Last month, we explored one of the biggest frustrations facing growing businesses: where all that time disappears.
It rarely disappears in one notable moment.
Instead, it’s lost a few minutes at a time. Updating spreadsheets. Chasing information. Switching between applications. Entering the same details more than once. Waiting for someone to send the latest version of a report.
On their own, these tasks don’t seem significant.
Together, they quietly shape the working day.
If you’re growing, you’ll probably recognise the feeling. Your team is busy, everyone is working hard, yet simple tasks seem to take longer than they should.
The natural assumption is that you need better technology.
In our experience, that’s rarely the problem.
More often, the technology you already have simply isn’t working together as effectively as it could.
Growth creates complexity
Most businesses don’t set out to create disconnected systems.
It happens one sensible decision at a time.
Sales needs a better way to manage opportunities, so a CRM is introduced.
Finance upgrades its accounting software.
Operations adopt project management software.
Microsoft 365 becomes the centre of collaboration.
Each decision makes perfect sense.
The challenge comes later.
Every system holds valuable information, but very little of that information moves naturally between them.
Before long, your people become responsible for connecting everything.
A customer places an order.
Sales updates the CRM.
Finance creates the customer account.
Operations creates the project.
Someone updates a spreadsheet.
Another colleague sends an email so everyone knows the work can begin.
None of these tasks are particularly difficult.
They’re unnecessary.
Five minutes here.
Ten minutes there.
By Friday afternoon, those small moments have quietly become hours.
Microsoft’s 2026 Work Trend Index paints a similar picture. The average knowledge worker switches between apps and websites more than 1,200 times every day, is interrupted every two minutes, and spends almost an hour each day searching for information. It’s no surprise that work feels harder than it should.
The work nobody planned for
One of the things we notice most often when working with growing businesses is the amount of work that has been created without anyone intending it.
Nobody planned for duplicate data entry.
Nobody expected reports to take half a day to produce.
Nobody wanted employees spending their mornings checking whether they’re looking at the latest version of a document.
It simply becomes part of how the business operates.
As organisations grow, these small inefficiencies multiply.
More customers mean more information.
More employees mean more systems.
More services mean more processes.
Eventually, the business becomes harder to run, not because people aren’t working hard enough, but because too much of their day is spent managing information instead of using it.
Research from McKinsey suggests employees spend almost 1.8 hours every day searching for information or the people who have it. Over the course of a week, that’s almost an entire working day spent looking for answers rather than making progress.
Three moments every growing business recognises
More often than not, a business knows when its systems aren’t working together.
The signs are usually hiding in plain sight.
Someone asks for a report
It sounds straightforward.
Instead, information needs to be pulled from finance, sales, operations and spreadsheets before anyone feels confident enough to share the numbers.
By the time the report reaches the meeting, the data may already have changed.
A customer updates their details
Changing an address or contact name should take seconds.
Instead, someone updates the CRM.
Someone else updates the finance system.
Another colleague makes a note somewhere else.
The process works, but only because people are making it work.
A colleague is on holiday
Suddenly nobody knows where the latest document is stored or which spreadsheet contains the most accurate information.
Important knowledge sits with individuals instead of the business.
If these situations sound familiar, you’re certainly not alone.
They’re conversations we have with businesses every week.
What does a connected business look like?
A connected business isn’t one with the most software.
It’s one where information moves naturally to where it’s needed.
That means your people spend less time searching, checking and re-entering data.
Instead, they can focus on supporting customers, solving problems and making informed decisions.
When systems work together, something else happens too.
Leaders gain confidence because they trust the information they’re looking at.
Teams collaborate more effectively because everyone is working from the same version of the truth.
Reporting becomes quicker.
Customer experiences become more consistent.
Technology fades into the background, exactly where it belongs.
Why this matters more than ever
Artificial intelligence is dominating business conversations, and rightly so.
Used well, AI has the potential to improve productivity, automate repetitive tasks and help people make better decisions.
But AI isn’t a shortcut around disconnected systems.
It depends on trusted, accurate information.
If your data is duplicated, inconsistent or spread across multiple systems, AI will reflect those problems.
Microsoft consistently highlights the importance of trusted, well-governed data when preparing organisations for AI. Reliable information isn’t just good practice. It’s what enables AI to deliver meaningful and dependable results.
Gartner predicts that 50% of generative AI projects will be abandoned because of poor data quality and weak governance. It also estimates poor data quality costs organisations an average of £10.1 million each year through wasted effort, poor decisions and missed opportunities.
For growing businesses, the message is simple.
The better connected your business is today, the better prepared you’ll be for tomorrow.
What we’ve learned
One of the biggest misconceptions we come across is that improving productivity always means investing in more technology.
More often, the biggest gains come from helping existing technology work better together.
We’ve worked with organisations that already had the right systems in place. What they lacked was visibility, integration and confidence that everyone was working from the same information.
When those barriers are removed, the impact goes far beyond saving time.
Teams make decisions faster.
Customers receive a more consistent experience.
Leaders gain clearer insight into what’s happening across the business.
Technology starts supporting the business instead of creating more work.
That’s what we mean by becoming a connected business.
A practical place to start
If this article has prompted you to think differently about how information moves through your organisation, that’s a good place to begin.
The most effective improvements often start by understanding where unnecessary work has quietly become part of everyday operations.
Our Connected Business Assessment helps you identify where your systems are creating friction, where manual work can be reduced and how your existing technology can deliver greater value.
Whether your priority is improving productivity today or preparing for AI tomorrow, building a connected business is one of the most valuable investments you can make.