Mobile workers represent a significant area of cost to an organisation as well as delivering customer service and, often, revenue goals. It is therefore critical for management to have information about field operations in time to take appropriate action.
TAAP has a track record in this area, having won several Data Strategy awards for its work with business critical data over the last ten years using TAAP Connect and Unify, amongst other products. Clients such as Nissan, for example, use this for amalgamating sales data from different sources together in one central location for analysis.
The new solution can augment a TAAP mobile system, or complement it by combining it with data currently in “silos” from different systems and departments. This allows customers to model and process the combined data from these disparate systems, significantly increasing the clarity of reporting.
Once the data is available from the TAAP system and/or other sources (for example SQL Server; Oracle; Sybase; Access; DB2 and others), users can create rich reports using flexible and powerful tools. Using the latest versions of Microsoft Power Pivot and SharePoint, reports are dynamically updated as soon as the underlying data is updated. Crucially this means that the data is always accurate and available – a significant improvement for most organisations.
Graphs are designed to show information simply so that managers can see visual representations of how their organisation is performing. For instance, a vehicle inspections company might report on which makes of car have the most damage to repair; a recruitment company could report on how many interviews were completed and by whom; or a field service organisation could review cost-per-visit information.
Once the information is presented in graphical format, it is then possible to drill down into the data. In the case of a recruitment company, a chart showing the quantity of interviews for specific positions might be displayed on one ‘sheet’ of the application, with the underlying data available to view on a separate sheet. By providing this level of detail but not making the reports overly complex, managers are able to view the data which is contained within their systems easily and quickly in order to act on it.
Steve Higgon, Product Architect, commented “By making use of tools such as Microsoft PowerPivot, TAAP provides its customers with management information that can be easily acted upon. The data aims to highlight issues that were otherwise not visible to the organisation, or areas where performance can be improved. Ultimately, the data from mobile devices can be utilised almost immediately to aid real-time management decision making.”