Inspiration
Sometimes we need a nudge to help visualise the kind of systems and solutions that are possible.
Here I have created a selection of suggestions, some based on past projects and some on past experience.
You only need to add a little imagination. Almost anything is possible.
Think about the 3 areas of your business that you would like to improve rapidly. Think about how to collect the data/information, how to improve response times, collection times or communication, and then how to measure the success. These are basic areas where a custom solution can easily and quickly provide results.
Manufacturing Sector
There’s only one way to make more money in manufacturing, by making more parts with less equipment, less overhead, less labour and lower direct costs.
The problem is often that these things are in conflict, by reducing one element another one needs to be increased and vice versa.
Often there are huge savings to be made in the administration of the business and typically in the manufacturing sector there is a high administrative burden.
Not least because of planning, purchasing, logisitcs, supply chain, quality systems, compliance, health and safety, stock control, production systems (kan-ban etc).
My background of twenty years in the manufacturing industry from shopfloor through to the boardroom means that the development of systems in any of these areas is possible.
Want to have direct communication with the workforce? Want to track production in real time? Want to know who is trained on which operations at an instant glance? Enquire today and these possiblities can become reality, just imagine it… Ask me something
Service Industry
The service sector is often, fundamentally, about the pushing and pulling of information. Response times are also another frequently critical factor.
Information about assets, people, tasks and projects can all be catalogued, recorded, modified and created in real time.
This information can be pushed and pulled between staff and departments anywhere, even when they are located at the other end of the country or out in the field.
Mobile solutions will be become much more prevalent in the future, and especially in the service sector. Allow staff to collect and input information from literally anywhere, maybe using an iPad or an iPhone, or a laptop.
Need to write reports or offer advice to others as part of your job? Need to collect authorisation or records of training at the point of use? Easily accomplish all of these things and much more with a Custom FileMaker Pro Solution.
Ask me something
Medical Solutions
Whether booking patients into a clinic, scheduling internal activities, or recording and analysis of complex testing data. There are thousands of applications in the medical field where a custom software solution can excel.
FileMaker Pro is capable of running an entire private practice or holding those test results and analysing them on the fly.
Controlling costs, improving the speed and clarity of communication with patients, recording information that can be locked down or openly shared, a custom medical software solution is effective and can be expanded over time as and when required.
Maybe there is a gap in your current software or a missing module that would make a huge difference to your resources, we can build that missing module and often we can link into your current systems or build a standalone solution.
Ask me something
Tradesmen, Skills and Health & Safety Solutions
Fundamentally there are three key aspects where custom software can help in managing site safety and skills. Logging certification and training of tradesmen, Health & Safety Risk Assessments and Permit issue, and general site management from the point of view of progress against a project plan.
Health & Safety is a key issue where mobile solutions can assist greatly. Train staff and get sign-off on risk assessments at the point of use on site. Modify and update any risk assessment at any time and this information is then available centrally to other people immediately, even send automated notifications to the safety officer.
Issuing permits on site is also another great use of a mobile software solution, issue permits and get notified as to the status of all permits issued or expiring soon at any time. Mobile software solutions can often reduce the amount of travelling that management need to do.
In real-time it is possible to see the status of any site, any person on that site and whether the project is on track or not, this allows management to decide which site to prioritise for resources.
If you are a small business in the construction industry then you maybe only want something as simple as a costing and invoicing system. Ask me something
Landlords & Estate Agents
A fully integrated solution that ties the office work process into the website, generating property details that become instantly available online also.
Maybe you need to schedule the Property Viewings in a shared calendar, gain feedback from Viewers, store a gallery of property photos or video.
Standardisation reaps great reward in any business. Start by generating property details from a bespoke software solution, automatically generate property adverts, generate pdf files of the property details for instant download from your website or for staff to email out to prospective buyers.
Even generate a personalised catalogue of multiple properties for potential buyers and email it during the same phone call.
If you are a landlord, you can track maintenance requests and completions against all of your properties including gas certifications. Bundle certifications together to get a better price for your gas engineer and schedule them within the system.
Track rental payments, bonds, repairs and any other aspect of your property portfolio, either on an individual property basis or across your entire portfolio. Ask me something
Quality Systems, Environmental, Compliance & Auditing
Controlling the Quality Manual has long been a tedious task. Controlling sign-off, controlled copies, uncontrolled copies, review of procedures and policies is nothing short of groin ache.
A CMS (Content Management System) is perfect for intranet use, using it internally to discuss topics such as procedures and policy. The blog instantly turns into an internal discussion forum instead of a blog, where procedures and practices can be debated company wide – even across multiple sites in multiple countries. Direct employee communication and feedback on any subject is possible.
