Nowadays, we take information technology (IT) for granted and simply expect it to be intuitive to use and for it to simplify our lives. IT enables our personal and business processes and actions to help us lead organized and effective lives. But the ins and outs are completely interconnected. You cannot have one without the other, and successful outcomes rely on what’s put in.
IT constantly grows to enable more and that can be a problem or a missed opportunity if you don’t see it. So what should you be aware of?
The Purpose of IT – The INs
The first purpose of IT relates to DATA. IT stores, processes and regurgitates data more effectively and faster than humans do. Then it must present that data in a way that creates information in an easily digestible way.
Data can be static, like the number of kilograms in a ton, or fluctuating, like stock-on-hand of a product you make or sell.
Next, IT handles transactional data, a record of what someone or some machine did, for example buying a donut, selling a car, depositing money – updating many areas to record this transaction for future use.
IT helps transform seemingly unconnected facts and records into insights or “paintings” that tell a thousand words. Plus it can recall this information on demand without any problem, unlike humans.
Data Collection – The OUTs
It’s INFORMATION of course. Linking data in the progression of efficient business processes – rather than people creating scribbled notes, arrows and diagrams on some scrap paper, which only means something to the original creator. IT must enable the collection, processing, sharing, and presentation of this processed DATA to others.
The results can be reports showing the activities we executed plus cost analyses, inventory balances, and deliveries made. We get dashboards facilitating easy understanding of problems, trends, and insights. IT makes sense of all our “stuff”
…. but you knew that anyway …
Data Cleansing – The WHAT?
The “what” is how much attention we take of our Ins and Outs. We all know about data cleansing and master data management – yes you do – rubbish in, rubbish out.
The future has come to SYSPRO 8 users and we need to be more aware of the power that business IT offers today. Allowing rubbish in is a crime as data-in forms the basis of future processing, thinking, and action, not just the stats for past performance or mistakes.
Real Business Intelligence – Looking at the NEW OUTs
We don’t just get alerts as our plans go out of sync, we get visibility of what the root problem is and predictions on how to handle it. We get real business intelligence (not just reports) presented clearly and graphically – and on a laptop, or phone in an Uber.
We see trends in topics like customers or products we “liked” because they are our key customers or products that make our margin or grow out market.
And on the IN side
Information comes from searches on articles and info on the Internet. It comes via IoT from factory equipment to ID performance, GPS trackers for global position and movement, pedometers on our sheep to check they exercised optimally – not just from plugged in users
Input from customers can be interpreted and routed by Bots that get better with practice – we call it Machine Learning. And even more – bring social media to our own info, letting customers, suppliers, and employees add “comments” and “likes” to bring “sentiment” into the analysis.
