IT Support

We believe that a good IT team does more than just keep the systems running. Organizations excel when they can use data, systems and processes to enable better decision making, and you need a team that sees helping employees solve problems as a primary responsibility.

What decision support means for your business

Decision support is the difference between using computers to collect data and using that data for analysis, abstraction and interpretation so people can make better decisions, faster. After all, a large part of competitive advantage is being ahead of the game.

It's important to note that decision support isn't a 100% automated system, and it's unlikely to only involve one dedicated system - it's a combination of working culture with the right data repositories, the right data flows and aggregations to generate actionable intelligence. We find most of the work we do in this field involves the replacement of manual and document-based data stores with online repositories (like SharePoint) and cloud-based databases (like AzureSQL, and including other Azure services). On top of that, we layer analytics and data visualizations using tools like SharePoint, Microsoft Power BI, and Tableau. Our clients love the immersive visualizations we help them create so they can answer what-if queries on the fly, really gaining new insights and perspectives on the impact their decisions make to organizational performance.

Signs you need to think about decision support

You should consider moving towards a decision support solution if you find that you:

• Use emails to distribute reports in Word, Excel or PDF formats
• Manually take data out of one or more systems to paste into desktop applications to produce reports
• Have reports that focus more on what happened than on what's forecast
• Have data entered into documents and not directly into centralized systems

The right data, securely accessed by the right people

It goes without saying that data, especially data relating to business performance, needs to be properly controlled. One of the primary steps in assessing decision support capabilities is a data audit, documenting the data repositories required and reviewing how they are secured so only approved employees can gain access. Over time, a lot of business data in SMEs becomes fragmented and less controlled, as rudimentary setups for apps like SharePoint, Dropbox and OneDrive allow data to be shared indiscriminately. If you'd like to discuss how decision support can help your organization please get in touch.