Does Size Matter when it comes to the value of a field data capture software solution?
A few days ago our VP Sales and I were in the office of a small well servicing company, and as their President and their Finance/Controller/Payroll Administrator (all one person) continued to layout their issues with getting their billing information and payroll into their accounting system, we realized that their problems and their processes were exactly the same as what our larger service rig customers were facing prior to implementing Spira. Sure, the scale of the problems are bigger at a larger company, but they are fundamentally the same problems.
One of our “perceived” barriers for a smaller company to consider the purchase of Spira was that it is harder to justify the return on investment of an operational field system because one of the key value propositions for implementing a system like Spira is that you can reduce your administration costs. Translated another way this means that you can get by with fewer people to do the same work. Typically, when you are dealing with a smaller company, they already run pretty lean, and letting a person go is not part of the equation or factored into the return on investment (ROI) calculation done by the management team.
So what was the value proposition of Spira for this smaller company? Their reasons for considering a field system like Spira were two fold.
First, they knew their current system was inefficient and large or small, good business owners are always looking at ways of improving their efficiency, because at the end of the day this means better profitability. Second, they wanted to look professional in dealings with their clients. A handwritten ticket was unacceptable to them on a professional level (they were currently using a spreadsheet to do their tour sheets). So even though the ROI from our system was reduced because they would not be letting anyone go, they still recognized the efficiencies it brought and just as importantly they valued the professionalism that our system would bring to their operations and portray to their customers. This got me to thinking about what the value of professionalism is for any company.
What comes to mind is; how professional would a major grocery chain look if as part of their check-out process the clerk wrote down all of your groceries and the pricing on a piece of paper as they were passed on through bagging and then added them up by hand or with a calculator? How about if while at a hardware store the clerk flipped through a catalogue to price everything that you were buying? In today’s day and age it would be laughable for a hardware or grocery chain to do business like that.
Now explore this example a little further from an administrative perspective using the grocery store. Suppose at the end of each day, the store manager would add up all of the individual receipts for each check-out and then enter these into a spreadsheet to sum up the day’s sales activity. Then at the end of each week a company administrator entered this spreadsheet into an accounting system? Seriously what would your opinion be about this company based on how the grocery industry currently operates? Would you consider them professional, even if their service was outstanding? Would you invest in this company? Not a chance.
The above example purposely positions inefficiency alongside professionalism because they go hand-in-hand in business. The way you do business reflects on your professionalism as a company.
For the smaller company, the ROI of a field ticketing solution might take longer to manifest, but the efficiency and professionalism are perhaps more immediate because it takes substantially less time to get them up and running compared to a larger company. So really, size doesn’t matter (at least in this example). Companies large and small, can and do, benefit from a field data capture solution, particularly one that integrates to an accounting or ERP software.
If you had a critical look at your own business, do any of the examples above exist in your operations? Do you think that this reflects on your professionalism or hampers your efficiency? If so are you going to do anything about it? When you are ready to become more efficient and professional in your field operations, give us a call, that’s what we do.
Cheers
Greg Gillette
