Many small to medium-sized businesses have faced uncertainty during the pandemic. Nearly every industry struggled to some extent, from supply and labor shortages to low-quality data. However, with the help of in-depth analytics and data collection, SMBs can optimize their frontline operations and navigate through difficult times. The following guide will illustrate the value of high-quality frontline data and show how the right analytics tools can make the most of it.

Digitizing the Frontline Workforce Overcome Challenges with Digital Solutions

In the wake of the pandemic, businesses of all types continue to experience numerous challenges. It’s important for business leaders to be able to overcome them, which they can through the use of digital transformation technologies.

Some of the main disruptions affecting businesses today include:

• Supply chain disruptions — Generally, the pandemic has led to certain challenges for supply chains, forcing businesses to adapt and innovate with various solutions to get around this issue.
• Skilled labor shortage — Another problem that businesses are facing is a shortage of skilled frontline workers, which can further complicate supply chain disruptions. Companies need to find effective ways to attract new talent and offer a job experience that appeals to skilled workers.
• Resource constraints — Businesses are also suffering from certain restrictions when it comes to resources. They lack the digital solutions, initiatives, skill sets, and other elements to optimize efficiency.
• Competing priorities for budget — Conflicts of interest among leaders often lead to difficulty in prioritizing budgets for tech solutions that can improve business operations.
• Hyper-automation — Businesses have a hard time determining when it’s best to adopt a particular digital solution to facilitate automation. In some cases, they may refrain from adopting automation solutions entirely until they become mainstream.
• Everything as a service (XaaS) — Integrating multiple solutions and working with several service providers is often challenging. Keep in mind that it’s often better to consolidate your partnerships and focus on a single solution at a time.

Bad data — Bad data is one of the biggest disruptions that negatively affect businesses. Bad data could refer to inconsistent data, general inaccuracy, illegible data, or missing information. Low-quality data is such a serious issue that more and more businesses are making it a top priority to improve their data for the end users.

How to Approach Your Digital Transformation

Making informed decisions and innovating with digital solutions can help resolve the issues of bad data and other pitfalls your business may experience. However, you might not be entirely sure how to approach your digitization strategy. Here we’ll review some of the initial steps you can take to transform your business and operations with digitization.

1. Incorporate Digital Data into Your Business Function Strategy

Different teams frequently wind up in data silos that contribute to inconsistent and otherwise bad data. To prevent this, you must break down silos between each team with real-time work process data. All this data must also be easy to understand and analyze, which will help guide your strategies. Companies must use the right tools to allow successful data capture. The right solutions will be user-friendly and easy to use, enabling users of all skill levels to access and utilize them.

2. Save Time and Money with Click-to-Connect Data Solutions

Use a web-based click-to-connect data solution that’s easy to access and use. You won’t need to download any software while enhancing the customer experience. This will save more time and money while reducing liability. 

3. Automate Business Workflows

If you can find a way to simplify certain manual processes using digital solutions, you should integrate them. Your teams should be able to dedicate more time and attention to critical tasks. Various automation tools can allow for hyper-automation, which will keep your staff from wasting time on mundane, tedious tasks. In turn, your business will be able to get work done faster to optimize operational efficiency.

4. Use No-Code Data for Business Processes

With the right BI solution, you can gain more transparency into your business operations with rich, valuable data. Using this data, you can more accurately identify risks and determine how to address them. This will help ensure that you’re consistently proactive as opposed to reactive in the functionality of your operations. You’ll also be able to improve your customer service with insights into customer behavior and other characteristics of end users. Taking all of these steps can go a long way in alleviating the pain points that might otherwise hold your business back. An effective digitization strategy will make it easier for your organization to transition into a new company culture and customer experience. You’ll also gain more knowledge of the options available and bring everyone on board as you eliminate negative perceptions of new tech solutions. Additionally, you can prioritize your budget to invest in the tools your business truly needs. In turn, this lowers overhead and operating costs while empowering frontline staff to make quicker wiser decisions.

Utilize Frontline Data Collection with GoCanvas Analytics

Your business needs powerful analytics solutions to eliminate bad data and enable success. One of the most reliable tools available is GoCanvas Analytics.

