Altron Document Solutions is refining and expanding its business intelligence (BI) capabilities to make its environment smarter and more efficient, pioneering a new approach to data-driven workflow design and management.
This is according to Graham Cuerden, implementations manager at Altron Document Solutions, who explains that the implementations team is continually refining its BI environment as it matures, and new learnings emerge.
Last year, Altron Document Solutions implemented its advanced BI solution, aiming to transform its customer satisfaction and management capability. Using Microsoft Power BI and the Azure cloud, the company set out to measure, visualise and manage workflows better, for improved efficiency. The organisation has implemented Power BI in its facilities management division and is now rolling it out to its command centre and technical support division, working to consolidate data and deliver clear, accurate reporting that supports optimal efficiency.
With over 31 000 active devices in the field, some owned by customers and some on managed contracts, Altron Document Solutions now has clear, actionable data on fleets, contracts and SLAs, and can drill down to granular detail on factors such as device performance and mean time to repair.
Cuerden notes, however, that becoming a data-driven operation is an ongoing process. “You build reporting based on what you know at the time, but as you develop you continually find better and faster ways to do it. In BI projects, 80% of the work involved is getting the data clean. You need a vision – asking what do I want to see, what do I want to measure, and what outcomes do I want? You also need to agree on and define what you are measuring – for example, everyone must agree on the parameters for ‘mean time to repair’.”
The process does not end there, he says. “As you analyse the data, it might highlight another problem, and you then have to make changes to workflows, or the way in which data is gathered.”
Completely reworked
Change management, team discussions and workshops should take place to support the success of the BI implementation, he says.
“We looked at how our reporting was structured, and the data being loaded, and over time we completely reworked our BI environment from a six-to-seven-hour data load to one-and-a-half hours, reduced links by 50% and reduced the amount of data we were loading by 50%. We reworked entire data loads and workflows for enhanced efficiencies. But you can only do that after you’ve done the hard yards,” Cuerden says.
For customers, detailed and accurate data supports informed discussions, he adds. “Customers have become accustomed to these new levels of visibility. They can see at a glance how many machines are on contract or off contract, whether SLAs are being met, and mean time to repair. We can now produce detailed graphs outlining average toner delivery times and labour hours, for example.”
BI has become an indispensable part of the company’s operations, setting it apart from its competitors in terms of service delivery and customer satisfaction, improving efficiency and empowering employees by giving them access to detailed and up-to-date information, says Cuerden.
About Altron Document Solutions
Altron Document Solutions (ADS) is Africa’s leading document management technology and services company, and the largest Xerox distributor in the world. It is the authorised Xerox distributor in 26 sub-Saharan African countries, offering the complete range of Xerox document equipment, software solutions and services. ADS forms part of JSE-listed Altron Limited.
About Xerox
Xerox Holdings makes every day work better. We are a workplace technology company building and integrating software and hardware for enterprises large and small. As customers seek to manage information across digital and physical platforms, Xerox delivers a seamless, secure and sustainable experience. Whether inventing the copier, Ethernet, the laser printer or more, Xerox has long defined the modern work experience. Learn how that innovation continues at xerox.com.
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