As with any other functional area of a business, collecting data promotes visibility and may lead to the optimization of costs and new business opportunities.
The notion of collecting various data points from a business process is definitely not new. What is challenging, however, is collecting information from third parties. Admittedly, it is fairly easy to collect data inside the organization because there is an app ecosystem that can support this, it is inexpensive, and there’s little to no risk of sharing confidential information with outsiders.
Most certainly, we can send customers simple surveys to see how satisfied they are with the companies’ products, but what about the realm of distribution? There can certainly be, tens or hundreds of distributors which need to purchase equipment, services, and spare parts with different warranty cycles and even costs. To better understand a distribution network, we need to collect complex data, centralize it and ensure privacy.
Handling and collecting complex data
In this context, complex denotes the fact that distributors purchase products and services in different quantities and configurations. Furthermore, each one addresses a specific market and therefore their needs differ.
The difference among distributors becomes more apparent when equipment inspections are involved. Typically, companies must make a choice between giving their distributors access to their inspection tool or a field service management solution (FSM) or a custom spreadsheet. If it’s the former, scalability is impaired because of the exponential rise of cost, data privacy issues, and configuration complexity. The latter is inexpensive, but it lacks integration with the IT ecosystem at home and it loses heavily on ease of use.
Swarm, our data collection tool, is scalable and can support the collection of multiple data points through the myriad of possible input types without sacrificing ease of use. Even if we are dealing with checklists that contain several hundred questions, Swarm can help us highlight what is relevant and ensure effortless completion.
Centralizing data into SAP, IFS, or Salesforce
The big picture as an objective may be accomplished in two distinct ways. Using Swarm can help to gather data from the field and centralize it. The second way is to collect all available spreadsheets and manually update the system.
Swarm is easy to use and can most certainly collect the information that is needed, and it integrates well with existing systems.
Working with spreadsheets poses a big challenge. All information needs to manually be uploaded and it’s prone to human error. If there are errors in our model, our view of the distribution will be incorrect as well.
To offset the above challenges, Swarm acts as an effortless way to collect data from the field and updates several systems in near real-time. It would make sense thus to have the warranty information updated in Salesforce and the release or work order updated in SAP with the accurate status.
Data privacy
With data privacy, the goal is to make sure that each distributor has access only to their own data. At the same time, management needs to have the big picture of all distribution channels. If we’re looking at a custom application for inspections, how do we make sure that distributors only see their relevant data?
Due to limitations, it’s possible to either have everyone be privy to everything or nothing at all. With Swarm on the other hand, there is an access hierarchy embedded into it. Distributors can see only their information while the main company sees everything.
Ensuring the big picture
Swarm brings a lot to the table and allows distributors to easily perform equipment inspections or other operations. The information is then documented and secured which in turn allows management to have a clear picture. The ramifications of using Swarm are therefore positive. To name a few, spare part management, bettering the relationship with the distributor, calculating manufacturing requirements, or even operations ROI.
Got Questions? Our Swarm experts are ready to help with your queries.