Recently I discussed how organizations are seeking to run lean in this new economically challenged environment. I pointed out how leveraging outsourced expertise can be of great help to doing more with less. However, another tremendous opportunity that organizations have that can contribute to bottom line results is to find a way to help their employees get more done in less time. Employee efficiency and productivity are truly competitive advantages that can enable a company to leave their competition behind.

In our ever-connected world, we have all come to expect immediate response and instant gratification. Think about it, in the past, we used to mail documents to one another, accepting several days for something to occur. Then came the fax and, despite objections from the US Postal Service, we came to understand that speed was highly valued, even if they were often tough to read! And then came email, making response times very short, with almost an expectation of a reply during business hours when the recipient was at work connected to their desktop PC. And finally, the holy grail – the highly addictive, un-tethered, mobile email device [that sounds like “crackberry”] – that lives on our belts or in our purses came along and changed the game entirely.

Now, if we send an email message to someone, we outright expect that they will have it within milliseconds after we hit “send” and we almost demand a response within just mere minutes. Surely, this is clear evidence of time being used as a competitive weapon. Companies that leverage such technology to empower their employees with tools that enhance productivity reap impressive bottom line benefits.

So, how can companies go beyond just instant email to enhance the benefits earned from these investments? Well, they can use these very same devices to enable real-time transactions. They can exploit the native capabilities of such devices, such as GPS, cameras, etc., to optimize business processes for both efficiency and effectiveness. More and more, we will see companies taking advantage of these mobile technologies, for even slight increases in employee productivity can have significant bottom line benefits.

It goes without saying that no organization wants to be known for running “fat” at any time – just ask some of the financial institutions now reeling from such public accusations. But in this new, fiscally challenged economy, every company is eagerly looking to do whatever possible to run leaner. And to be sure, current conditions have enabled a marketplace opportunity not previously available to the same extent for many decades.

With unemployment rates being as high as they are across our country, there are staggering numbers of highly skilled, tremendously talented people just sitting on the sidelines of our economy due to layoffs and/or delayed investments in new projects. And while corporate headcounts have been reduced, employee workloads have not necessarily followed in line. So, how are organizations coping with increasing amounts of work needing to be done by reduced numbers of employees?

Well, by now I suspect you see just what that “marketplace opportunity” is – organizations have an opportunity to tap this large talent pool of experts on an as needed basis to tackle these heavy workloads without having to bring on additional company overhead. And these experts are seemingly all too happy to find companies and projects to which they can offer their expertise and earn needed income. Moreover, given marketplace conditions, companies are able to secure this know-how at very affordable prices while these experts are able to earn acceptable income.

What’s more, companies can source experts for very narrowly defined needs, be they functional or technical in nature. So, why go through an exhaustive search for a full-time employee who may or may not be fully utilized when sourcing an even more focused specialist to fulfill the particular project needs at hand at affordable rates is possible? These circumstances bring to mind what Daniel Pink called a “free agent nation” in his book of the same title back in 2001. The economy has surely made this concept a very definite reality.

Finally, forward looking companies realize that this economic downturn has catalyzed a significant shift in the way business is done. No longer are armies of employees a strategic advantage. In fact, just the opposite is true – low headcounts with leveraged [outsourced] expertise is truly the key to running lean and beating the competition. For sure, keeping a core group of key personnel highly focused on the essential organizational competencies is critical. But having those folks manage the pool of outsourced specialists is central to running lean with low overhead while reaching or exceeding desired outcomes.

Considerable creativity will be called for in order to craft the right lean approach for you. But the need to go this route is unquestionably the way to go.

The ability to get seemingly immediate updates across integrated systems from a single transaction and the ability to get almost immediate answers from such systems were hailed as real-time achievements in the business enterprise context. This was one aspect of popular ERP systems that won over businesses and drove ERP adoption. But the concept of time, and indeed, real-time in this context, has evolved.

When you can instantly summon up a web service on your iPhone that immediately and precisely tells you what your surroundings are like and what your dinner, workout and entertainment options are complete with the ability to get reviews on these services and directions to get to them, you know that real-time access to information makes for more productive use of time. It also means processing a lot more information, much of which comes from a variety of sources, in a far more compressed time span.

Increasingly, people are expecting such functionality from their enterprise business systems, and managers are expecting that all of this will lead to greater employee productivity and satisfaction, thereby freeing up more “real” time to be used more effectively in value-rich activities.

For most of us who live lives consisting of working more than 40 hours a week, with increased travel and increased meetings, we know that being able to do business on the move can have a tremendous impact on our personal success, our company’s success, and meeting those ever increasing demands of our customers. Thus, it would be far better to not be tethered to a PC when requiring access to an enterprise or ERP system.

Well fortunately, there is good news on this front. Technology has evolved to a level where we can now do real-time business in a fashion that accommodates our desires for freedom and a more balanced life. It allows for us to access and use enterprise and non-enterprise information in a way that suits our individual style of working. That technology is the smartphone, and what was once merely a great tool for phone calls and email, is now a powerful weapon that can be leveraged to conduct business transactions no matter where you are.

Today’s smartphone is essentially a powerful PC that clips to your belt or comfortably fits in a pocket or purse. And to the enterprise, smartphones are practically a “magic device” with the power to transform and truly empower the enterprise to operate in real real-time. When truly used for real-time business transactions, this technology can result in a 20% employee productivity boost in just mere weeks. Yes weeks.

And here is another benefit that will bring a smile to your CFO’s face. You have already made the investment. You have already invested heavily in the time, resources and money to make the processes real-time with your ERP system. You have already invested in putting smartphones in the hands of many of your workforce. Now, for mere pennies on the dollar of these investments, you can boost productivity tremendously just by connecting these real-time business transactions with these smart devices.

After all, you want to get more out of your assets. You want to truly capitalize on the investments you’ve made. You want to bring a smile to your employees’ faces. So, take the final step and make that connection, for now is the time for the Real Real-Time Enterprise!