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Most organisations will install software be it individual work day applications
like Microsoft Office or financial and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)
solutions like Sage, Microsoft Great Plains or Microsoft Navision. In
your organisation, is your software integrating, talking, getting information
from other software installed on your PC's or in your core database?
You should be maximising the huge potential software resource you have already invested in, that could make your day to day processes run quicker and easier. Which means you can spend more time on what human beings are good at, thinking of diferent ways to make your business run more efficiently, save costs, increase sales. mooooch specialises in examining the software you have through our Business Software Review service and finding creative ways of using that software to maximise your investment. This may take the form of extracting data from core databases into say Microsoft Office applications, importing purchase invoices electronically from a supplier, sending statements to customers via e-mail or an extranet (a secure web site containing information for your customers). Here are some aspects of maximising your software investment. |
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Can you think of a PC that doesn't have Microsoft
Office installed? No, there are not many, and Word is probably the
most used software application in the world.
However, it is likely that you are using the same functionality Word had 10 years ago; although the application itself has undergone major enhancements over the years. Similarly with Excel, most people use it to add columns of data, produce formula related data and act as a database for mail merges. All Microsoft Office products have an extremely rich application programming language, which can be used to interrogate your core database directly and produce the results straight into the application. Use Word to mail merge direct from your sales ledger customers to produce credit control letters, mail shots, statements etc. Send reports directly into an Excel spreadsheet, which can be automatically formatted (eg graph the results) or unformatted, if all that's needed is a quick report. Formatting Word and Excel documents is something
most people find relatively straightforward and can look very professional.
So why not produce your reports in these applications, which also
benefit from being transferable to colleagues (who will almost certainly
have Microsoft Office installed), without any additional software
product investment.
mooooch can help with methods for analysing data from your core database,
but in way that utilises the software you already have. Extract your
information into a spreadsheet and use pivot tables to analyse it.
These are one of the most under utilised, yet simple functions of
any spreadsheet application. They provide a method for analysing and
grouping data into tables, eg
The example above consisted of expenses data by Department, Name, Expense Type and Value and took 11 clicks to create from the base data (Download the spreadsheet to get simple instructions on how to create it). By utilising pivot tables you can look at the value of expenses by individuals for one department (as in the example, Marketing) or all departments. Similarly you may want to see what expenses and their value each department had (achieved in one click from the example, by dragging Department onto Name). mooooch is not in the business of training in spreadsheet applications, but by suggesting ways of maximising your software investment, we can help you save hours of time and subsequently money, in this example, by not having to produce lots of different reports. If you are struggling with the reports produced from a software
package (eg ERP system), either they are difficult to format or
you require additional information in the report. It may be beneficial
for you to purchase report writing software (eg Crystal
Reports, ReportSmith).
We can develop reports very quickly for you using these tools, which have the benefit of being relatively easy to change the report format by yourself. We can also give your employees basic training on how to develop their own reports, along with an understanding of the underlying data structure of your database, which is necessary, when dealing with these tools. |
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mooooch can help you to get the maximum possible value from your existing software | ||||||||||||
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