Rethinking Routine: What Jakarta Revealed About Operational Gaps

At a recent trade exhibition in Jakarta, conversations with store managers and outlet supervisors revealed a recurring insight: despite being in a fast-moving, innovation-driven industry, many Indonesian businesses still rely on manual workflows like Google Forms for daily checklists, WhatsApp for team updates, and experienced staff to train new hires. While familiar and easy, these methods often lead to missed tasks, inconsistent training, and overreliance on memory. It’s a reminder that many operational challenges are quietly accepted as normal. When in reality, they don’t have to be.

The Hidden Cost of Doing Things the Manual Way

Manual operations might seem convenient on the surface, but they introduce inefficiencies that are hard to track until they impact performance. For example, we heard a franchise owner share that their SOPs were rarely followed. It’s a challenge echoed across industries, where compliance and consistency often hinge on direct supervision.

That’s where digital systems can change the game with multi-outlet operations software. By centralizing SOPs, checklists, and training modules in one accessible platform, brands can maintain consistency without constant oversight. Tools like TreeAMS help ensure that standards are followed, updates are rolled out in real time, and new team members are onboarded with structured guidance, regardless of location.

An Evolution, Not a Disruption  

Digitization is all about refining the siloed processes, not replacing people or upending what already works. It simply makes operations smarter, more sustainable, and more scalable across multiple outlets or regions. In a landscape where customer expectations are rising and staff turnover is common, having a reliable system is essential.

The event in Jakarta served as a reminder: transformation doesn’t always require a dramatic overhaul. Sometimes, it starts with a single shift in mindset, one operational tweak, or one platform that quietly makes everything flow better.

For businesses still juggling manual tools and chasing consistency across teams... the question isn’t whether change is necessary, but how much more could be achieved by embracing smarter, digital ways of working?