To get the complete picture of your business you need to store considerable amounts of different information. The information needs to be presented in a manner suitable for all levels of staff. Generally, staff require the details for maintaining specific records as well as know which records require maintenance and managers often requiring the consolidated data so they can clearly see the big picture. There are enormous savings to be made in many areas of you business here are just a few ways we have seen savings for our clients.
1.Operations Reporting
Set your key performance indicators for your operations such as time frames to quote, project cycle times, customer relationship management, productivity measures for work completed in a day, week, month or year. Simply access your reports at the click of a button. Alert pages are created to assist your staff with ensuring all tasks fall within due dates. Dramatically save time as your projects are managed efficiently. FocusIMS is tailored to meet your needs in the area of project management. Project management with FocusIMS has translated for one organisation in a growth in revenue of 86% from 2006 to 2011 and still growing strongly as the management system supports the business.
2. Document Distribution
Maintaining current versions of documents, maintaining version control and the efficient distribution of documents can be an expensive and time consuming process. Not to mention reporting requirements for the evaluation of compliance. FocusIMS stores both your organisation documents as well as documents required for regulatory requirements. For legislative and regulatory requirements you are required to report the level of compliance as well as review this at least annually. Your organisation documents are required to maintain version control as well as records of distribution. This can be a laborious process with a paper based system that undoubtedly results in anomalies. You can manage your documents efficiently including version control, distribution and archiving are all simple and straight forward with FocusIMS. FocusIMS can also significantly save you time and money by providing access to your documents from anywhere with an internet connection, including iphones, ipads, tablets and pdas. For one organisation the savings were approximately ten reams of paper, binding, covers and folders as well as labour for 1 person for 2 weeks to distribute the documents, use of a vehicle and travel of approx 1000 km.
3. Management Review
The management review process can take days to gather all the information required especially when meeting the requirements for ISO9001, ISO45001 and or ISO14001. FocusIMS assists by having supporting reports available at the click of a button such as the legislative compliance reports, hazard/impacts register reports, non conformance and audit reporting, monitoring of objectives as well as action plans that automatically appear on the alerts pages for the person responsible. All the requirements can be compiled in under 30mins.
4. Objectives
Objectives are not only important for your organisation but are also minimum requirements for quality, safety and environmental management systems. It is not enough to merely create objectives, monitor objectives, assign responsibilities and allocate resources. These are just the minimum requirements of a certified management system. The assigned responsibilities appear on the alerts page to ensure they are appropriately actioned by the person responsible. FocusIMS assists your business by keeping objectives at the forefront of the people responsible for them which results in the increased likelihood that they will be achieved. This further promotes a success culture in your business and provides a system of recognition of achievement.
5. Inspections and Audit
Paper based inspection forms serve a purpose of checking the items listed where as FocusIMS cover the minimum checking requirement but also have the capability of being completed online instantly as well as scoring and assigning actions. This means that you can quickly and easily monitor your performance overtime or by department workgroup or checklist type. Improving inspection scores can easily become a leading indicator of performance and a business objective for the organisation. The costs saved are not only that of collation, they demonstrate due diligence (obviously when compliant), they can save costs in terms of injuries and fines by proactively ensuring compliance.
6. Training and Competence
Training and competence is a key area in quality, safety and environmental management systems. The requirements for this area are can be very complex. Assigning training requirements to each job description in the organisation is the starting point, next the training identified on the job description needs to be aligned to the training requirements of the employee fulfilling the role. Training records for competences achieved need to then be aligned, some training requires refresher training that needs to be completed regularly and then updated. The difference left between training required for the position and the training completed then becomes your training plan. FocusIMS makes the process simple and straightforward, setup your job descriptions once with the training required and as you add or update an employees’ job description it automatically updates the training requirements. Then simply add the training certificate as the employee completes the training. Your alerts page will then show who needs to complete what training and when, it also prioritizes for you which training is overdue and which is due in the next 30 days. The other additional benefit is that all the training certificates are available at the click of a link. It is difficult to quantify the savings as we have not seen training records managed effectively by any company without the resources of a dedicated human resource department before they use FocusIMS. Savings in this area would have to be at least wages for 1 to 2 staff fulltime depending on the number and training requirements of the employees.
7. Non Conformances
For many organisations non conformances are completed on individual forms and then logged into a register. The benefits for using FocusIMS for this area are that all non conformances, incidents and accidents are logged directly online from either the office or a worksite. For one particular organisation identifying and grouping the non conformances identified there was one specific process in need of systemic improvement. The total non conformances for the year prior to implementing FocusIMS was $260,000 after implementing FocusIMS the non conformances dramatically dropped to $36,000 for the following year.
8. Injury Management
Injury Management can be a really complex area for many organisations. The challenges start with recording lost time and ensuring medical certificates remain in date. The next challenge comes when the injured worker returns to work on suitable duties. FocusIMS has the electronic forms to complete return to work plans as well as publish these electronically where the resourcing function is completed so your operations department is clear on what duties are allowed and which are to be avoided. The recording at this level forms the basis of your injury reporting. Generating number of lost time injuries and statistics such as LTIFR lost time injury frequency rate. Injuries are also managed as non conformance meaning that root causes are identified and corrective and preventive actions. The key areas for saving is in workers compensation premiums by reducing the number of lost time injuries as well as the cost of the claims through active management of the injury. There are also considerable time savings through the automated consolidation of data.
9. Asset management
Many organisations use a simple spreadsheet to keep a list of assets which is a good start however generally they lack enough information to effectively manage the asset for its life. In order to manage an asset effectively your system should show who is responsible for the asset at any point in time as well as a complete service record including maintenance cost to ensure optimal replacement. Programmed maintenance is also available to ensure your assets get maintained at appropriate timeframes. Insurance, lease/hire purchase, acquisition and disposal costs are recorded to ensure the optimal management of your assets. Savings in this area stem from reduction of over/under servicing, increased asset life due to proper care and maintenance. The Asset Utilisation report is available based on prestarts completed and provides % Utilisation to ensure you have the right assets for the works your completing. Replacement or disposal of under utilised assets present and opportunity to better manage financial resources.
10. Contractor management
Contractors can present a significant area of risk for many businesses. FocusIMS assists you to keep certificates of currency up to date with an alerts page which show insurance expired on the left side of the alerts page and the insurance due in the next 30 days on the right. Reminders can be sent to all suppliers in a single click. If you have many Suppliers/Contractors you can provide your suppliers with an onboarding email Making FocusIMS your all in One contractor Management Platform. All contractor costs can be allocated to projects/jobs, project profitability can then be monitored efficiently including contractor costs. Contractor staff training records can be maintained to ensure all works are completed by appropriately trained personnel. Your business saves in terms of workers compensation insurance premiums by maintaining your contractors certificates of currency, your other significant saving in this area is efficient cost control on your projects ensuring that your contractors are not charging more than your charging your clients.
Whether just some or all of the ten areas of savings relate to your business, the savings will be a significant benefit to your business.
FocusIMS is our subscription solution and is quick to get up and going.