Stuck in spreadsheet hell?
Important company systems running on spreadsheets?
The problem
Spreadsheets are great for adding up numbers. Over the years, companies started using them to systematise business processes. They start as small projects but over time, grow & grow, until you end up with a hard to control, Frankenstein creation sitting at the heart of your business process!
Spreadsheets require a large amount of staff time to maintain. Manual copying and pasting poses a significant threat to a system on which your company relies.
It is almost impossible to track who changed what and when. 88% of large spreadsheets contained significant errors.
One of the biggest factors helping customer retention is speed and quality of service. If you’re not making it easy for a customer to do business with you, then you’re inviting them to find someone else who does.
Pitfalls of using spreadsheet-based systems:
- Fragile, not robust
- Inability to detect Errors
- No Multi-user access
- Lack of an audit trail & accountability
- Insufficient Security
- No Workflow modelling
- Labour intensive to maintain
- Can't make information available to customers and clients
- Almost impossible to integrate with other systems
- No 24/7 data access
- Customers can't directly contribute to the system
The solution
It used to be that commissioning a custom software solution was an expensive, lengthy process requiring a substantial investment
in both hardware and software. This is no longer the case. Using open-source software frameworks and cloud deployment, cost-effective and highly scalable solutions can be implemented quickly and efficiently.
There are also lots of ‘off-the-shelf’ solutions available. For certain tasks these can be effective solutions; however they usually entail a degree of compromise in terms of bending your process to fit a more generic framework.
The benefits of a custom solution is that it's tailored and optimised to the way you need it to work. This yields the best ROI in terms of improved efficiency, more accurate information and improved customer service. It can also integrate other systems and automatically push or pull information from other systems used by your company. Therefore, by using a custom solution it would allow these systems to be bridged as part of your business workflow.
For instance, a custom-built customer booking system could also push customer details into a CRM system, add them to an email mailing system and even create an invoice for them in an accounting system.
Main advantages of a custom web-based solution:
Automate time-consuming tasks
Getting a digital solution that's optimised to your company's workflow can transform the time-consuming, mundane tasks into a slick automated process that can be managed easily and inform you immediately when something requires attention, before it causes a problem.
Increase efficiency
When automation allows processes to run more smoothly, it frees up your staff to focus their creativity on growing the business and providing great customer service. A custom-built solution can incorporate all the necessary checks and balances to ensure that the correct procedure is followed every time. As information can only be input-to and output-from the system in the correct format, your decision-making is not based on misleading data.
Make your business available from anywhere, at any time
With a web-based system, you can provide both customers and staff with their own 24/7 access to your data without any effort on your part and enable remote working.
Provide real-time tracking as a product/service moves through your various departments or key stages. This kind of customer service could guarantee long-term relationships.
You can also shift some responsibility directly to your customers by allowing them to update their own information via a secure portal to your system, thus freeing up staff time for more important work.
Increase security
Security and access permissions are often at the heart of a custom solution. This allows you to control who can access each part of the system. It is also easy to set up different types of permissions of different users or groups of users.
We tend to tailor the level of security to the level of information sensitivity which your system is holding.
Integration with other systems
Most business software, such as accounting or stock control systems expose interfaces (known as an API) that allow other systems to communicate with them. A bespoke system is a great way to draw data from all your software systems into a single place. Using this approach, you can leverage greater value from your business data with minimal effort.
Senior managers can access all the data they need to make critical decisions when they need to, rather than having to wait for other people to extract data and produce reports for them.
Real-time reporting
If you don't have a current, 100% accurate picture of how your business is performing, you will never be able to plan successfully. By using a workflow system tailored to your business you'll be able to run reports on real current and historic data and easily identify the key indicators that will drive your growth.
Increase customer satisfaction
Nowadays providing great customer service is one of the most crucial parts of growing your business and retaining your existing customers. A bespoke management system system can help you tailor that experience on a customer-by-customer basis, making you stand out from your competitors.
Improve staff productivity
An optimised digital infrastructure can help make getting stuck with boring, unrewarding tasks a thing of the past. You invest a lot of time and money in recruiting, training and retaining your staff. By helping them work smarter and get a sense of achievement, you'll make the most of that investment.
Keep ahead of your competitors
Putting a bespoke business management system will allow you to respond quicker, capitalise on new opportunities and stay ahead of the pack. You will not only be able to outperform your competitors, but also take on larger companies on an equal footing.
CM System Designs successfully converted our manual booking process into a comprehensive, centralised, efficient online system. We named it BMS (Booking Management System). The BMS gives us a clear overview of the state of all our artist bookings across all of our venues at any given time including real-time financial reports.
It has helped us save time, and therefore money by automating many time-consuming and repetitive tasks. It also allows artists, agents and venue managers to interact with it 24x7 at their preferred time.
Ross Dines Music Manager, PizzaExpress
We needed a ticketing system written for our business that had a specific set of security needs in order to ensure our customers’ data was kept secure. After several productive meetings we decided to use CM System Designs to develop our main ticketing system.
Throughout the process they have understood and interpreted our needs to the letter and provided us with a system that has transformed our day-to-day work. We are very pleased with the result and very impressed with the level of expertise utilised to develop this system.
Phil Ware Director, Allware Systems Ltd.
Thanks to CM Systems Designs' engagement, they developed a functional application, which impacted the company's success. Moreover, the platform received great feedback from its users. They were hands-on in the workflow, and their flexibility and dedication stood out in the partnership.
Our system allows us to manage our workflow in a much more manageable and efficient way!
Simon Franklin Managing Director, Franklin Commercial
How we can help?
Whether you already have a digital strategy in place or you would like us to help you set it up, we will plan, design and build bespoke web-based solutions that will implement your strategy according to your business requirements, priorities and available budgets.
We develop smart business management systems that are built around people and processes, each application is custom-tailored to the unique requirements of the business. Our solutions are built in a modular and staged way to minimise disruption and allow staff and customers to get used to new processes.
Our systems are not fixed in time, following the prinipals of Continuous Improvement, they are built to grow with your business requirements.