Access to real-time analytics is crucial for business decision makers. Whether you’re streamlining workflow, resource forecasting or just trying to get a grip on what’s going on, you need some metrics to work with which you can trust. It seems trivial to state that those who understand exactly what’s going on in their business can make better decisions than those who don’t. Yet insights they need to identify opportunities and make better decisions are often trapped on the server.
When data is only visible to the IT department, it is hidden away from those to whom it’s most valuable and key insights are lost, ultimately proving very costly. Business users and analysts are then forced into retrieving data from other, less reliable sources and manipulating the data in Excel – all of which takes up time, resource and is highly error prone.
This uncertainty and needless toil can be cut out with a simple dashboard or some reporting tools, which would provide the following benefits:
1. See opportunities and challenges
Having a broad view of the organisation at your fingertips lets you instantly see what’s going on – which areas need focus? Who needs more support or resource? What’s working well and could be done more often?
2. ‘A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it’
You’ll notice negative trends as well and be able to pre-empt bad things happening at all. You can’t fix what you can’t see and preventing accidents before they happen is by far the best way to deal with them.
3. Solve problems quickly
Inevitably, not all problems can be foreseen, but when an incident does occur you will notice faster and be able to react appropriately.
4. Increased productivity
KPI dashboards keep colleagues dedicated, motivated and focused. The store that has gone 100 days without incident wants to make it 200 and the restaurant with a low audit score focuses on getting the best score in the next round.
5. Save time
No more detective work to get an accurate picture of things – valuable time saved. Not to mention doing away with arduous (and error-prone!) manual data manipulation. Leave the calculations to computers and focus on what you do best
6. Measure and improve decision making
Having visibility of your data means having objective metrics to judge your decisions against. Did your action plan improve the risk rating? Now you have figures to tell you.
Simply put, data visibility empowers you to manage your business better, by reducing risk and improving efficiency. It cuts costs, saves work and keeps everyone goal-focused – so what are you waiting for?
Here at Shield Safety we have designed our award-winning software, Compliance Centre, to deliver these benefits to our valued clients. Contact us today for a free demonstration on 0203 740 3744 or email sales@shieldsafety.co.uk.
The information contained in this blog article has been created for marketing purposes and is not official guidance and should not be used as a substitute for official Food Safety, Fire Safety and Health & Safety advice. Shield Safety take no responsibility if the information in the blog article is used to form part of a safety management system or used to form part of any legal or regulatory compliance for your business. For official guidance and to engage with Shield Safety services please do call our team on 020 3740 3744 or email hello@shieldsafety.co.uk.
