Consistency, reliability, and high-quality data are essential for making informed decisions. By digitizing manual data collection processes, you can ensure that you are consistently collecting the same types of information over time. This allows you to use the same key performance indicators (KPIs) across different business processes and conditions, making it easy to compare metrics and identify trends. For example, by using an automated instruction platform to capture cycle times for dismantling excavator engines, you can quickly identify average process times and performance outliers for each employee. This type of automated insight can help you to identify which workers may need additional training and improve customer service targets during maintenance operations.

Digitally transform field data collection

Your mobile forms should be authored self-service with no coding knowledge.

Building an in-house digital data collection tool is time-consuming, difficult to manage after launch, and usually serves one purpose or one department the best, while not necessarily fitting others. Large enterprises are often faced with the dilemma of deciding between developing a large-budget, one-size-fits-all data collection tool vs. implementing a 3rd party tool.

In today's age of technology, there is a wide range of software tools that can help you create online survey-like forms. But only a few allow business users to create their own forms and integrate submission data into legacy systems or data silos without needing any formal training or coding knowledge. Low-code is the future, and business leaders are starting to take note. According to a survey by Deloitte, 53% of companies have already implemented, or plan to implement a low-code code process automation system.

The self-service form authoring and integration approach gives organizations complete flexibility over which types of data collection processes work best and allows them to adopt new technologies quickly, rather than waiting for their IT department to develop them first.

Best-of-breed mobile form automation platforms:

• Provide ways to capture field data from the user even while offline.
• Allow organizations to automatically capture data from a third-party system.
• Use a camera or other device to capture data directly into your app without requiring users to take photos or input information manually on their mobile device’s screen (e.g., scanning barcodes, NFC codes or automatically capturing values from a bluetooth-enabled measurement device).
• Capture information from IoT sensors in real-time, such as temperature monitoring systems that measure environmental conditions via temperature sensors embedded throughout the facility.

Your mobile forms should be accessible even while offline

Many frontline employees work in areas with limited or no WIFI coverage.

Digital forms should always be accessible and usable without an internet connection. This facilitates mass adoption across departments via a wide range of mobile devices including smartphones, tablets, wrist computers, and smart glasses. This is important because some processes require frontline workers to be able to use both hands while filling out forms. As an example, it's reported that a frontline worker completes an infrequent and complex assembly task 35% faster with 95% less chance of first-time errors if guided on smart glasses rather than printed guidance forms.

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Taskimo is the ultimate mobile form automation and digital instructions platform

At Taskimo, we’re passionate about empowering organizations to digitally transform their manual data collection processes in order to improve efficiency, align field operations with corporate goals, adhere to health and safety guidelines, and make informed decisions based on what is actually happening at their workplaces.

With Taskimo, you can quickly digitize field data collection processes in just minutes, allowing you to augment your frontline workers, digitally transform field operations, and drastically improve efficiency.

Taskimo is extremely easy to use. It has a simple and intuitive user interface that makes it easy for anyone to collect information on the go. Taskimo's mobile app allows users with no technical knowledge to complete digital forms with ease. It also supports offline data collection so you can capture accurate information whether or not there is an internet connection available.

Additionally, if you want your organization's visual identity reflected within the Taskimo user interface (UI), we offer white labeling options that allow us to customize the look of the software.

Taskimo is a cloud-first solution, but the platform can also be deployed on our customer’s own cloud or on-premises servers in a very short time.

Following 3 easy steps, one can transform and augment the full process cycle in minutes:

1. Author digital form template

Create a form template that includes the following features:

• Tasks that guide the worker through each step of the process, or tasks that require input from users or from a variety of data resources like sensor data, Bluetooth-enabled measurement tools, and external databases.
• Rich conditional task transition logic to manage variations of templates in one single flow. For example: if there is an error in one step, conditionally show new steps to provide clear instructions on how to correct it or to capture more details on the error.
• Add template-wide rules (e.g., maximum length/number of characters, input requirement of each task, etc.) that enrich the form filling experience by preventing validation failures later on or when archiving or redistributing forms across teams.

2. Create Work Order using the form template

Once you have configured your form template, you can create a new work order using the template and assign the work order to a specific frontline worker or a group of workers.

The scheduling engine is a very powerful feature of Taskimo which allows you to create a work order that can be initiated on a specific date with submission no later than a finish date. You can also create repetition rules to assign new work orders repetitively on a specific day of each week at a fixed time. Fixed finish dates/times can be set to systematically close work orders and flag unfinished tasks for management reference.

You may also decide on conditional logic actions that should be taken upon form completion/non-completion. For example, if tank pressure is entered below tolerance level (e.g., 2 bars), send an email notification with details of all responses to concerned team members including department heads so that they can take corrective action right away. You can also decide who gets notified when a form is submitted or not submitted by configuring work order conditional rules.

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3. Get real-time insights via submitted form data

Once you have deployed your automated form, you can easily get real-time insights via submitted form data. The flow dashboard allows you to quickly gather statistical results on form performance (e.g., number of submissions, average work duration, etc.), and it can also reveal problems via task status averages and allow you to drill down into individual tasks. This not only makes it easy to identify the problem areas in your manual process but also provides an opportunity to derive automated process time study as a byproduct.

TIP: Quick wins that can be gained from this data include fast-tracking the most frequently occurring problematic tasks or isolating those where there is an excessive waiting time before entering or completing the task (e.g., lack of required information).

Conclusion

Digital transformation of manual data collection processes is not only possible but also necessary. If you are interested in making your manual data collection processes more efficient, you can try Taskimo. It is one of the most feature-rich and rugged enterprise mobile form automation platforms on the market.

With just a few clicks and some simple setup steps, you can have a complete digital solution in place that will save you time and money while helping you improve your business performance!