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Insights and commentary on data, reporting and analytics, and how you can make better use of data in your business.
Cobalt Beach is now a UK Government supplier
Cobalt Beach is now an approved supplier to UK Government and agencies. Find out what that means…
Why Is Excel So Hard To Kill?
Why is Excel so hard to kill when it comes to reporting processes? There are 5 main reasons, but a solution is in sight…
Getting More Value From Regulatory Reporting Data
Many industries including banking and financial services, aviation, food and pharmaceuticals have strict mandatory requirements to produce and provide data or reporting to their regulatory bodies. Beyond that, many more organisations have other statutory reporting to shareholders, certification bodies and others.
Data Warehouse or Data Lake?
You’ve no doubt heard the terms Data Warehouse and Data Lake thrown around, probably along with “Big Data” but what are they, what’s the difference and most importantly – which is right for you?
Biodiversity Reporting Is Coming. Are You Ready For It?
Biodiversity reporting is on the way but many business haven’t yet thought beyond their climate related reporting obligations. The data challenges of biodiversity reporting are far more complex and here’s why…
Why Every Business Should Have A Dashboard
Every business should have a dashboard – a visual representation of the most important data showing how the business is performing.
A well designed dashboard with the right metrics on it will allow a director to instantly spot opportunities or threats as they emerge, as well as answer deeper “what if” type questions, and should form the centre-piece of any management meeting.
Business Automation Academy
Let’s face it you didn’t go into business to spend half your time doing admin. And yet you have to.
Or is there a better way?
Review of Online Calendar Systems
If booking appointments is stressing you out and taking up too much time then you need and Online Calendar system. There are many Online Calendar Systems available and in this post I review some of the most common and compare their features and capabilities
Simple Automation with Zapier
Automation with Zapier is a simple and low cost way to start removing manual processes from your business but starting can be daunting. Read our guide on how it works.
How can I grow my business without hiring more people?
More people can mean less flexibility and can even make opportunities for growth slower. Getting the business to expand without the need for more hands at the wheel is a great way to climb without plateauing… but just how do you actually do that?
Premature Process Automation Leads To Failure To Perform
Process automation is one of the hot subjects in business today and there are many tools available to do it. The internet is full of articles telling you that you should immediately go forth and automate every process in your business.
Field service management software for quotes, scheduling and invoices
There are a number of benefits of field service management software in businesses that send workers out to sites to undertake their work. But it’s important to find a piece of software that works for YOUR individual businesses needs and service.
How can I make my business more profitable?
Costs are an inevitable part of any business and the only way to achieve zero costs would be to close your business entirely. But that doesn’t mean you have to accept your current levels of cost, especially if your business is not as profitable as you would like it to be.
Process Improvement For New Business Owners
If you’ve just bought a new business, you probably want to make your own mark on it. And a change in ownership is perfect timing to review your businesses processes and decide whether they are lean and fit for the future and growth. Or whether they are more of a relic and need to stay in the past.
Automate Your Sales Leads
There are a number of sales and marketing automation tools available, and use of one can transform the productivity of your business.
Why Contact Tracing Could Be a Data Protection Nightmare for Small Business
As businesses begin to reopen after the Covid-19 lockdown, many are facing new requirements to collect personal details from their customers in order to support contact tracing. But without experience in handling personal data they could be exposing themselves to existential risks.
Unleash Your Humans!
Every business has access to the most advanced intelligent decision making tool known… the human brain. Whilst it is infinitely flexible and capable of making complex decisions and learning from them, the human brain is however less than optimal for repeating highly predictable tasks and tends to become distracted and demotivated. And yet many business processes require exactly that.
API-ify Everything!
If you’ve read my post about process automation you’ll understand how data integration is key to making automation possible and how integration data from various APIs can allow you to do that with information-centric processes, but what if your process touches hardware in the real world?
Data Integration
When you talk to someone about data integration, you usually see their eyes glaze over before you’ve finished the second syllable but in this post I’m going to tell you why every small and medium sized business should really care about it rather a lot.