Information management is critical for efficient running of businesses.
Success of an enterprise is essentially based on the right decisions being taken at the right time at the right level in the organization’s hierarchy. Decisions are dependent on the accuracy, reliability and speed at which information is available to the decision maker and the manner in which it is presented. Information management consists of capturing and storing data on the various operations in the running of a business and retrieving useful information for decision making, in an efficient manner.
Till the advent of personal computers in offices, data was captured on paper forms and stored in file and filing cabinets with the ‘file’ being passed from table to table for action and sign-offs in accordance with the ‘standard operating procedures’ defined by the organization; managers would maintain registers and ledgers to collate ‘like’ information to help in decision making which over a period evolved into MIS (Management Information System) a set of reporting templates for good business practice.
With the coming of low cost personal computers the physical files/cabinets were replaced with virtual files/folders on the computers’ hard drive; use of word-processing and spread-sheet programs became common and soon a computer on every desk in the office, connected on a LAN became the norm. Liberating as this is to an organizations’ functioning, it does throw up new challenges for decision making like -Accuracy – has the excel sheet holding the data been update?Reliability - is the data in a unique file or are there copies of the same file with others?Speed – is it available at the moment it is required? (a manager is on the phone with a major client and needs information that is with a subordinate who is unavailable at that moment!)
Spread-sheets are good for data analysis but not so good for data capture especially when dealing with records covering multiple financial years which are generally maintained as separate files; further shared spread-sheets are ‘read-only’ other than for one user and can be copied easily resulting in many versions prone to inconsistent updates.
A database based system addresses all these issues as it is common to all users and available to users based on their roles and offers more in terms of security, ensuring validation of data entered and in enforcing users to follow the set procedures at each stage of the work flow in the operational activities in the running of the business.
The BPMS software provides an enterprise level tool to achieve this and is available in versions suited for individuals, a small team, mid-sized or large business enterprise engaged in providing services or in trading or in manufacturing. The standard template can be adapted to suit specific requirements of your organization.
Call 91 9821610084 to speak with our consultant on how BPMS can help your business be more profitable.