With the help of this particular solution, you can get everything you need on a single, easy-to-use platform. GoCanvas Analytics features plenty of capabilities to help you unlock frontline data, including the ability to:

• Collect, compile, and report all data
• Issue instant notifications in the form of alerts
• Automate report generation
• Analyze data at a granular level to help discover actionable insights

GoCanvas Analytics also includes a number of features to help realize the full benefits of high-quality data. These features include:

• Reporting by location
• Shareable PDF reports
• Embedded photos
• Dispatch
• Push notifications
• Dashboard widgets
• Filtering by categories and type

Integrating this tool into your operations will optimize your business’s data collection and analysis efforts. You’ll see improved performance, reduced failure rates, saved time, and reduced costs. You can make data-driven decisions that fuel your company’s long-term success and successfully overcome the many challenges you may face.

Implement Digital Tools to Your Business with GoCanvas

A solid digitization strategy will give your business the chance to flourish in many ways. The key is knowing which steps to take and which tools to implement based on your business’s unique requirements. By integrating tools like GoCanvas Analytics, you’ll gear your business for a successful digital transformation. This will enable real growth as your company benefits from improved performance and increased adaptability. If you would like to learn more about how GoCanvas can help you with your digitization strategy, connect to an expert today.

When it comes to your business, productivity is key. A QR and barcode scanning option can make life a lot easier for you and your employees by streamlining work orders, tracking inventory, and much more.

How Business’ Have Utilized GoCanvas’ Scanning Technology

Our scanning technology has been a popular feature for many types of industries such as the construction industry, the service industry, the petroleum industry, the transportation sector, and the energy sector. Here’s how some our customers have utilized QR and barcode scanning to fulfill their business’ needs:

• Inspections
• Work Orders
• Timecards
• Daily-Weekly Reports

The Benefits of QR and Barcode Scanning for Business Productivity

GoCanvas offers, for FREE, the ability to add Barcode & QR code scanning to any of your GoCanvas mobile forms. Retail, warehousing, field services, manufacturing and other businesses reap productivity benefits in using QR and barcode scanning including: 

• Error Reduction: Scanning data is much more accurate than having users manually enter data.
• Time Savings: Scanning dramatically reduces the time your employees spend gathering information, especially when doing inventory.
• Elimination of Paper: GoCanvas mobile forms store all of your data in the cloud, eliminating the need for paper records.
• Improved Customer Service: By speeding up work order and inventory processes, you can improve your customer service.

How to Set Up Scanning Functionality to Your GoCanvas Forms

Here are the steps to add QR and barcode scanning functionality to your GoCanvas forms.

1.  Log on to the GoCanvas website and open the forma you wish to use.
2.  Add a QR/Barcode field to the screen within the form where you would like to use this feature.
3.  Name the QR/Barcode field whatever you like, “Scan Barcode,”; and press the “Enter” key.
4.  Make sure to press “publish to device” to make your changes live on your smartphone or iOS device.

The good news? Your mobile device already has a built-in barcode and QR code scanner/QR and barcode reader, which is (the camera app) so, you don’t need to download any software.

Start Using Your Custom QR Code & Barcode On Mobile Devices

Once the desired form has the QR and barcode field(s) added, you are ready to move on to your smartphone or tablet and start using this functionality.

On your device, you will launch and log in to the GoCanvas client as usual and then launch the form you just added the QR or barcode field to. You will now see the text “Capture Barcode” below the barcode field.

Click the “Capture Barcode” button

• You will now see a green square in the center of the screen.
• Line up the product’s barcode or QR code within the square to capture.
• The square will turn green or red (depending on the device) and the code will be captured like taking a picture. You don’t have to do anything more than line up the code within the box and wait for it to capture.

• Once the code has been captured you will see the screen go back to your GoCanvas form and the Barcode field will be populated with the code.

You can supercharge your application by having your code pull up a product catalog, price, patient record, location history, or anything at all. Learn more about this feature and info on using QR or Barcode scanning with Reference Data.

Integrate GoCanvas’ QR and Barcode Scanner Functionality to Your Digital Solutions Today

Scan QR codes and barcodes in real-time and save the hassle of manually inputting information. The GoCanvas QR and barcode scanner functionality integrates with your existing mobile forms and applications to make data collection faster and more accurate. You can also use our code scanner for all types of QR and barcode formats for inventory management, asset tracking, timekeeping, customer check-in, and more! GoCanvas forms are available on iPhones and Android phones and our solution can be found in Google Play, Amazon, and Apple app stores. Learn more about setting up your own QR codes and barcode functionality today.

