How FileMaker can make your business more valuable, Part Three

We are continuing with our comments about how you can increase your business value by using FileMaker Pro to run all your essential business services.

How can software developed with FileMaker help you to sell your business? There are numerous factors which make a business a sale-able commodity, not the least of which is that it is profitable. But for our purposes, we will examine those factors in your business which can be enhanced with business automation software developed with FileMaker Pro.

What are the factors that enhance your business value through software?

1. Encapsulated Business Processes
2. Automated Workflow
3. Integrated Data
4. Coordinated Employees

We’ve already talked about the first two points, so check out those links if you have missed those articles.

Integrated Data

Let’s talk about Integrated Data. What do we mean by that? Integrated Data means that all of your important company information is in one central location which is all together and accessible by all.

To explain this, let’s look at its opposite. In lots of businesses, the sales person, for example, has all the new prospects and recent sales contact information on their laptop. Then accounting has the history of all invoices, paid and unpaid on their machine. The office administrator has company documents, folders, emails, calendar on their machine. Whenever someone needs something that is not on their own computer, they have to chase down the person who does have the information and get their question answered. That is non-integrated data, or decentralized data. It wastes a lot of company time and resources tracking down information which should be instantly available to whomever is needs it.

When we build a FileMaker SYSTEM application, (Saves You Stress Time Energy & Money), all the data for all departments are stored in a single file. Sales, Invoices, Inventory, Products, Customers, Prospects, various files, PDF’s, documents etc., are all in the primary FileMaker file. That doesn’t mean that anybody can just go about snooping around for whatever information they may need. There are ways of locking down data so that only those who are authorized to view it, can see what they can see. But it does mean that all the data is in one place, and if someone needs to access various types of data, it is all there in one place.

Integrated Data saves your company time and money by reducing the amount of time wasted looking for forms, documents, and other information. It saves the stress of lost data when someone loses, drops, or bricks their laptop. And it saves the energy and effort of looking around for data which should be readily available.

Coordinated Employees

The fourth and final way that FileMaker can make your business more valuable is through the benefit of Coordinated Employees. Let’s talk about what this means.

Because all of your data is stored in one integrated and centralized place, your employees are working together rather than against each other when it comes to accessing data. Human nature, such as it is, will often cause employees to practice petty power plays over each other in terms of who has the information and who they will share it with. When a centralized FileMaker file has been developed, and the rules about who can see what are built right into the security settings of the software, this problem disappears.

And with an automated workflow, when one department gets their portion of the work completed, the next stage is automatically flagged for the next department to begin the work. Everybody is working together and the business is efficiently serving its clients or customers.

That is coordinated employees, and that makes the workplace more enjoyable. We spoke with one client who told us why they had contacted us. The manager said, “I just want the yelling to stop.” She wasn’t joking; she meant that their workflow was so unorganized that it created tension in the workplace. FileMaker can solve these sort of problems too!

So we have in the last three blog pieces looked at four ways in which a business automation system built with FileMaker Pro can increase your business value. Those four ways are:

1. Encapsulated Business Processes
2. Automated Workflow
3. Integrated Data
4. Coordinated Employees

It is our sincere desire that your business prospers and does well. For our part, here at HighPower Data Solutions, we love to help businesses to succeed by building business automation systems with them. When you succeed, we succeed. Best to you on your business growth and prosperity.