Bad Economy? Look for Process Makeovers on the Basics.

The Obama’s campaign use of the most boring of technologies impressed me most: database applications for tracking voter contact. Why? It went back to the basics of what a campaign needs to do -- Get Out the Vote (GOTV). The use of social networking tools, text messaging, facebook, and other web 2.0 tools was icing on the cake, but his technology success had first and foremost to do with his getting the basics in place.

This said, let me offer a couple thoughts to organizations that are feeling the pinch from the economy. You don’t necessarily need to invest in new technology. You may need to jigger staff roles and carve out time for them to focus on the basics.

Pardon the sports analogy, but make sure you’re executing flawlessly on the blocking and tackling. What are the key activities that your organization does? At every step of the way for each of these activities, does your staff and web site have the content that constituents need? Does your staff and web site provide easy ways for individuals to take actions? When they take actions, are you capturing their data in a consistent and systematic way? Are you able to use that data easily when there are opportunities to communicate with them?

I’ve seen very few organizations that don’t benefit from going back to re-looking at the basics of what they do.