Talking with small and mid-sized manufacturers on a regular basis we usually see a common thread in their business challenges: a lack of timely and accurate data to make decisions quickly.
It isn’t that these businesses don’t have usable data or are not trying to process their data into usable reports, it’s that their reporting processes require too much manual work to deliver the business intelligence needed in a modern manufacturing environment.
At the heart of the issue is the need to aggregate data in order to generate useful insights. Data aggregation, or bringing data together from different systems, or different parts of a single system, for viewing and analysis is a manual process in many businesses.
Manual Processes Add Time and Errors
Even when basic reports can be generated through an automated process, managers often need to combine multiple reports in order to gain the business insights needed to tell if different aspects of the business are performing as expected.
Besides the extra time required to manually aggregate the reports, the opportunities for errors to occur increases significantly, as spreadsheets are usually the vehicle of choice for manual aggregation. You can see our take on the dangers of spreadsheet dependency, but the short version is most managers dislike spreadsheets and would love to move away from them.
Make ERP Stand for Efficient Reporting Process
If you have an ERP solution you can move to an automated reporting process. You already have customer, financial, manufacturing and sales data in the system, so why not deliver actionable reports to all areas either on a schedule or on-demand?
Triple Helix clients have leveraged advanced reporting capabilities to increase sales, improve operational efficiency, and enhanced customer satisfaction. Imagine having automated reports delivering real-time or near real-time insights to identify issues in production, sales or shipping. The same ERP data can also be used to provide better resource planning, monitor supplier performance and more flexible job scheduling.
Moving from spreadsheets to a real-time reporting process (or a more automated one) does not have to be a large, complicated project. In many cases, a staged approach is the best approach for strong adoption and business outcomes. If your business would like help adopting a more efficient reporting processes, contact Triple Helix. We can help you assess your current data management and reporting capabilities and develop a plan for moving beyond spreadsheets.
