In the digital age, paper and pen reporting are becoming anachronistic like “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”. We spend so much of our time on smartphones and tablets connected to others through the internet that when asked to pull out a pen and paper and generate a report, we fail because it is at odds to what we have become accustomed to.
Why do we need reporting? We all know that it is important to fill out Daily Activity Reports or Incident Reports, but why? In today’s ever increasingly litigious society, reporting is the shield that you use to protect yourself from lawsuits and angry customers.
One of the main issues of paper and pen reporting is that oftentimes the form is incomplete. In the interest of time, those filling out the reports skip the “unnecessary” parts of the report. These gaps are more dangerous than it seems on the surface. What happens when you need that report to demonstrate that your company did its job? While you try and track down your guards that didn’t fill out the report correctly, more and more reports are submitted, all with the same problem.
1. Digitally Preserved
Storage is another overlooked area. What do you spend for office space? How much of that space is taken up by filing cabinets? All of these reports that have been written twice are now thrown into a filing cabinet that may never be opened again. Digitally creating and preserving will allow you to have years of information available at your fingertips.
2. Required Fields
All of this chasing down guards to have them re-submit their Daily Activity Reports or Incident Reports takes time. Delayed reporting can damage your relationship with the property manager or owners that you service. They, too, are accustomed to instant access to information. If your reporting process is not timely, then you may lose clients, especially if there is an incident and the property manager or property owner needs information.
3. Digital Type
In a world where text messaging is arguably, the predominant form of communication, the skill to write legibly is falling by the wayside. Now we see that even if your guards fill out the forms completely, if they are not legible, they are of no use. You or your staff now must track the guards back down and get the reports and rebuild them or rewrite them so that the forms can be completed and legible. Otherwise, the reports are of no value.
4. Advanced Search
Is there rhyme or reason to the filing system? Again, the point of reporting is protection, for your guards and for your company, but if you can’t find those reports once they have been filed, again, they are of zero value. Omadi allows you to do advanced searches to find reports. You can search by property, guard, specific time, etc. to find the exact report you are looking for.
5. Increased Efficiency
We have all heard that time is money, so where are you spending your money. Do you have a staff member that transcribes these handwritten reports into a typed report? How many hours a day are spent in this activity? How much do you pay that staff member? Would there be better uses either for them or for the money spent on paying for reports to be written at least twice? Replicating reports is a waste of money. What would it do to your bottom line to write reports once?
Conclusion
The issues with paper reporting can be resolved through digital reporting. The security industry has been under served throughout the digital revolution, but the digital revolution has arrived at the security industry’s front door. As with most radical evolutions, the process can create a culling effect, where those that do not adapt do not survive. The good news is that there is time and options to look at to help solve the paper reporting conundrum.
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