The True Cost of Software
Geni Whitehouse
Founder at The Impactful Advisor, ITA President, BDCoCPA Winery consultant, Speaker
This is based on a post I originally wrote for Oztera.com aimed at the wine industry but the message bears repeating for businesses of all kinds.
The more outside Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, macros, PDFs and workarounds needed to manage your data, the more it is costing you to have the wrong system. Inefficiencies and errors resulting from re-keying data are one thing, but what about the lack of transparency that occurs when data is being moved out of your core applications? Now consider the security implications of files being moved from machine to machine, email to email, user to user. And which version of the file is the correct one?
What's worse, there may be inefficient process steps you aren't even aware of in your company. Have you taken the time to walk through your internal processes lately?
Here are some basics to look for in a solution:
- EXCEL INTEGRATION. Excel has tremendous power. But it should be integrated into your applications. If there is data being re-keyed into Excel for any reason, take another look. There should be an easy way to consume and create Excel data in every application you use.
- EMAIL AND ATTACHMENTS. Your application should automatically create customer invoices that are ready to be emailed. It should also support document attachments for all key transactions.
- CUSTOMER PORTAL. Your application should provide opportunities for customers to self-correct pertinent contact data and access information that you wish to exchange.
- FLEXIBLE REPORTING. Your system's reports should be built for customization and with full access to fields and data that you need to run your business. Common fields that are linked across database tables should be merged into a new reporting table for easy access in reporting. Hard coded reporting with limited filtering and inadequate selection criteria is the main cause of rogue spreadsheet proliferation.
Now compare the cost of staff time invested in chasing information around your organization with the cost of investing in systems designed to intelligently address the needs of your business.
Automation Science Consultant
7 年In industrial applications, the concern always seems to be about interference (hacking) with control systems; this entirely ignores that there is tremendous value in data. For example, process recipes that may even be proprietary trade secrets, process yield statistics and even production mix and volumes can be of great value to competitors. One issue is that, unlike a damaged control function, this is a silent intrusion which is not immediately obvious and may never be discoverable. Consider the difficulty if someone lifts process parameters and translates that information into a patent application. Or consider whether one would want competitors to be privy to true cost of production information. Data may be something that is easy to distribute and dissemination may be technically easy - that's also a great risk.
Senior Data Analyst at Hamilton City Council
7 年It is about providing the right tool for the right job. There is no one fit all solution. Operational data / reports make business run. BI / Data analytics make business run better. It is about understanding the difference between operational and analytics and making the data work for you with the right tool.
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7 年Hi ..any body can help me how to recover msdb from suspected mode.I, didn't have msdb backup earlier(MS SQL 2008)
Business Improvement Consultant, Founder
7 年"Have you taken the time to walk through your internal processes lately?" This is the million dollar question and the shortest path to business effectiveness and efficiency. Excel is both an extremely useful tool and a common cause for bad business decisions. Don't question merits of Excel (and other forms). Question why you are using it in the first place and make sure everyone around you understands your intent, along with all the integrity issues that go with it. That knowledge alone among your team will go a long way to gain efficiency with your ERP and other processes. There needs to be a systematic way to conduct and document process review and typically this is where the "wheels fall off".