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Gathering, maintaining and analysing accurate, up-to-date information isthe key to understanding your current business performance, and planningfor the future.
Getting all of this data into one place, where you have quick access toit is easier said than done. Traditionally, businesses have reliedheavily on the manual entry of data copied from paper forms. Forexample, interested customers would fill out their contact details for acompany in a questionnaire, before posting it off to be typed up by dataentry clerks into a spreadsheet or database.
Disadvantages of manual data entry
Manual data entry is a costly, labour-intensive proceedure. As well ashiring the staff required, you also have to factor in the cost ofrunning an office. Despite this outlay, the results may not even beparticularly useful. Delays and inaccuracy plague the process, leavingyou looking for a more productive solution.
Avoiding duplication of work
How many times does the same piece of information get written down ortyped out during your business process? A staff member fills out atimesheet on paper, and then those forms are taken to a data entryoperative who types them into a spreadsheet. Administrators againtransfer those details to another system for auditing and attendancepurposes.
Ideally, you should only ever have to enter data once, with thatinformation then accessible to anybody that needs it from that pointgoing forward.
The alternatives
One long-standing solution is the scanning of paper documents, which arethen processed by OCR, or “Optical Character Recognition”, into text. But this process can often be inaccurate, and additional manual work orsoftware is required to put the scanned information into any meaningfulorder.
Online forms are far more preferable to their paper equivalent,instantly send your automatically validated information, entered byrespondents, to a database, with no subsequent data-entry needed. Whatif you could apply this process to every aspect of your working methods?
How SwiftCase helps
SwiftCase is a business process management platform, accessible viamobile devices as well as desktop computers. Meaning that staff out inthe field can fill out the details of the jobs and appointments theyattend in real time, without the need to head back to head office.
Once you enter customer, staff or product details into SwiftCase, theyare available every time you make a new appointment or job relating tothem. Staff at every stage of your business process have access to thesame information, without needless duplication or inaccuracy.
This reduction in overheads and time spent filling out spreadsheets anddatabases leaves you free to focus your energy and resources onproviding better products and services as well as growing your businessfor the long term.
If you’re interested in a free, no-obligation demonstration,get in touch today.
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