Metrics and Dashboards in Selling Company Initiatives to Executives

3 Nov 2018 Uncategorized , , , ,

Metrics and Dashboards in Selling Company Initiatives to Executives

How do executives determine whether company initiatives are effective or not? Executives don’t have the time to regularly comb through lengthy reports. They need important information to be delivered to them in as concise of fashion as possible. This is the role that a dashboard plays. Through a well-designed dashboard, executives can get all of the business analytics data they need.

Building an Executive Dashboard

An executive dashboard must be specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound. The statistics displayed should be relevant to the organization’s current goals, displaying both metrics that are over-performing and under-performing. These metrics should be displayed in a timely fashion and should allow executives to drill down to further information that is relevant to them.

At-a-glance, the executive dashboard must give a broad spectrum overview of company initiatives, including everything that needs to be improved upon or modified.

Choosing the Metrics of an Organization

Which metrics should an executive be shown? After all, a company is likely tracking hundreds of them — which are most important? Begin with your organization’s most important metrics, such as its net profits. From there, pare down to the metrics that are underlying that, such as sales and expenses. These underlying metrics are what influences your net profits.

At-a-glance, the executive dashboard must give a broad spectrum overview of company initiatives, including everything that needs to be improved upon or modified.

If an organization has current and specific initiatives, such as increasing returning customers or improving upon new sales, these metrics should additionally be tracked. This gives the executive actionable information regarding the company-wide initiatives that are currently on-going, so they can determine whether the company is moving in the correct direction or not.

Use Data Visualization and Analytics

Few people, even experienced company executives, can glean any information from charts upon charts of numbers. Data visualization makes it easier to analyze large volumes of seemingly complex data all at once. Through data visualization, patterns more easily emerge. Pie charts, for instance, can be compared quite quickly to each other to identify current trends.

The right data analytics dashboard will give you a variety of ways to display information. The more varied the information displayed on the executive dashboard, the easier it will be to compare different metrics and identify changes as they occur. There are many software suites out there built for visualizing complex sets of data.

A modern organization is only as good as its data. There is no way for a business to succeed today without tracking its metrics. Moreover, the metrics on a company dashboard give an executive the information they need to make powerful, well-informed decisions for their company. For more information about the role that information plays in business today, contact the experts at Starr & Associates.

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Auditing Business Processes Through Analytics

20 Oct 2018 Analytics , , ,

Auditing Business Processes Through Analytics

There’s a reason why businesses are trending towards big data. Data analytics can be used to isolate areas of a business that need to be improved, in addition to paring down to the areas of the business that are performing most successfully. Through an internal audit, a business can fine-tune and streamline its business processes, ultimately using performance metrics to improve its productivity and revenue.

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Identifying and Validating Cost Savings through Analytics

6 Oct 2018 Analytics , , ,

Identifying and Validating Cost Savings through Analytics

It’s often easier to reduce an organization’s costs than it is to increase its income, but the bottom line is the same — an increase in revenue. If you’re looking for ways to streamline your expenditures and improve your cost savings, it’s time to look at your analytic data.

Analyze Your Data for Savings Opportunities

Your expense sheet holds all of the information you need to identify potential opportunities. Identify your largest suppliers and vendors and begin there. Look for opportunities to:

  • Reduce prices through discounts. Long relationships with another vendor may put you in the position to negotiate.
  • Reduce prices through consolidation. If you’re currently working with multiple vendors, you may be able to save money by consolidating through a different business.
  • Reduce prices through alternatives. Some vendors may no longer be competitive in relation to others within their industry.

Use Your Reporting

Visualized, aggregated data gives you valuable insights that you might not be able to see on a spreadsheet. This is the premise behind big data visualization: large-scale patterns may only be visible once data is consolidated, analyzed, and visualized. Using the right software solutions, you can better understand where your organization is spending the bulk of its money. From there, you can look at ways to fine-tune your operations.

Look at Supplier Performance

A supplier may not just be costing you money in terms of raw materials. Assessing supplier performance is also necessary to determine the full impact of their costs. Are delays making it necessary for your organization to delay products? Have mistakes in the supplier chain required returns or additional administrative processing? Supplier performance impacts efficiency, which can impact the system as a whole.

Visualized, aggregated data gives you valuable insights that you might not be able to see on a spreadsheet. This is the premise behind big data visualization: large-scale patterns may only be visible once data is consolidated, analyzed, and visualized.

At the same time, contract compliance must also be enforced. If suppliers are required to deliver product under certain guidelines — and they are not doing so — then they are not performing up to their contract. Issues of compliance must be enforced if negotiations are to be useful.

Forecasting and Planning Your Cost Savings

In addition to making decisions based on current spending, you must also consider future spending. If certain areas of your business are about to grow and expand, then your organization needs to focus on developing out these sectors and reducing costs within them. If areas of your organization are starting to become obsolete, then their cost savings benefits are going to be minimal.

Creating Results from Data Analysis

Data analysis is not effective if it isn’t used to affect change. Once your cost savings data has been analyzed, it’s time to make simple, clear, and functional changes to the spending of the departments that it impacts.

If you want to reduce spending in your organization, comprehensive data analysis is the most effective way. Through better data analysis, you can drill down to your organization’s spending habits, discovering inefficiencies and identifying trends. Of course, this also requires the right software and the right business processes. You can find out more through the experts at Starr & Associates.

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Creating a Data-Driven Culture in Field Service

22 Sep 2018 Uncategorized , , ,

Creating a Data-Driven Culture in Field Service

Data-driven cultures are far-reaching. Nearly every industry is currently being disrupted through data analytics, and the field service culture is no exception. Many companies are utilizing a combination of unmanned drones, sensors, and data analysis to make field service more effective and comprehensive. Here’s what you need to know.

Predictive Field Service Management Models

What if you could predict when a system would go down? With big data, you can. Big data uses a combination of sensors and historical data to identify environmental conditions that could indicate a breakdown. This data isn’t a replacement for traditional field service techniques, but instead, it’s designed to augment field servicing. Big data can be used to tell field service technicians when there could be a critical problem, as well as to fine-tune the number of times technicians go out and when they go out.

Predictive field service models work hand-in-hand with the Internet of Things. Internet of Things devices are utilized to capture data in the field, and this data is analyzed. Big data isn’t magic — it requires tremendous amounts of data which is then used to view patterns. As an example, a certain heat signature might only occur just before an element breaks. These patterns can then be used to create a risk assessment for individual machines and equipment on the field.

A data-driven culture is a cost-effective, safe culture. Better data means technicians need to be on the field less and are on the field when they are most useful. Not only does this reduce field-related industries, but it also reduces the overall cost to a business.

Creating a Data-Driven Culture

A data-driven culture is a cost-effective, safe culture. Better data means technicians need to be on the field less and are on the field when they are most useful. Not only does this reduce field-related industries, but it also reduces the overall cost to a business.

Creating a data-driven culture begins with the right hardware and software systems. Companies must take care to outfit their on-the-field infrastructure with the right sensors and IoT devices and must utilize state-of-the-art software to capture and analyze this data.

Companies also need to change their core business processes to directly relate to and manage this data. The technology has to be integrated at all levels of their field servicing so that data brought in and analyzed has an ultimate impact on when service calls are made and how service technicians operate.

Integrating data into field service is the first step towards making a more effective, productive, and competitive environment. Companies can substantially reduce their overhead while also reducing their risk, by utilizing an ecosystem that is less likely to experience breakdowns, delays, or injuries. For more information about this type of solution, contact the experts at Starr & Associates.

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