What does OpsStream do?

To answer that, let me first explain why I created OpsStream:

Even though all businesses perform work and need access to data of some kind to do that work, there are no common commercial solutions to support businesses in the actual doing of work according to defined processes.

Instead, businesses rely on individuals to coordinate work. Humans are critically important to success in business, but the whole premise of automation is that machines can reliably perform some functions in a structured fashion, freeing humans to focus on those activities that they do better than machines.

Instead of automating, businesses end up coordinating work manually, ending up with little visibility into or control over what is going on operationally. They rely on status meetings, Excel spreadsheets, and ad-hoc emails. Some businesses invest time and money in the creation of custom software solutions: I have spent the past 25 years building these kinds of solutions.

Businesses shouldn’t have to create their own custom operations management systems any more than they should have to create their own custom accounting systems.

1. OpsStream does for work what accounting systems do for money: OpsStream records what work has been done by whom and how much remains to be done, with tools to analyze this information.
2. OpsStream lets a business automate the coordination and doing of work, and all of the data involved in that work.
3. OpsStream replaces Excel spreadsheets and status meetings with structured, centralized, secure data and real-time dashboards and alerts.
4. OpsStream provides custom-fit automation without requiring custom software development.
5. OpsStream is a means by which businesses can do what they do, better.

Benefits

The benefits of OpsStream’s approach to automating operations are huge:

1. Instead of status meetings, all stakeholders have real-time visibility into status, exceptions, and the planned future of every piece of work.
2. Exceptions are detected and reported on in real-time, and immediately trigger remediation processes---making management-by-exception a reality.
3. Instead of subjective assessments of how workers and departments are doing, management has quantifiable operational metrics to evaluate.
4. Forward-load planning and operational balance sheets become possible.
5. Operational audit trails for quality, safety or compliance not only become possible, but are maintained automatically by default: who did what, when is automatically recorded.
6. Adherence to policies and procedures moves from being highly dependent upon training and employee motivation to being the natural way to do things.
7. Agility is increased dramatically: changes to processes, additions of products and staffing changes can all be made in real-time with no programming and minimal reliance on training.
8. Quality is increased through consistent, documented execution.
9. Business-critical data about orders, projects, products, quality issues, campaigns, requirements, inspections, and more is securely manually managed in a centralized repository instead of in Excel spreadsheets or other unmanaged and unstructured documents.
10. The time, money, and risk associated with custom software development is reduced or eliminated—and the resulting product is better (better features, better security, better flexibility)
11. Business information can be communicated to external stakeholders (customers, suppliers, etc.) through OpsStream-powered portals.
12. People, machines and external systems can all be orchestrated according to defined processes.
13. Interaction with multiple systems and providers is greatly simplified because OpsStream can orchestrate all of this.
14. Data and documents can be managed in a structured fashion, with precise access control and audit trails.
15. Barcode printing and barcode scanning are natively managed by OpsStream.
16. Communications can be unified and orchestrated: OpsStream can manage two-way communication via e-mail, SMS, and voice. (i.e. automatic text messages, powerful IVR solutions for automated voice calls, and more.)