Problem
A company we were working with was having major problems with Production Reporting for their smelting operation. Weekly Production Reports were often delayed; had a 30% error rate; and required 10 hours or more of overtime to complete.
Solution
After spending several days observing the staff recording data from various monitoring stations in the smelter, we documented the metrics and calculations required to generate the Production Reports. After further reviewing the documentation with the Plant Superintendent we developed a spreadsheet based reporting system using VBA Macros.
Result
Overtime was eliminated; the error rate dropped to less than 1%; and reports were consistently delivered on time.
Problem
A small group of investors acquired a number of properties of different sizes and needed to track lease details, income and expenses by property. Each property required its own Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Statement. Management fees were payed on the aggregate profit, so combined accounting statements were required. Attempting to compile the data manually was time consuming and error prone. Any production software was out of the price range for the group.
Solution
The requirements were identified and a LAN-based, multi-user solution was developed.
Result
Effort required to enter the data and generate both individual and combined accounting statements was reduced to less than 1 day per month. Production of accounting documents, by individual property, or any group of properties, was greatly simplified; and the ability to view the information on the screen rather than always print them saved additional costs.
The solution was subsequently sold to another Property Management firm and the Accounting Module was used as the basis for an Ontario Government organization responsible for the tracking and distribution of funds for dissolved credit unions.
Problem
A very busy department in a major telecommunications provider was required to provide a monthly Status Report in a specific MS Word format. Staff often prepare notes on their activities during the previous month which would be sent to their manager who would then consolidate them. This took the manager almost 2 days to complete; and additional time to follow-up on missing tasks.
Solution
Data needed to be recorded by the staff throughout the month so that they wouldn’t forget about work completed early in the month at the end of the month. The data needed to be stored in a manner that would allow for easy consolidation in the required reporting format. A VB.Net desktop application was created linked to an MS Access database that allowed the staff to record data as required. An MS Word template with VBA Macros was then created that would read the data from MS Access and create the necessary Word document.
Result
Staff were more productive throughout the month; automated creation of the report could be completed in less that 10 minutes; and the manager’s effort of reviewing and editing the report decreased to less than ½ day per month. The system was modified to assign tasks to the staff rather than just a recording tool.
Problem
A small insurance brokerage was using a manual system to record commissions received from their providers and subsequently paid to their representatives. They were using an Excel based system which did not lend itself to analysis, or identification of late or missing payments.
Solution
An intranet web application was developed using VB.Net and a SQL Server Database to record all Client and Product based information as well as related commission receipts and distribution.
Result
Data is now available for analysis and reporting and missing/late payments can be easily tracked.