EFFICIENCY CHALLENGES
In this age of smartphones gestures, ultra HD 4K video capabilities at our fingertips, some of us still spend work time collating information in spreadsheets. That kind of work essentially is replicating work that database system can do a lot more effectively.
In the modern workplace today, staffs of small and medium enterprise for instance, the work routine still involves a lot of time and effort in getting or sending information to and from fellow colleagues. And often, time also spent clarifying what is supposed to be sent or received. And these rituals repeat itself over and over again in our workplace. And these activities, rightly or not, are actually, work.
Occasionally, when the need really arises, we also collate and aggregate information on our spreadsheets. Usually we produce only one version, because another version with different parameter takes just too much time. Or if that becomes too difficult, we just perhaps live without the information – information that might be vital in some cases. These are things that can quickly be pulled from analytics of a central databases – if there is one.
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Your people are your precious resources.
There are some tasks that a human can perform more effectively that machines. And there are tasks that machines (IT) can perform much better than humans. Don't put your precious resources on tasks that machines can accomplish more effectively.
Invest well in IT. Deploy your people more effectively.
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Information management should be done with IT, not people.
From quotations, to sales order, to fulfilment, to delivery, to invoicing, to credit control, much of the information within each of these documents (line items) are the pretty much the same. In some organisation setup however, the same information can be entered multiple times, by different people, on different systems, at different stages.
Alternatively, some staffs may just do away with the details – for the sake of practicality – thereby casting away some essentially information that rule out eventual aggregating of information. Further analytical capability will then be lost.
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Looking to information, and not having the insight.
Inefficient information handling is not difficult to spot. Some people call that troublesome work. And sometimes – whether the bosses like it or not – people can find creative ways of making work less "troublesome", by ignoring some information.
Less troublesome, less time taken, work apparently done. Well yes to some extend, if there is no interest in further insights that can be drawn when one can look at the data over a longer term. And that can only come if there is data collected over time.
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Yeah! Use IT ...
Yes using IT is the way to go. If we are not careful, over reliance on spreadsheet can be considered valid use of IT too! And that's an entirely different proposition from having an integrated enterprise central database system. Information Technology needs to be properly deployed ... and care and attention do not randomly fall into place, these require concerted facilitation.