Recurring Issues

Following are some of the issues we assist our clients in addressing:

Projects assigned internally take twice as long to complete and are often not what we expected. Many times these projects are never completed. What causes these delays and why do they fall short of our expectations?

Our Excel spreadsheets have gotten too big and are difficult to manage.

What is an alternative to Excel?

Aren't custom software applications too expensive?

Projects assigned internally take twice as long to complete and are often not what we expected. Many times these projects are never completed. What causes these delays and why do they fall short of our expectations?

Many businesses place the task of ‘developing’ the necessary solutions on their employees. Here are a few reasons why an employee may not necessarily be the best candidate for this task:

I’m in over my head! In the event an employee is able to complete a minor project, the expectations are then raised and more complex assignments are given. Your employee may not have the necessary tools, be it training, education or experience to accomplish the more difficult projects.

My plate is full! In an era of doing ‘more with less’ employees often times find themselves volunteered to develop solutions for streamlining processes within their department. The trouble is that most employees already suffer from work overload. They simply cannot devote the necessary time it takes to plan, design and implement a solution.

I don’t get it! Often, times an employee’s view of a solution is driven by their department’s immediate needs. Not understanding the intricacies of the communication flow within a company impedes the use and efficiency of any solution.

This isn’t fun anymore! When someone is given a project out of the realm of their everyday activities, it is something new and exciting to do. After a while, this 'newness' wears out, and consequently the project becomes stagnant.

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Our Excel spreadsheets have gotten too big and are difficult to manage.

Although excel spreadsheets are a wonderful tool for calculating and manipulating data they are not necessarily the best tool for storing dynamic data. Some drawbacks to using spreadsheets in lieu of a custom database application are:

When spreadsheets get too big you risk the integrity of your data.
Once a spreadsheet is used to manage large amounts of data there is always the fear of ‘deleting’ a formula if the sheet is left unprotected. You are only a cut and paste away from the integrity of any report you produce.
It is easy to copy the spreadsheet and end up with various versions of a spreadsheet throughout your organization.
But perhaps the greatest risk is that you are at the mercy of the ‘one’ employee that knows all of the intricacies of the spreadsheet.

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What is an alternative to Excel?

The best alternative to those Excel spreadsheets that have become cumbersome is to develop a custom software application. We are experts at designing, developing, and implementing solutions and can assist you in managing your data for optimum use.

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Aren't custom software applications too expensive?

Business many times hesitate to automate some of their business processes because of the perceived cost of software development. You actually have to look at each individual situation in order to determine if custom software development is right for you.

It really depends on the scope of the application needed. For instance, if you are in the wholesale industry and want a complete wholesale application, it is recommended that you license one of the literally hundreds of applications available in the marketplace. This is where we can help you with our consulting services to assist you in making sure you acquire the best solution for you company.

The actual development of custom software application is not expensive. What usually causes it to become expensive is the lack of proper planning and the definition of the requirements beforehand. Again, this is why we offer consulting with every project we undertake.

In most all other situations, the cost of developing a custom application is actually less expensive than trying to maintain processes manually, or through the use of simple databases or spreadsheets. Once you take into account the time employees take in trying to develop an internal database, the costly errors incurred, the delays, the amount of staff it takes to shuffle paper, etc, it is actually more expensive not to automate. By taking advantage of our Virtual MIS Department, the cost of having many of your manual processes automated is often less than the cost of a full time employee.

Additionally, with the advance in programming languages, it is now much more cost effective to develop custom software applications.

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