There is one in almost every business: a task or process, performed daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly - the repetitive, infuriating task of mapping this programs output to that, this file to that spreadsheet, this report to that database. You point and click, point and click, listening to the rapid approach of Occupational Overuse Syndrome, thinking "There must be a better way!" Chances are - you are right...
That task, that saps your sanity and productivity, kills your momentum and decimates your enthusiasm, is as dangerous to your bottom line as an illness, fire or a hardware failure. But unlike sickness, you can predict it, you know when it will strike; and unlike hardward failure, you can often remove it completely with a few simple lines of code.
When I was a Business Analyst for one of the major companies in NZ, I ran reports that took me the better part of a day. Every day was devoted to getting the data into the form I needed to run the reports.
I knew there had to be a better way. So, I spent a weekend with the developers that now form Bellstreet Solutions and the following monday my reports were waiting for me when I got to work. My daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly reports generated in seconds, while I drove to work. This freed my time to actually analyse the data.
My employers gained an entire employee.