Kaizen Advocates for "Systems of Action" to Combat Enterprise Software Inefficiency, Citing Widespread Manual Data Entry Failures

Ken Acquah, founder of Kaizen, has sharply criticized the current state of enterprise software, arguing that many vendors deliver solutions that paradoxically increase manual work for employees rather than automating it. Acquah, in a recent public statement, championed a shift towards "systems of action" as the necessary evolution for business software, moving beyond traditional "systems of record." This perspective comes amidst growing industry frustration with the inefficiencies of manual data entry and integration challenges.

Acquah highlighted common scenarios where "automation software has only given them more work." He recounted instances such as a hospital system investing six figures in a voice agent for claims follow-up, only for staff to manually enter 10,000 claims weekly into a CSV for upload. Similarly, a home services company adopted an email agent for bookings, but its receptionists still manually copy data into Salesforce, "fully negating any opportunity for long term labor savings."

The core issue, according to Acquah, is that "too many vendors create additional work for employees instead of removing it." Even with advancements in AI, legacy systems like TMSes, EMRs, payor portals, CRMs, and ERPs, often built on forms, still require significant manual interfacing. This leads to persistent challenges such as human error, time-consuming processes, inconsistent data quality, and higher operational costs, as detailed in recent industry analyses on manual data entry pitfalls.

Kaizen's mission is to "increase the ambition of vertical business software" by transforming these "laggard systems of record into accelerating systems of action." Acquah explained that "systems of action" are labor-replacement software that intelligently complete tasks on an employee's behalf, even over systems without traditional APIs or integration roadmaps. The company's most innovative customers are reportedly using the platform to fully automate hours-long tasks by translating data across various disparate systems.

Acquah predicts that "the next decade of software will be owned by 'systems of actions'," asserting that every vertical vendor market will be divided by those who grasp this fundamental shift and those who do not. Kaizen aims to provide solutions for businesses "drowning in logins for software that could increase their ambition," offering a path to true automation and efficiency in an increasingly complex digital landscape.