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Software or Spreadsheet - What works better for your Business Intelligence?

How do most of you measure your infrastructure asset performance? You would be surprised to know that most asset owners, even ones handling multiple assets, largely rely on MS Excel, spreadsheets and other low-end tools to calculate and process crucial business data.

If it is so, why are we even talking about Business Intelligence Solutions? Are we here to question their years of experience and expertise?

Actually yes! In this article we would be discussing points that asset owners, who have not yet adopted Business Intelligence Solutions, are missing on and why Business Intelligence Tools are no longer the right choice for data analytics today. But before doing that, let us first understand what is a Business Intelligence Solution.

Tappet Box – An ideal Business Intelligence (BI) Solution for your assets/machines

Business Intelligence (BI) solutions often come in form of smart application that can integrate with all your existing databases/platforms/software, facilitate easy key-in of vital business information and generate multiple business intelligence reports and dashboards depending upon the user’s role and requirements.

Tappet Box, one such BI Solution, devised especially for infrastructure asset management, is adept at handling multiple aspects of asset monitoring and maintenance. It not just creates synergy within the asset ecosystem, promotes data accuracy and enables faster decision making but also enhances asset life and elevates its performance.

Now let us list down the reasons that make Tappet Box a better solution for your assets than adoption of excels and spreadsheets to conduct the same functions.

BI Solutions (Tappet Box) v/s BI Tools (MS Excel and spreadsheets)

1. Efficiency and Accuracy – A single excel sheet/spreadsheet is seldom sufficient for businesses to crunch data. Thus a user ends up creating and using multiple files. Switching between these creates confusion, leads to higher chances of inaccuracy and lowers down time-efficiency.

1. No records to Log – Manual record keeping is the most common flaw that asset monitoring system in India faces today. Lack of automation disallows upkeep of proper counter logs and prevents the asset owner from keeping track of fuel consumption/pilferage on a certain day and over a period of time.
2. Tappet Box instead, serves as a single platform for data collation and generation of reports, thus enhancing efficiency and accuracy. Since Tappet Box uses centralized database for generation of reports, it also enables an asset owner to monitor important aspects like fuel pilferage by calculating particular assets fuel consumption vis-a-vis other similar assets in the database. The absence of centralized data storage facility in BI tools restricts such analysis and adoption of corrective measures.

1. Data Integration – A Business Intelligence Tool such as MS Excel shall only gather and utilize data that one would feed in it. Its inability to integrate with all other systems and software of your company and pull out vital information restricts it from providing important insights.
2. On the flip side, the data all databases, software, company website and other important sources can be updated in Tappet Box enabling creation of a central repository for important information. This thus helps Tappet Box to develop a complete perspective and generate more meaningful insights. To quote an example – Tappet Box regularly updates the asset’s counter log – one of its basic features. This feature, unlike excel sheets, syncs with all other aspects of asset lifecycle and helps in monitoring fuel economy, secondary asset running, service check-sheet and various other things.

1. Reliability – Excels and spreadsheets leave scope for asset operators/supervisors to manipulate and edit data as per their free will and thus deliver unreliable and misleading dashboards which may eventually lead to incorrect business decisions. Also, any entry in an excel sheet does not lead to an automatic update in related files, thus decreasing reliability on data across multiple databases.
2. Tappet Box works under a controlled centralized system and any changes made on it are tracked minutely. Thus, dashboards created on Tappet Box are dependable and helpful for the company while taking decisions. Unlike BI tools, any update in the application automatically applies to the entire system and all related activities.

1. Capacity – Imagine multiple users accessing and utilizing your databases/excel sheets at once! The performance would take a big hit. Now think of a situation where thousands of users have logged on to Tappet Box BI Solution –nothing changes; the performance is still superb. Tappet Box is adept at handling the most challenging business environments and deliver great results at a consistent speed.

1. Accessibility and Flexibility – Excels and spreadsheets means limited access – you can either work on them on cloud or from the premise/system where they is installed. Tappet Box, on the other hand allows you access to critical information about your assets anytime, anywhere, and on any device - irrespective of the physical location.

1. Custom Reports – As every asset stakeholder and department uses different excels and spreadsheets for their specific needs, it is practically impossible to bring all data under one roof and create custom reports for them. Also, individual department’s view about an asset, its performance and requirements gets restricted to their knowledge of it.
2. Tappet Box instead, collates all information under one application and enables a global view of the asset. This also helps in creation of appropriate and customized reports for each department depending upon their roles and requirements, thus facilitating sound business decisions.
3. Convinced about the importance of Tappet Box over BI tools? Call us now for more information.