FAQ
Get Informed
It’s important to us that customers feel fully informed and confident when working with us. That’s why we’ve made an extensive list of questions along with answers from our experienced team. Browse through the information below, and if you have a question that isn’t included here, feel free to reach out to us.
What exactly do you offer?
EML specializes in automating planning and analytics processes by providing our clients with customized automated tools in Excel. Our Tools work well where there is a high level of business complexity but very few users. This is most prevalent in the areas of Supply Chain and Operations Planning and Finance
How do I know that Easemylife is the right consulting agency for me?
- Planning and Management Reviews consumes several hours of people time in a week
- A planning problem appears tough to solve because of rapid changes in requirements
- You want a customized system your people can co-create as per their requirements
- More insights for decision making based on real time data are required in management reviews
If you are looking for help in any of the above issues then EML is the right choice for you.
Why choose EML?
Our Unique Strengths.
EML has excellent strengths in cutting down work time and improving processes.
Our unique approach to consulting
We attempt to put our clients at ease by understanding their problems with an open mind. We work as a team with our clients to solve their problems. Importantly, we share our knowledge well.
Our Implementation Skills
Over 90% of the systems we create are used by our clients. This is because we are not satisfied by just technically completing a project, but are eager to see that it gets used by our clients and they realize its benefits.
What is the general profile of EML consultants?
EML personnel are people with good technical skills in system design, supply chain processes, programming and the application of logic.
They also have soft skills in communication, user alignment, change management and systems implementation.
How does a typical EML tool do?
A tool is designed so that it usually starts with extracting the right data from multiple sources or reports. This could involve masters as well as transactional data used as inputs. Further there is cleaning, processing, filtering, summarizing and structuring the data so that it is ready for use.
The second step involves solving the targeted business problem. This could be computing complex logics or some kind of optimization. Common business problems found in the industry which EML is good at solving are Computation of Metrics, Resource Planning, Production Scheduling, Route Optimization, Truck Load Optimization and Distribution Network Optimization
Third step involves customized Report and Dashboard Automation. These are usually customized for each role and are meant to be dynamic and action oriented. What this means is that users can use these tables or visuals to directly take decisions on the ground
Why are the Prices of EML Tools so High?
The cost of a tool ranges from Rs 50,000 for something very basic to as much as Rs 25 lakhs depending upon the complexity of the tool. EML tool charges are based on the efforts required to develop a tool and then implement it with users.
The skills required in designing a tool are a combination of IT skills - design architecture, data handling, user interface design, programming business logic, etc typically used in developing a software and these skills come at a cost. Besides high end business consulting skills are required for process understanding, user orientation and change management. All this increases the project cost to make the business sustainable.
Comparative Supply Chain Planning Tools that solve similar optimization problems are much higher in costs, are not completely customizable and hence do not necessarily deliver desired results.
Is Investing in EML tools and services value for money?
EML needs to be looked at as an investment for which the returns are enduring and long term in terms of time and money.
But how do you justify the investment?
Answer the below questions
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How will you add value to the organization in a year if you get the saved minutes of extra time every day?
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How much can you get extra business in a year if you are able to get the required information on time?
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How much cost can you save by using the extra time saved by implementing the automation?
If the answer to the above questions is in crores, the investment which is in lakhs is well justified.
If not, search for only such projects where the value add due to faster decisions coming from automation is large enough that the investment cost does not matter.
Justifications for automation projects usually do not come from savings in head count reduction.
What if our company data is confidential and cannot be shared?
The EML team does not require the data to develop tools. They only require report formats to develop the tools. This is because our tools do not keep the data inside the main system file. The data is all stored outside the main system in sub folders.
The operations automation just imports the required data as required, processes it and prepares an output report that can be extracted as a separate file.
Is Excel a good choice for handling large amounts of Enterprise Level Data?
We know the limitations of Excel and have learnt how to manage it.
We have identified techniques and processes which we follow that make Excel work fast and reliably. Besides our tools are fully locked and users cannot edit it so that configurations are not tampered with even accidently
We do not recommend the use of Excel tools for applications having a large number of users or where access management is required. Our target market where Excel Tools can add value is in the field of planning where the number of users are small and access related issues are not that important.
What about implementation and post implementation support?
Since the tools are co-created with users, implementation happens parallelly along with development. The development stops when all user related issues get resolved and they start using the system every day
Most of our automation tools once implemented require almost no maintenance
In case there are extra requirements expected from time to time in terms of development work, it is covered in a separate agreement with fixed monthly charges for system support and maintenance
Some clients prefer to request maintenance on a need basis only where charges are quoted on a case to case basis