When all the elements of your business operations, from fleet management to real-time locating systems (RTLS) to document management, function on separate platforms with varying degrees of visibility, it’s hard for you to get a big-picture view of the decisions you need to make to achieve maximum efficiency. When all the pieces of information exist within separate silos, your operations suffer.
Those data silos are especially problematic in the manufacturing industry, and the first step to making more effective, informed decisions at your company is eliminating them. You need a centralized dashboard that combines all your systems into one holistic view and simplifies accessibility to crucial information.
The time and effort required to build a customized solution of this magnitude—something that provides access-appropriate visibility to people at all levels of your company—may seem overwhelming. But by partnering with a trusted expert who does all the heavy lifting for you, you can obtain a solution that collects actionable data and helps you make good decisions that improve your efficiency. Here are the top three benefits of unifying data with a personalized solution:
Integration across multiple vendors and systems
The information you need to run your operations seamlessly is tied up in multiple different tracking systems and management applications. Do you have insight into the location and usage of all your assets? Is all your equipment accounted for? When was the last safety check completed on your machinery and/or transport vehicles? Who signed off on them? Are you managing expenses effectively? Different entities within your company need access to different pieces of data at different times—and each variation creates an added layer of complexity.
What if you could have a single dashboard that integrated all those systems seamlessly, allowing a big-picture view of operations across your entire company? A customized solution can accomplish that goal, providing you with visibility into the most important aspects of every reporting and tracking system. This includes your fleet management system, RTLS, proximity detection system, document management system, and more.
Custom dashboards for individual members of your organization
Everyone in your company plays a unique role in maintaining your operations, and each role requires different information to do its job successfully. Your accounting department needs access to different data than your salespeople, and your compliance departments cares about different information from what your CEO wants.
When you invest in a custom solution, it doesn’t have to be one-size-fits-all. An experienced partner can develop software that provides unique dashboards based on what’s most important to your various team members.
For example, consider the information each of the roles above might need when it comes to company car usage:
- Your salespeople care about miles traveled and related compensation.
- Your accountants care about lease rates and vehicle depreciation.
- Your compliance and safety experts care about safety checks and Department of Transportation regulations.
- Your CEO cares about how many cars you have, what they cost you, and whether your revenue is offsetting those costs.
A customized solution can provide each of these people with the exact data they need—and all they have to do is log onto a single system. They don’t have to waste time sifting through irrelevant information because the dashboard view is unique to their role.
Cost savings through partnership vs. staffing
Your in-house development team doesn’t have the bandwidth to develop a customized solution that integrates your separate systems. As it is, today’s organizations are facing a troubling shortage in development talent—and by 2025, experts predict a shortage of four million developers. Hiring new staff to accommodate a full-scale development project will cost you millions of dollars in recruiting, salaries, benefits, etc., which isn’t a sustainable solution for your company.
When you choose to partner with a trusted software development company, you eliminate overhead costs because all your costs are project-based. You get the services you need from experts who have built thousands of custom solutions—which means they know how to do it efficiently. The end result is a cost-effective, holistic dashboard that gives you unparalleled insight into company operations.
Take Your Next Step
Data silos can cripple your efficiency and keep your company from reaching its full potential. If you’re still logging onto multiple different systems to track all your information, our team at Unleashed wants to turn all those systems into one dashboard with a custom software solution—and we have all the tools and expertise to do it seamlessly. One of the most popular software development systems in the world is Symfony, and Symfony’s creators have made Unleashed their exclusive North American partner. We have plenty of experience building custom, user-friendly solutions that make our clients happy. Reach out to us today to learn more.
