Efficiently Manage EOS® Goals & Rocks with Microsoft 365

We recently interviewed our client Karrie Schwartz, COO and EOS Integrator® at Parallel Technologies. Here’s what Karrie had to say about her company’s challenge, the CTC solution, and the results:

Challenge

Parallel Technologies manages its business following the EOS Model®.

Not familiar with EOS or the associated book Traction? We are big fans. Here is a link to learn more: eosworldwide.com

At Parallel Technologies, we previously managed long-term goals, 90-day Rocks, issues, to-do items, and associated discussions and files using a variety of applications and storage locations. The process was convoluted and inefficient.

We had been using Excel for years, but were having the following issues:

• A lack of good visibility of the information
• A lack of understanding of the status of our Rocks
• The process was time-consuming to manage and report on. I (Karrie, the EOS Integrator) had to reach out to everyone on the team individually in order to collect data.

Because of these limitations, we didn’t know if there were issues with completing our Rocks until the end of the quarter–when it was too late to make adjustments.

We needed a better solution for managing and reporting on our Goals and Rocks. We had looked at other third-party solutions, but didn’t feel they were worth the expense for the value they delivered, especially given the ongoing monthly subscription cost.

Solution:

While Jan was coaching me and looking for ways to increase my productivity, she learned about this time-consuming and inefficient process. Jan suggested that CTC build out a custom solution for us to help mitigate the problem–this is a service that CTC does for many clients.

We hired CTC Productivity to build a solution to manage EOS that met our exact needs for tracking our Goals and Rocks.

This solution would allow us to manage that same information using an integrated and comprehensive solution that lived fully within Microsoft 365. We were already paying for this toolset, so there would be no added ongoing cost. This was a big selling point for us.

With CTC’s help, we determined that the solution was to be scalable so we could expand the EOS solution in the future. This would allow us to manage meeting agendas, meeting information, scorecards, tasks, issues, opportunities, and more using only Microsoft 365. This would be a more robust solution that CTC could also build for us. Additionally, the scalability would include the option of extending the solution to more levels of the organization.

These are the goals we set for this project:

Project Goals:

• Organize EOS Goals and Rocks information in a coherent and efficient manner using Microsoft 365
• Develop a system that eliminates duplicate and siloed information
• Make EOS management information transparent to the appropriate employees, including information that should be communicated to a wider audience of employees
• Make live, up-to-date information available on all devices and on a single interface
• Reduce management’s time finding and maintaining pertinent information
• Eliminate as much navigational effort as possible

Results:

We are very happy with the solution CTC built for us, and we plan to scale the solution as we roll out EOS management to all levels of the organization. Here are some of the benefits we’ve seen since bringing CTC on, and their value to our team.

Benefits we’ve seen:

• Reduced preparation time for Annual, Quarterly, and Weekly Meetings
• Central location for all groups so everyone can be self-sufficient and see the status without the Integrator’s involvement
• No need to use VPN
• Access from anywhere, including from phones
• Better visibility keeps people on track
• Can easily adjust permissions when job responsibilities change
• Everyone can now see progress and are not dependent on the Integrator to share status
• Removed a lot of the excuses for why work was not being completed

Value:

• Reduced management stress
• Faster time to decisions
• Fewer errors and miscommunications
• Improved organizational performance due to better communication of strategy and resolution of issues
• More time and thought directed toward strategy due to less time spent searching for, and managing, information
• Better efficiency moving forward due to increased usage and knowledge of Microsoft 365

ROI:

One-time Cost: $3k

Ongoing Cost: $0

ROI Measurement: The time EOS Integrator spent annually collecting, managing, and reporting data.

Before: 66 hours/yr.

After: 6 hours/yr.