Reporting Process Automation
Customer Sector
Retail
Project Cost Range
£60k to £100k
The Challenge
"I don't think you'll be able to help us but, just in case, here's my challenge. We have a process to produce a net margin report that takes one of our financial analysts nineteen days out of every month. We've tried unseccessfully three times over the years to automate it and make it less time consuming. Can you suggest anything?"
Our Approach
A lot of detailed financial and business analysis was required, to understand the manual process that was being undertaken, where and how the figures coming their Point of Sale system were being adjusted, and to identify parts of the process that could be automated and/or moved elsewhere.
The Solution
We eventually solved this challenge using a "Management by Exception" technique.
We worked with the customer, to put elements of the manual work originally needed to generate the report, into other parts of the business - at the time that relevant transactions were posted.
Now, most of the reporting process is automatic, and the analyst only has to deal with those transactions that the automated process can't.
It now takes them only two days work! It wasn't easy to sort out but they tole us they were "...very impressed with your tenacity and creativity..."