Audit schedules, audit results, documents and so on can all be available from one master digital source. When someone prints out a page, policy or procedure you instantly watermark the print out with any control tracking or a simple “Not a Master Copy When Printed” notice. Think how easy searching a website is, your compliance manuals could be just as easily searchable.
This solution can be achieved by either a database or a CMS, it depends on your end goal. Rather than depending on boxed software, which is widely available, think about how flexible your own solution could be. Working exactly the way that you work, no matter how big or small your business is.
This could also be taked a step further with a forum, maybe using BuddyPress as the centre of company discussions across any aspect of the quality organisation.
HR can also use this same platform for communication, employee groups etc. All audit information could be entered into the CMS via a variety of mobile devices, this means that management can see the results of an audit as it actually takes place – not by reading a report afterwards. This is just a few kibbles of ideas for this topic, there are huge advantages to this kind of approach for this topic. Ask me something
Education and Training
Again, there are almost unlimited areas where a custom software solution can assist in education and training.
Profiling potential students prior to enrollment so that they are matched to the most suitable course. Maybe tracking progress of students in realtime by the course tutor, this might include assignments or practical stage completion results, perhaps including a photo of the work completed or even a short video to accompany the work record.
Internal management and efficiency is also achievable. Staff assessments and training, or OTL (Observational Teaching & Learning) audits can be completed in realtime, maybe on an iPad or a mobile device. Reports then become a thing of the past as the information collected instantly transforms into a rolling assessment.
Management gain clear focus for improvements and training as and when the need arises, rather than waiting for the quarterly, bi-annual or annual report. In one single deployment the entire campus effectiveness becomes a pro-active running project, rather than a reactive end of year task before results need to be declared. This saves months of effort and targets new effort where it is needed with much greater accuracy meaning those scarce resources are utilised exactly where they need to be – saving resources, saving effort, gaining effectiveness. Ask me something
Market Research & Monitoring, Field Sales
Collecting market data in the field just became ten fold easier, faster and more controlled. Maybe field sales engineers need a living catalogue, brochure or standard presentation.
Publish updated product information to the sales team without printing endless reams of paper. An iPad or laptop can take care of that with a custom FileMaker Pro solution. Do the sales team need to relay information back to base where it can be followed up, logged or taken to top management for a decision? This is reality and almost any connotation of this idea is possible.
Market researchers can relay information back to HQ directly from the street just moments after interviewing a consumer. Data can be analysed and scutinised instantly. Management can see who their most effective field personnel are by analysing surveys per hour, in realtime, and using that information to cross train other researchers. Management can even see when the information was collected in realtime, time-stamped and providing good staff management data.
Researchers can post messages to each other whilst in the field, discuss what works locally for hooking in consumers to gain their insight. Surveys can be modified and updated on the fly, even on actively running surveys.
Use 21st century communication tools to gain an all important advantage. Maybe this is an advantage that will translate into a unique selling point for your market research agency. Do clients want to see information as it is collected? It’s possible, and very powerful. Ask me something
eCommerce
Have a catalogue that you keep up-to-date online? Want to manage that catalogue offline and then update the online store in one fell swoop? Maybe you need to manage product variations that are time consuming to do online, or maybe you want to design the product page offline before synchronising online.
Selling online is no walk in the park, but a lot of online store software fails to provide a good basis on which to build a well managed business. FileMaker Pro is excellent in this scenario by filling in all of the blanks where current systems fall short.
Stock tracking, reordering, and custom analytics of sales data all give vital insight on which competitive advantage can be gained.
Manage suppliers, supply contracts, track spending, purchasing and any other aspect. Which are the most profitable products? Find out and not just by calculating the gross margin but by detailed in depth analysis. Quite often you’d be surprised at how good, or how bad, the margins your products make really are.
Want to update pricing in the store on mass? We can link into your product database and perform thousands of price changes in just a few moments. VAT Change? No problem, backup the store then perform a tax rate change to every product no matter how many there are. Managing your pricing offline also becomes much easier with a custom solution, you can take your product range anywhere you like on your PC, laptop or iPad, then synchronise later. Ask me something
Customer Service
Customer service can be a paradox, even when you’re not doing it you are doing it, but just badly.
Customer service can mean so many things, every facet of a business is inextricably linked to customer service albeit that those customers can also be internal customers. Survey your internal business processes, and your external business processes and use this information in a continual cycle of improvement of your customer service.
Alternatively, deploy a system of feedback from clients, customers or consumers. Use this as the basis of business management improvements and in your staff management process.
Manage enquiries or general communication, open issues or whatever else makes your market perceive your customer service as better than your competition. This applies to any organisation, whether for profit or not. Whether a service organisation, a manufacturing organisation, civil service, training, educational, financial, transport or any other kind of business.
