Integrating Mobile Forms with Existing Port Management Systems
Integrating mobile forms with port systems boosts efficiency, data flow, compliance, and cost savings, keeping ports competitive and responsive.
A showcase of the clear differences before and after Eskuad.
One of our most renowned customers, a leading building materials manufacturer based in the U.S., improved productivity and compliance by transitioning from paper to digital inspection forms, enhancing efficiency and transparency across operations.
Currently, Eskuad works with a leading manufacturer and distributor of building materials in North America. This Fortune 500 company plays a crucial role in both the construction of new homes and the repair/remodeling of residential and light commercial industries. Their operations span from sourcing raw materials to the final stages of construction, ensuring a comprehensive approach to building.
🐺 A company before and another after Eskuad:
Before adopting a modern form-filling app, our client and its foresters used paper-based reporting methods to monitor timber harvesting operations. This led to many challenges in collecting and maintaining data consistency across regions. By transitioning to a digital solution, they revolutionized their workflow, enhancing accuracy, efficiency, and transparency in their forestry operations. This transformation has not only streamlined their processes but also reinforced their commitment to sustainable forestry practices.
| Process Before Eskuad | Process After Eskuad |
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1- The forester would go into the woods and conduct their inspections with pen and paper. 2- Bring it back to the office (Sometimes several days after the inspection was conducted). 3- Find their admin assistant and hand them the paper form, or scan the form themselves to store it online. 4- Once the data was documented, they would then enter the information into an Excel spreadsheet. 5- Create a manual report of the information collected. |
1- Forester goes into the woods and conducts inspections with the Eskuad app:
2- They can create and download reports and any specific inspection forms directly from the Eskuad web dashboard. They can also download prebuilt reports that include all of the required information, in the style of any specific audit or certification form. |
| Audit Process Before Eskuad | Audit Process After Eskuad |
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Audit preparation took several weeks (paper copies from foresters, report creation, etc.) |
Now, everything is in one place and at their fingertips- all their completed forms, collected data, reports, and everything they need is in Eskuad. This readily available data will make the auditing process a lot smoother and quicker. |
📈 Metrics:
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24 |
100% increase in real-time data access. |
95% reduction in audit preparation tine. |
*This number varies on the user. Some users conduct more inspections than others, and it is estimated that there are savings between 8 and 40 hours per user per month, depending on the amount of inspections conducted.
🎯 Challenges:
Before adopting Eskuad, company procurement foresters were using pen and paper to fill out their forms on the job site. Trying to juggle paper forms and other forestry tools, their handwriting often became hard to read, potentially leading to mistakes and missing information in reports. This old-school method caused a lot of headaches and inefficiencies, including:
Labor Intensive Process: Minimum certification requirements were achieved, however, they recognized the need for a more streamlined approach.
Inconsistent Forms: Their forms varied across regions and mills, causing inconsistencies in data collection and reporting, despite capturing essentially the same information.
Lack of Real-Time Data: Reliance on paper forms prevented real-time access to critical data, which impacted timely decision-making.
Double Work: Workers had to fill out forms on-site, and then re-enter the data into an Excel spreadsheet, doubling their workload.
Time-Consuming Process: Completing and saving monthly inspections and year-end reports was a lengthy process.
Potential for Human Error: Doing everything by hand increased the risk of errors in data entry and reporting.
Multiple Approvals Needed: Several staff members were involved in data entry and approving completed forms, slowing down the workflow.
Inefficient Data Summarization: There was no easy way to summarize data across all locations.
🏆 Solutions and benefits:
Our client sought a transformative solution to streamline its workflows and enhance monitoring for Best Management Practices (BMPs) in procurement forestry. The innovation team, in collaboration with a project and certification manager, identified and implemented our cutting-edge form-filling solution. By embracing Eskuad, they have been able to streamline data collection, enhance accuracy, and ensure robust compliance across all regions. Here are some of the key benefits they are experiencing:
Time Savings: Workers save between 8 to 40 hours a month, allowing them to dedicate that time to other tasks.
Improved Compliance: Ensuring best management practices are achieved in harvesting and logging operations, with strong SFI compliance requirements, and simplifying audit preparations.
Increased Efficiency: Eliminating the need for double data entry and reducing the reliance on manual, paper-based processes.
Error Reduction: The potential for human error has been greatly reduced, and potentially completely eliminated.
Enhanced Transparency: Consistent and high transparency across all users and regions, including upper management.
Real-Time Data Access: Providing real-time access to harvest monitoring data, enabling more responsive and informed decision-making.
Integrated Data Visualization: Seamlessly syncing data with BI tools like PowerBI, facilitating advanced data analysis and visualization.
Independent Task Management: Procurement foresters can now handle all their tasks independently, without administrative bottlenecks.
Improved Form Accessibility: Enabling workers to complete inspection forms online and/or via a mobile app (cell phones/tablets), enhancing flexibility and convenience.
🌲 Eskuad key features used:
Squads
They are divided by regions and mainly work in one form. The Squads feature allows each region to have its own personalized form, even though they are all filling out the same form and creating their own versions of the reports.
Squads also allow the regions to collaborate independently without worrying about team members filling out the incorrect form.
Database Reports
Even though each region fills out its forms in its own way, it all feeds its data into the same database, eliminating the need for multiple reports. It only uses one custom report and one database report to visualize its findings from Eskuad.
Expanding into integrations - timely updates from the field, into Dashboard for Manager visibility. Via API to PowerBI (via simple query, self-serve by users).
👓 Conclusion:
Our client has adopted a digital solution for BMP monitoring, and their recent transition to Eskuad marks a significant leap forward in efficiency and accuracy. With Eskuad, compliance is now just a click away, and all reports are consolidated in one place, making the process of creating and accessing them remarkably simple. The elimination of pen and paper has been a game changer, streamlining their work and reducing errors. This shift not only eases their workload but also enhances their commitment to caring for forests, sustainable forestry, and proper forest management by meticulously documenting their findings with digital forms and online reports, and integrations with BI tools.
All users are enthusiastic about the future possibilities with Eskuad. They are exploring ways to expand its use across other areas of their business to maximize efficiency and data collection further. They are also excited about integrating Eskuad with PowerBI, enabling real-time data updates and dynamic dashboards for better decision-making. This exciting development will provide deeper insights and enhance decision-making, solidifying our client’s position as a leader in the industry.