean hosts two small business podcasts with Paycheck Corporation and the hardford this episode was brought to you by the great game of business which helps businesses use an open book management system to help build healthier companies you can learn more at Great game.com thank you Jean thank you Lauren see you next week have a great week everybody