Contact Us

If you have any issues or need assistance setting up this or any of our features please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Data collection is critical for any small business. The data you collect can help you make better decisions about your customers, your marketing strategy, and even your overall business strategy. But collecting data can be a challenge, especially for small businesses.

No matter what industry or niche you’re in, one of the things that can make or break you is how you handle data collection. There are many different types of data collection such as survey questions, demographics questionnaires, customer data, web analytics, and more. The important thing is that you have a system in place to collect this data so you can use it to improve your business.

Failing to follow the best practices for data collection can have serious consequences such as decreased customer satisfaction, lower data quality, and even legal issues. Small businesses should focus on data collection as much, if not more, than bigger businesses because they don’t have the same resources to fall back on. A big business might be ok with losing a few invoices a month and can get by losing $10,000 in potential revenue. But can you afford to?

Here are a few best practices for small businesses to follow for successful data collection:

1. Create a Process for Data Management

There are many different methods of data collection, but the most important thing is to have a process in place. Whether you’re just getting started with your data collection efforts or refocusing them, this process should be repeatable and scale-able so that as you grow, you’re not having to reinvent the wheel each month.

There are many aspects to consider when creating your process for data collection such as:

• How will you collect the data?
• Who will be responsible for collecting the data?
• When will the data be collected?
• How often will the data be collected?
• What format will the data be collected in?

Avoiding time-consuming and costly mistakes is essential for small businesses. Defining the data set you need and how you will collect it from the outset will help save time and money down the line.

2. Be Consistent with Data Integrity

Data integrity is essential for small businesses. This means that the data you collect needs to be accurate and consistent. There are a few ways to ensure this:

• Use the same method of data collection each time: This could be surveys, customer feedback forms, web analytics, or something else.
• Create a data dictionary: This is a reference tool that defines all of the data points you’re collecting and how they should be used. This is especially helpful if you have multiple team members responsible for data collection.
• Use templates: Templates help to ensure that the data is collected in a consistent format. This makes it easier to analyze and use later on.

Stick to a time frame: Timing is everything when it comes to data collection. Make sure you’re collecting data at the same time each day, week, or month. This will help you spot trends over time.

Being consistent with your data collection methods is crucial so you can track efforts over time and have the ability to make business decisions based on insights you’re discovering.

3. Collect and Store Your Data Securely

It is important for small businesses to collect data and have a secure place to store it. You are probably collecting various types of information from your customers, partners, and employees, in addition to the data you track about your own business. Make sure you’re storing this securely. At GoCanvas, we help our clients store their data securely in the cloud, so there’s no need to worry about file cabinets or physical storage space.

4. Make Data Collection Simple

Another best practice for small business data collection is to make it as simple as possible for your workforce and/or your customers to get you the information you’re looking for. No one wants to fill out a 20-question survey, so try to keep things short and sweet. You can also use incentives to encourage participation in surveys or feedback forms.

Instead of asking people to fill out any paper forms at all, why not use online surveys to collect this information? You’ll get your raw data back in real-time quickly and securely, and you won’t have to deal with terrible handwriting, torn pages, or completely lost forms. Watch this video about how GoCanvas can help you go paperless and mobile with your data collection.

5. Evaluate and Improve Your Data Collection Process

As business owners, it’s important to set time aside to take a step back and evaluate your data collection efforts, as well as the data itself. Ask yourself what’s working and what’s not working in your data collection process. Analytics is one way to gain insight into what is working in your data and what is not.

By using the latest features and technologies (signature capture, integrations, GPS recording, barcode scanning, calculations, etc.) you can improve the quality of your data and make sure it is high-quality.

You might also find that one element of your data collection process is holding you back. Tightening the sales cycle in a small business is incredibly important for growth and sustainability.

Modernize the Way Your Small Business Collects Data

Now you can easily modernize the way you are collecting data for your small business. Whether you are looking to improve your data handling processes or advance reporting, we hope you consider using GoCanvas as your data collection tool. Sign up for GoCanvas free and give our platform a try today!