Before deciding what to buy, it helps to understand how your company works.
A company can have CRM, ERP and reports and still work with friction. Three models help show why: how its areas relate, how a process evolves and how information travels until it reaches a decision.
What it's for
Start with what you want to achieve, not with the technology you think you need.
Four common intentions. Each starts from something you are already living and ends in a signal that would let you recognize the improvement.
What it's for 01 · Sell more
Selling more shouldn't depend on someone remembering to follow up.
Symptoms
01Opportunities live in people's memory, in WhatsApp and in spreadsheets.
02The sales forecast is a conversation, not a figure.
03Sales has one number and administration has another.
What usually lies behind it
What happens with each customer isn't recorded in time, so nobody can see which opportunity is being lost or at what point.
How you would notice
Conversion
Repeat purchases
Timely follow-up
Capacity to serve
What it's for 02 · Be more efficient
Efficiency gets lost in what is done twice.
Symptoms
01We bought a system, but we still re-key everything into Excel.
02Getting the report means pulling several files together.
03The same figure is typed into three different places.
What usually lies behind it
The work gets done well, but recording it is costly. Every re-keying adds time, errors and rework that never show up as a cost.
How you would notice
Turnaround time
Errors
Re-keying and rework
Available capacity
What it's for 03 · Lead with more control and peace of mind
Running your company shouldn't mean chasing information.
Symptoms
01The figure exists, but you have to ask a person for it.
02Information arrives after the moment to act has passed.
03If someone is out, nobody knows where the work was left.
What usually lies behind it
Information doesn't travel between areas on its own: it depends on people who gather it, fix it and explain it.
How you would notice
Timely information
Visibility of open items
Fewer emergencies
Less dependence on key people
What it's for 04 · A less stressed team
Talented people shouldn't spend the day chasing information.
Symptoms
01The team spends too much time chasing information and approvals.
02Every day, the urgent pushes aside the important.
03Administrative work gets finished after hours.
What usually lies behind it
When the process doesn't leave the evidence it needs on its own, someone has to produce it by hand, and that load falls on the team.
How you would notice
Fewer interruptions
Fewer chased approvals
Less repetitive work
Less after-hours work
These are examples to talk about, not targets or promised results. Each company defines what it wants to improve and how it will observe it.
The map
The company as a connected system
Sales, operations and administration depend on each other. Information has to travel between them, and the whole rests on reliable infrastructure and a cybersecurity strategy.
Sales
Generates and develops demand: leads, opportunities, sales and customer relationships.
Operations
Delivers what the customer buys: production, services, projects, logistics, quality and traceability.
Administration
Manages and sustains resources: finance, accounting, purchasing, people and support.
Running through all three areas
People · Processes · Responsibilities · Information
The base
Technology infrastructure
Equipment, networks, connectivity and cloud services that keep the work going without interruption.
The base
Cybersecurity
A strategy that covers the whole: access, protection of information and the ability to keep operating.
It is a map for talking about relationships and dependencies, not a mandatory org chart or a tool per block. Processes cut across all three areas: a difficulty in one usually starts in, or is felt in, another.
How a process evolves
Many companies know how to do their work. The hard part is recording it.
Without timely, reliable records, measurement loses its footing, control weakens and improvement becomes guesswork. That is why recording has to cost as little as possible for the person doing the work.
01
Operate
Doing the work: selling, delivering, billing, buying.
02
Record
Making the work leave useful evidence, on time and with as little effort as possible.
03
Measure
Knowing how much, when and with what result.
04
Control
Seeing in time what is drifting, and acting.
05
Improve
Changing the process based on what was observed.
06
Automate
Letting the tool handle the repetitive part of a process that is already clear.
07
Learn
Using information to anticipate and decide better. This is where AI can contribute.
The cycle applies to sales, operations and administrative processes, and each process can be at a different point. You don't need to put the whole company in order to start improving one.
The data pipeline
From the work to the decision.
What management can know depends on how information travels from what happens in the work. It can go bad at any stretch along the way.
01The work as it happens
02Capture
03Systems
04Integration
05Reliable information
06Indicators and analysis
07Decisions
08Actions and results
How information goes bad
Incomplete
Part of what happened is missing, and the report doesn't say so.
Duplicated
The same thing was captured twice, in two places, with two values.
Late
It arrives after the moment to act has passed.
Inconsistent
Sales and administration calculate it differently, and neither figure is entirely wrong.
Isolated
It exists, but it lives in a file or in a person the rest can't see.
No context
There is a number, but nobody knows which period, which customer or which rule produced it.
Connecting systems does not guarantee that the data is correct or that two areas use the same definitions. That is why buying another tool can leave the problem untouched.
AI can make use of that information when the case justifies it. It is not a required step for deciding better, and you don't need to put the whole company in order to get a first benefit.
We don't start with software
Technology multiplies what the company already is.
If your team doesn't use the CRM, we first need to know whether the problem is in the tool, in the process, in the leadership or in the data entry. Digitalizing an incorrect process only lets you do it badly, faster.
We apply the same criterion to AI: we don't put it on top of chaos. First there has to be a base of process and information reliable enough for it to add real value.
Sequence matters.
01
What it's for
Where you want the investment to take you.
02
What has to change
What would have to be different in the work or in the decisions.
03
How we'll recognize the improvement
Which signal or indicator will show it.
04
Which capabilities we need
What the company must be able to do that it can't do today.
05
What makes sense to do or buy
Make better use of what exists, improve the process, configure, integrate, build, or wait.
Frequently asked questions
Do you start by recommending a tool?
No. We start by understanding what you want the investment for and what would have to change. Sometimes the right move is to make better use of what you already have, improve a process, configure or integrate; other times, to build or buy something new; and sometimes, to wait. When a solution involves an ecosystem specialist, we state who operates it.
How are you different from a consultancy?
There is a concrete deliverable and there is execution. The DespegaPYME Diagnostic produces a maturity profile, the main gaps, the risks, one to three priorities and the Business Modernization Map. And we do not stop at the recommendation: we coordinate the specialists who implement it.
What size of company do you work with?
Small and midsize businesses with an established team and operation, that grew while their way of operating did not evolve at the same pace. If you are still validating your business model, we are not for you.
Do I have to commit to a large project?
No. An honest diagnostic can conclude that you do not need to intervene yet, or that a single bounded intervention is enough. Telling you that you are not a candidate is part of the work too.
Where do I start if I don't know what my problem is?
By reading. The Knowledge section is free and written so you can make a better decision even if you never work with us. If you would rather talk it through, tell us what is happening and we will say whether we think we can help.
Not sure where to start?
That uncertainty is exactly the starting point of the Diagnostic.
