Automation and Web Development

Many businesses have information processes that quite simply, take up too much time because they have to be done manually. Often, they are performed by one staff member, who is the only one that can perform the task, because they are the ones who know all the ins and outs and special rules that apply.
If you've encountered something that sounds similar in your business, it may be time to take the step of changing that manual process into an automated one. This can free up valuable time, reduce errors, standardise output and allow redundancy, so that you're not dependent on one person to be able to operate the process.

Tech Whisperers can help you to streamline your business processes by helping you to formalise the "business rules" that apply to your process. We often do this by looking for "low hanging fruit", the parts that are relatively simple to describe and then progressively working through the more difficult cases.
Once we have an understanding of the process, we can recommend and implement the appropriate technology to assist in guiding staff through the process, catching errors, validating input and standardising the output.

A solution might take the form of a centralised database to collect the relevant information, store it appropriately and implement the business rules through to output. For example an automation script could take information from a spreadsheet and upload it to your website for display to authorised customers in a searchable format.
In one case, a customer had a process where emails with attachments needed to be saved into their database. Each attachment needed to be stamped in Adobe Acrobat, joined together as a single PDF, inserted into the database and tagged with the appropriate data. Using a combination of Apple Mail, Applescript, Adobe Acrobat, Javascript and FileMaker Pro, we were able to turn a 10-15 minute task for each employee into a 3 or 4 click process that took less than a minute.
What was a long and laborious task, turned into something very simple, eliminated errors and reduced training requirements to minutes rather than hours.

Another business we assisted required customers to fill in a form with specific information prior to arrival. The information was then processed and integrated into their FileMaker solution, allowing them to automatically flag potential issues according to a set of criteria and automate the type and timing of information that customers received.
This resulted in less time spent manually collating and processing the information, freeing up staff to perform other customer focused tasks.

An emerging and powerful technique is to use the power of the Shortcuts app on iPhone to incorporate QR code scanning capabilities into a workflow. The ability for an iPhone to act as a QR code scanner opens up possibilities for fast and accurate data entry to be combined with specific actions that can be run with a single tap of the icon.
For example, one of our customers is able to print a QR code on their delivery dockets. When they scan the QR code with our custom Shortcut app, they are able to associate photos of the delivery directly into their database and tag them with the appropriate metadata.
The sky is the limit when it comes to automatically performing other sorts of actions. eg scan the QR code to automatically bring up a stocktake entry screen for staff, or log key actions as they occur on a production line and notify a remote office in real time. Systems that once might seem to be only available to large organisations are now within reach of even the smallest of businesses.

Some of the automation and web development tasks we can assist you with, include

• Custom scripting processes using Applescript and Automator on Mac
• Powershell / Batch scripts on Windows
• Development of iOS Shortcuts to incorporate QR code scanning and photo processing into your workflow
• Python scripts that operate on the Desktop or Server for automated data processing
• PHP / MySQL customised microsites that provide specific functionality tailored for your business.
• Integration of FileMaker database solutions with other desktop and server software and websites through custom glue software and processes.
• Unix shell scripting
• Process documentation
• Business process optimisation. We can identify areas that are likely to benefit most from automation and recommend suitable technology to assist

Contact us today for a no obligation discussion on how we can best provide a solution to reduce or eliminate tedious manual processes in your business.