PC or MIS? Personal Computer or Management Information System?

Understanding Channels - What are they?

Before we even start to think about planning and organising a MIS it is important to understand what channels are and to plan and organise them. "Channels" are channels of communication and this describes how you and your customers make contact with each other. These channels can include e-mail, faxes, phone, snail mail, SMS, Web interactions etc, as well as face-to-face contact and they need to be managed and recorded to be an effective source of management information.

How Can I Best Manage Them?

To be able to manage channels of communication well, you need to think about what each of them does and what useful information you can capture. For example an e-mail might contain spam, a request for more information, a confirmation of something, a complaint, a query, an invitation and any number of other things. Irrespective of who manages this channel, if the e-mails are coming in thick and fast, there needs to be a way that makes them easy to deal with. We'll use e-mails as an example, but the methodology could be the same for all channels.

When e-mails are coming in fast it will be important for you to be able to prioritise your responses. If you start with the first one and go through them one by one, it may be that you run out of time to deal with the really important ones. For this reason I would suggest that you create Folders that have a level of importance attached to them. eg. Complaints and Orders for a product or service would have a higher priority than responding to a query or invitation. The folders can be created on the hard drive and may come under the a Main Category Folder "Channels". Sub Category Folders might be e-mails, Web Interactions and Faxes.
All messages as they are received would be saved under the relevant Folder in Sub Folders such as Complaints, Orders, Queries, Requests, Confirmations and Invitations etc., until they can be dealt with.

Once a batch of electronic messages has been categorised and saved in the appropriate folder, they can be dealt with in order of priority. If the work gets interrupted at least you will have the satisfaction of knowing that the most important ones have been dealt with. You may also have a need to log particular transactions like complaints or queries so that you can generate a report that shows when a transaction has been closed satisfactorily.

With Phone, Snail Mail, SMS messages and Face to Face contact, you do not have a transaction in an electronic format that can be categorised and filed on a computer. What you may decide to do is create one. An example might be when a phone message comes in. Instead of writing the message and contact details down on a piece of paper, have your "Log" system open and immediately enter details about the transaction. (You might choose a spreadsheet or database to Log these transactions). Even if it was something you couldn't help the customer with, it may be useful information to have later, if you're looking to offer different products or services. These channels also yield valuable information for your business and if data can be captured, it can analysed at a later date for your benefit. It may well be that you need to retain hard copy documents sent in the post and you may decide to scan them, so you have an electronic copy. This is useful if you have developed a database, because when you bring up a customer's records, you can also bring up stored documents that are attached to this customer's file. You may also have a need to record these transactions into similar categories as for the e-mails, Web Interactions and Faxes. This is easy to do using your Log, Spreadsheet or Database. The importance of effective Drive/Folder and Document management cannot be over stated.

Drive / Folder / Document Management

Having a good Drive, Folder structure is a must! The days of filing piles of paper may have gone to a certain extent, but the principles of a good filing system remain just the same. You need to be able to access or retrieve your electronic documents quickly. The best structure will consist of a few Main Category Folders on your Hard Drive. Main Category Folders may consist of folders within MyDocuments. They may include Accounts, Admin, Excel Files, Databases, Marketing, PDF Files, Presentations, Reports, Sales etc. These Main Category Folders will then branch out into the many sub folders you will need.

An example might look something like the system depicted in figure 3.

Your choice of Main Category Folders will depend on your own needs, terminology and memory recall. Memory recall (for you as a human) is how you recall events, information and everything you have committed to memory - intentionally or otherwise. Where Folder / File locations are stored is usually a product of word association. You would have chosen a particular name for a file and then located it in a Folder that had some association for you. Therefore if you keep your Accounts on an Excel Spreadsheet, you may feel more comfortable with locating the Accounts files in an Excel Files - Main Category Folder. In any case 10-12 Main Category Folders should suffice and these can easily be subdivided into relevant sub categories and sub folders to meet your needs. The simpler you keep it, the simpler it will be to recall where you filed your documents.

Figure 3. Electronic filing system.

Document Creation

A basic "Office-type" package will give you the ability to create most of the documents you need and creating Templates for letters, quotes and other documents, that have a standardised look and feel, will save a lot of time.

Templates

Templates can be a great way to make the creation of standard documents an easy job. You can create Templates that include particular font and heading styles, size of print, numbering, bulleting, page and index formatting etc. When you open up a new Word Document what you are really seeing is a Template - normal.dot, that is being used as the basis for your document. It comes complete with a set of predetermined styles. If you want to create a different Template all you need to do is apply new styles to the document and without typing any text, save it as a "yourfilename.dot" Template in the Templates directory. In the future you can use this specific Template to create documents and give them the same look and feel. eg. Quotes, Letterheads, reports, handouts and other stationery.

