Cold Spring Construction’s older version of its existing system was insufficient on its own, so the company had to use its own time, resources, and technical expertise to write and distribute reports. Compounding the issue was the fact that only one employee truly knew how to create, export, and share reports, which then needed to be modified and manage, creating a messy, complex, and slow workflow to say the least.
Although the report writing was done digitally and in real time, the technology did not offer an intuitive interface that allowed employees to review integrated data nor conduct detailed drill-downs or advanced workflows. Sharing and displaying information was nearly impossible, so executive management and daily reports were printed and hand delivered, while field reports were printed, scanned in, and emailed out.
Data becomes obsolete as soon as it is exported and printed, as someone needs to make a change and the report becomes worthless. Training employees to complete their own reports was not only time-consuming, it also opened up visibility to data that should have been confidential and secure.
eCMS v.4.1 brought many new innovative features to clients like Cold Spring Construction. eCMS v.4.1 is an enterprise-wide, single-database ERP system that collects, manages, and houses both financial and project data. eCMS v.4.1’s Interactive Data Inquiry (IDI) business intelligence and analytics solution provides the functionality to serve up business-critical data elements and make them available in intelligent, user-friendly formats such as dashboards, views, and reports, or for sharing within applications, email or Excel exports.
In addition, IDI is a web-based platform where users can access all eCMS applications and business intelligence formats through a highly secure web portal. IDI is built on a Web2 technology platform that makes the creation of BI dashboards, reports, and views simple and quick, allowing for drill-downs and access to granular detail or supporting content within eCMS. IDI empowers employees to create the data views they need every day to perform their jobs without the need of IT assistance. Furthermore, its security configuration can be completely customized to meet user and/or departmental needs, ensuring employee only has access to information that is pertinent to them.
“With eCMS v.4.1, our entire team has quick, easy, and secure access to business-critical data from any device, anytime and anywhere,” said Richard Forrestel, Jr., Treasurer, Cold Spring Construction. “The benefits of our new information flow are rippling across the Cold Spring enterprise and you can see instances of enhanced productivity on a daily basis. I personally start out my day launching my iPad while sipping my coffee, and reviewing my real-time eCMS dashboard allowing me to proactively plan out my day and week.”