Closing the Gaps

What do we mean by “Closing the Gaps”?

Over the years Bill and I have worked in many business in a variety of industries. Through all of this we have seen some common issues or “opportunities”. if you like. These opportunities are centered around the gaps in the business support or processes between various pieces of software or procedures within the organization.

Departmental Solutions

Many companies will already have a company wide software application for managing the daily business transactions. But there will be gaps where the large system exactly meet the needs of individual departments. I often find clients using ad hoc EXCEL spreadsheets, or a series of WORD documents to try an automate a process not covered by the primary software package. In many cases I have created a simple desktop database application with Microsoft Access. With Access, you can connect to other database systems and extract data. This information can then be used to replace the ad hoc solution previously in place.

Data Analysis

We have encountered a number of clients who were having issues with their primary database management system. In many cases reports were coming up with different totals for similar criteria. By connecting to the back end database and doing some in depth analysis on the raw data. This analysis was unfiltered by user level forms, reports, or views. In all cases, I found some issues with data integrity. This was often indicated by “orphaned”, child records, blank records, or records with obvious errors in the data. The analysis often pointed to issues with the front end software which were allowing corrupt data to enter the system. Once these issues were cleared up, the user level reports and views were accurate and in balance.

Systems Analysis

Here Systems Analysis refers to both computer based systems as well as other information systems or practices within the organization. Everything from making better use of the current telecommunications system, upgrades to internet connectivity, working with staff on basic practices to avoid getting a virus on their computers. Even existing with alarm and security systems have been improved with a bit of attention and upgrades where needed.

Vendor Turf Wars

Many times a client has an issue where two of their IT Vendors are pointing at each other as to the cause of an outage or issue within the business computer environment. We have successfully intervened and resolved the issue. By being able to communicate with the technicians of the vendors at a more technical level then the client, many complex problems have been resolved quickly and efficiently.