PDF Documents

The ability to create PDF documents is a real boon. Written documents, drawings, artwork and CAD work are just some of the examples of files that can be created using a PDF writer. When sent to a recipient who doesn't have the same type of software on their system, the documents can be read easily, as Adobe Acrobat Reader is available for most people to download. To a certain extent a PDF file also assists in the protection of intellectual property, but it depends on the type of document!

Spreadsheet and Database Creation

Spreadsheets and databases enable you to develop quotes, accounts, charts, marketing and sales data, stock records, project management tools and of course comprehensive management information reports.

Spreadsheets and databases are great for making light work of anything that needs to be calculated or interrogated. It's easy to create statistics on sales, inventories, debtors and work out the cost of sales as a percentage of sales revenue. Once the calculus has been set up in a cell (Excel) or a Query/Report (Access Database), the time required to obtain the information is negligible. An example of this might be to create a spreadsheet or database in which you simply record all customer transactions on a daily basis. These transactions can include communications from any channel and ideally the system should contain a field for "Notes" or "Things To Do" as a result of the interaction. At the end of a time period the system can be interrogated or a report can be run to identify the transactions, statistics and trends and required actions. (See more on this in the CRM section).

Spreadsheets and Databases also give you the ability to extract specific data to create graphical management reporting information. The majority of people are visually stimulated, so graphics and charts can be a useful way of reinforcing data, as well as breaking up a sea of text.

Projects can be managed using spreadsheets, databases and charts. It is possible to create a calendar complete with timelines to plan activities and critical path tasks. The system you set up can also incorporate a Task field that can be updated and printed on a daily basis to provide a daily To Do list. If project meetings are part of the processes involved in managing the project, once again you will have good visual information to provide to all stakeholders, so they can effectively manage progress and see clearly what still has to be done.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Customer Information Systems (CIS) were developed primarily to achieve operational efficiency and information about customers. Customer Relationship Management systems were created to achieve customer effectiveness - understanding customers as much as possible to maximize their revenue potential across products and services. They were also created to understand what products and services customers want and need and they are also used as a point of reference for all contact and interactions with customers.

Customer Relationship Management is relatively easy these days using databases, report writing tools and being able to set up queries to interrogate the data stored within the database. One of the things to be aware of, is that whilst you have a need to capture sufficient data to be useful, the customer must always be made aware that you are holding this data and what you intend to use it for. The Privacy Act is set up for this very purpose and penalties for misusing data are not to be taken lightly. This article is written only to highlight the need for vigilance in terms of data protection and use.

If you need further information on the Federal Privacy Act 1988, New Privacy Act rules, please visit: http://www.privacy.gov.au/act/privacyact/index.html.

A good CRM system recognises the fact that customer service is not just about delivering what your customers want in terms of product, service, timeliness, quality, customer expectations and after sales service, but also about the need to build quality customer/supplier relationships, particularly if you are looking for repeat business. Even if your product is a "once in a lifetime" purchase you will, as a business owner, still need the customer to go away with your product and tell others "good stories" about you. There is nothing like word of mouth and high percentage of purchases are made because of a first-hand recommendation from another purchaser!

The CRM system will include basic customer contact information, customer preferences in terms of addressing, billing, contact times, requirements for literature updates on products and services and buying habits. If the system is customised it may well have links to standard marketing documents that can be sent through the customer's preferred channels. Again there will be a "Notes" field and maybe also a link to a calendar where promises to follow up or do something as a result of the transaction can be recorded. Examples of promises would be to send product or service literature, or follow up on a query or complaint. Of course it goes without saying that the CRM system also gives you the opportunity to interrogate it and focus your strategies, activities and tasks on the information in the management reports.

Management Reporting

The type, content and sophistication of your reports will depend upon your business needs. It would be a good guess though that you would probably need at least weekly and monthly data as well as data that could be compared year on year. This data may consist of reports on Finance - Profit & Loss, Balance Sheets, Budget and projections and BAS Statements. Production or Service Activities - Work In Progress, Priority lists, Statistics, Inventory and Stock Ordering. Customer Profiles - Analysis of channel activity, levels of customer activity and customer base logistics. Sales - Income sources, Revenue trends, Trading margins and outstanding sales orders. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, rather an indication of what you might like to have. It has to be said that the better the quality and quantity of management information you have, the better equipped you will be to make more informed management decisions.

A Big management Decision - Creating Your Own MIS

Ask Yourself Some Questions First

Let me say, that although I love analysing processes and creating systems, there is absolutely no point in creating something that won't get used because it doesn't really meet your needs. My suggestion would be to ask yourself a few simple questions first.