When was the last time a particular customer, or group of customers, was contacted? When should they be contacted again? How easily can you find this data right now? I know how easily you could find it – in less than a minute. Ask me something
Mobile Data Collection, Surveys and Audits
If you regularly take a trip out on the shopfloor, office floor or outside of the company to collect or impart information then taking a mobile device to record or retrieve information will greatly assist in efficiency, effectiveness and accuracy.
Maybe you audit production, or audit health and safety, maybe you check on stock or deliveries or fire safety – all of these things can be made highly effective and streamlined with the help of mobile data and mobile devices.
In the old days one would take a clipboard or notepad, go to the task and take notes, make records and then go back to your desk and retype those notes into a computer. Big business have the financial resources to implement mobile computer systems and things like barcode scanners to aid in productivity and accuracy, well, now small business can have those things too.
Embracing mobile solutions means embracing cost effectiveness, productivity, accuracy and higher throughput because duplication becomes a thing of the past. Information and data become accurate up to the minute, rather than up to the last check or test which could have been hours or days previously.
If you perform tasks remotely to your desk, and the results of those tasks need to be touched, typed or told a second time then your productivity is carrying that burden. Yet more of a burden when that data is more than a couple of hours old and in many instances is no longer accurate, so the benefits of mobile solutions really don’t take long to repay their investment. Ask me something
Cost Estimating, Quotation Analysis & Bid Management
Fast, accurate quotations and costings are a cornerstone of effective businesses. Just for the sheer perception of effectiveness, speed and efficiency that this puts across to the potential clients is worth the investment, but more than that, you owe it to your business to actually live that perception.
Sales teams being the first impression factor of many businesses can only benefit from super effective costing systems. Yet further still, commercial management of large projects becomes much easier when multi-faceted, multi-project type businesses can see each iteration of costings in any given project at a glance, or indeed any subsequent project/product element in a drill-down of the costing information.
Spreadsheets are for sure a great tool for quick costings and feeling out a proposal, but the problem with a spreadsheet is that it doesn’t live within a framework of company policy, often becoming isolated and iterated so many times that the commercial trail evaporates leaving the team in the dark about how they arrived at today’s price.
Loss leading products can be a great way to boost sales, but this must be within a bigger picture of profit making products also. If you haven’t got the 100% view of all products, constantly tracked at each iteration then the commercial risks can grow. FileMaker Pro absolutely excels for contracts management, pricing, bidding and any kind of commercial/financial activity.
Management can manage policy, leaving the sales or estimating teams to compile costings and quotations with those policies built in. This standardises costings, no matter if some costings need to be moved away from policy on an ad-hoc basis, the crux is that all costings and commercial data is thoroughly controlled, risks are significantly reduced, visibility to the organisation becomes instant and response to your customer accelerates. Ask me something
Unions & Representative Bodies
If you have a Union in your workplace this is an ideal tool to gather ideas, issues and discussions with the members.
Union officials can control information gathering, members feedback, and also get the latest news and press releases delivered directly into the workplace whether at a notice board, canteen or works entrance. Information on the latest pay talks, or information on newly elected representatives.
Think streaming media where video, images or just a news page is displayed just moments after its release, and directly to where the members can access it immediately. Display the latest ballot schedule or ballot results, deadlines and any other information that keeps members informed right up to the minute, or in this case, up to the second.
Think about mobile information stations, which could be just a TV set that displays the latest communique. You update the news or press release remotely or locally and this information is then instantly available to the members globally right at those information stations in the workplace.
Just in terms of savings alone this makes good sense, printing and distribution costs go down substantially, information flow increases dramatically. Manage information from one location and distribute it with a single click to hundreds, or thousands, of locations across the nation in an instant. Ask me something
Combine – Design – Create – Refine
Of course, these are only suggestions to help stimulate your thoughts. Any combination of these ideas can be realised in your custom solution. You are not limited to these ideas.
You know what your business needs and you probably have a good idea about the type of solution you need.
The important thing with adopting any new systems is that you take the time to imagine it first. Our imaginations are such a powerful ally in designing productivity for the future. Some essentials when using your imagination could be:
- Making the solution timeless, or for the long term, by thinking about the direction of your market in future years.
- Flexibility and speed, if your market suddenly changes direction, or suffers disrupting factors, can your systems adapt fast?
- Scalability, if you were to experience substantial growth in a very short period of time, could the systems cope, is there capacity?
- Conversely, if your business suddenly shrunk, owing to those disruptive factors, could your workflow and resources cope with that change?
- User centric, is the system setup around the users and their jobs, or are their jobs having to bend to accomodate the system?
- Is management or decision making information available anywhere at any time? Do you have to go and get that data or does it come to you? Decision time is money.
Contact me today and let’s start discussing how we can get your project moving.