Background:

Providing blasting services often includes extensive reporting for both blasting companies and their customers, even for the most basic Down-the-Hole service model. Reports generally focus on product delivery, equipment availability, and personnel availability. In most cases, there is no standardised reporting at the company level, so site supervisors put a significant amount of effort into collecting data and then producing customer-specific reports in many different formats.

Challenge:

One of the first challenges for blasting companies is that different stakeholders may not understand customer contracts in detail. This often results in site personnel collecting or reporting incorrect data and there is usually scope creep over time. Unwinding the incorrect scope often results in difficulties with onsite relationships, even if everyone’s intentions are valid. Once again, Excel spreadsheets are the most frequently used tools to collect data, with an endless list of challenges ranging from errors in formulae to the inability version control the data. The flexibility of Excel also leads to a large number of changes almost every time users interact with the tool. Arrowtail had to design a robust and auditable solution that allows streamlined data capture and standardised reporting aligned with customer contracts and the service delivery model.

Solution:

With Arrowtail, both blasting companies and their customers are spoilt for choice, from live dashboards and transaction reports to customised reports such as Blast Reports and End-of-Shift Reports. Daily, Monthly, and Quarterly Reports can be produced with a click of a button as soon as data entry is complete, delivering significant time savings for site supervisors and account managers. Standardised report templates allow users to capture additional comments to provide further context for stakeholders.

Benefit:

The Arrowtail platform is built on top of a relational database that allows users to capture data once and process it many times in any required format. This results in instantaneous business processing and drives significant value for both blasting companies and their customers. Having data available in real-time results in better decision-making, fewer invoicing errors, and time-saving for all stakeholders. Additional integration is possible with both the blasting company and its customer’s ERP systems.