How do you identify when it’s time to solve a problem? Let’s say you’re at home and you’re cleaning the dishes after dinner. You notice a small spot of water on the floor that seems to be coming from the cabinet beneath the sink. Are you one to open the cabinet, identify the problem as best you can, and take measures to correct it? Whether you’re a “do-it-yourself” kind of person and you’re intent on getting the leak fixed right then and there, or you’re a proactive planner and you at least pick up the phone and call a plumber, you’re addressing the issue. Or are you a “throw-an-old-plastic-cup under the leak and hope for the best” kind of person? If that’s the case this blog article may not appeal to you.
Through this blog article I’m going to call out four things to consider in identifying you have a slow leak so you can begin to consider how to fix the problem long before it becomes a flooded basement…
1. I can’t find where an incident report is in its approval process.
One of the most common complaints we hear are around reports not being expedited against their approval process. That’s to say, an incident report being written and needing to be viewed / actions taken in a timely manner whereby additional information may be required and a policy must be followed, or even enacted, per the incident that’s taken place. This level of workflow requires a streamlined process and permissions-withstanding visibility by those personnel who would act in the best interest of the organization. But if email is your method of delivery for a given incident report document, how do you have any idea as to where that document is? Have the requisite personnel seen the incident report? What have they contributed? How will I know unless I ask them? These are all fairly common challenges organizations are facing every single day. And while much of this may seem like a mere inconvenience in terms of having to track down a time-sensitive report, it’s a leaky faucet that can quickly turn into a kitchen remodel should the same incident occur again with no resolution or actions taken to the incident that occurred in the first place. At that point you’re not only taxing resources, you’re losing data integrity, running the risk of violating policy and compliance, and more.
With CIP Reporting you’re able to provide your Incident Reports an automated process depending upon anything from incident report location to their level of severity. Through our Rules-Based Workflow methodology CIP Reporting users are able to define a clear path as to where a report goes, who can see it, what actions have been taken in that report, where it is in it’s process, and an Audit Trail detailing every step the report has taken. In short, with CIP Reporting you will ALWAYS know where your report is in its process.
2. My staff aren’t filling out incident reports correctly, if at all, because the process is so lengthy.
Is your existing Incident Report Writing and Risk Management process heavy and burdensome? Are there areas of this process that require training and compliance management? Is your process for recording Near Miss reports perceived to be “more trouble than it’s worth?” If you answered yes to any or all of those questions , CIP Reporting can help.
Is yours a resource-heavy and manual process that looks a lot like this?
- Manual entry utilizing Incident Reports done on hard-copy
- Incident Report is reviewed by a manager and marked up following an investigation or collaboration
- Incident Report is handed off to an administrator to be input into a spreadsheet of sorts
- Spreadsheet is then associated with a database of some kind
Or are you utilizing technology to manage much of that process though it’s still heavily reliant on email and disparate databases? Either way, you’re having to work a lot harder than you should, and more than that, your organization’s mission critical data is not only compromised, it’s virtually unusable. With CIP Reporting, capturing information is quick and easy for all walks of your organization. With this in mind you’re able to capture more information through an easy-to-use interface that makes submitting a report a snap. Couple that with the peace of mind that you’ll always have full control of your reporting process, the data that’s being captured therein, and most importantly the time it takes to process it, and you’re well on your way to stopping that faulty leak before it becomes even more of a problem.
3. My reports are unorganized.
Another common occurrence is around various Incident Reports being unorganized and disparate per their various departments and levels of severity. This theme is most likely the case when reports are being submitted from multiple locations, leaving to chance the Risk Manager is unable to evaluate spikes in activities, trends on reports and personnel, and more…
Though imagine this action as simply being a piece of search criteria per location, report type, or even by personnel! Regardless, your reports can NEVER be unorganized in CIP Reporting as each report is searchable per anything from a respective data point right up and through searching specific words in narratives! Not to mention that reports cannot be deleted in CIP Reporting thanks to a sequential numerical system ensuring a chain of custody and a forensics quality database of information.
With CIP Reporting nothing is ever lost and every aspect of the data is accessible – permissions withstanding of course. With this in mind, you’re not only fixing the leaky faucet, you’re able to mitigate from it ever leaking again!
4. I can’t measure my organization’s performance
Keeping with the leaky faucet theme, how can you get ahead of preventing the leak ever happening again? How do you know what the time-frame is between when you repair the leak and mitigating against the expectation that it’s only going to happen again? How do you measure performance at all? If you’re not measuring your organization’s performance, overall or per department, you have no way of knowing how you can improve anything around efficiency, quality assurance, or risk itself!
With CIP Reporting, generating and running Ad-Hoc analytics, or more, creating Business Intelligence dashboards displaying real time data based on reports coming in, time-frames for when reports are due, and even licensing applications can be created on the fly or set up to run on a schedule, constantly providing the level of detail you need to make sound decisions so as to avoid missing those opportunities in the first place…
So what are you waiting for? A flood?? Stop waiting and start doing. Now’s the time! Evaluate CIP Reporting today and learn how we solve the leaky faucet problem. After all, can you really afford to replace the whole kitchen when all you need is a new piece of pipe? While we’re not plumbers, we’re certainly fixers… Just ask us how.
About Shane Yerkes
Shane is a creative, entrepreneurial-minded sales executive with a focus on start-up and growth based software companies. With a consistent track record of exceeding revenue targets, He attributes his success to a very simple business philosophy; Solve real business problems through the solution, never sell for what's not there. Google+