The best data and analytics mean nothing unless action is taken on the information. One of our projects in the retail sector provides a vivid illustration of how the right information at the right time, used to drive the right actions, can be highly profitable.

Our client was a retailer with 20 locations, all large stores each stocking about a quarter million SKUs. Management wanted to understand how they could increase their customer conversion rate – turn more “browsers” into “buyers” – and thereby increase revenue and profit. With flat or declining sales, hiring more staff was not an attractive option. (more…)

[A Strategic View of BI & EPM – Part 3 of 6]    

Our previous article in this series discussed how creating a Business Intelligence (BI) and Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) Strategy gets your BI and EPM activities aligned with corporate goals and business opportunities. Going the next step – developing and implementig a Project and Technology Roadmap – gives the Strategy legs and assures your BI and EPM solutions will come on-line at the right time to help you maximize results.

If a Strategy exists only as a document or PowerPoint deck, it’s less likely the right actions will be taken to realize the goals of the strategy. Without a Roadmap there’s a risk of misaligned priorities, under-investing in the right projects or wasting limited budget on low-return efforts. (more…)

Have you ever been to a meeting about recent sales or financial results, where everyone came armed with their own reports but couldn’t agree on the facts? Did the conversation become a debate over the accuracy and meaning of information, rather than a discussion focused on business drivers and strategies to move forward?

We’ve experienced these debates, or listened to our clients complain about them:

• “Our total sales by product category don’t agree. How did you group the products in your numbers, or are you missing some data?”
• “Which store locations are included in the year-over-year comparative totals?”
• “What do you mean by Net Revenue? Does it include or exclude product returns not yet inspected, or the discounts offered through a particular promotion?”
• “Did you include TBH positions in your formula for Revenue per Sales Staff Employee? I wouldn’t do that so I don’t trust your calculation.”

(more…)

We all know regular medical check-ups are important for making sure our bodies are healthy and functioning properly.   Through an examination and a few tests our doctor can detect risks and early signs of trouble, and recommend lifestyle changes like diet and exercise to help us avoid serious problems down the road. If something isn’t right and needs correction, our doctor might prescribe medication or a minor procedure to get us back on track.

The same is true with Business Intelligence (BI) and Enterprise Performance Management (EPM). These are vital processes and solutions that help keep the enterprise on track by delivering relevant and timely analysis, insightful reporting, and planning that steers decisions and actions toward corporate goals. (more…)

My early career experience was in financial management in tech companies. After starting out in Accounting, I moved on to Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) where I supported other internal organizations by analyzing spending variances, preparing and booking monthly accruals, developing forecasts and budgets, and chasing capital requisitions through the approval process.

In my very first Financial Analyst role, I recall being invited to a staff meeting of the Facilities and Security department during my first week in the job. The conference room had no windows, and the chairs were arranged in a circle with one chair in the center of the circle. (more…)

[A Strategic View of BI & EPM – Part 2 of 6]    

Are your markets always stable and do your products face no real competition? Are your customers locked in for life? Are your productivity and efficiency unlimited? Do you always have easy access to timely, accurate and consistent performance data? Will your current analytics and reporting continue to support your business far into the future? If you can answer “yes” to all these questions, then congratulations on building the perfect business!

For the rest of us, we may be in organizations with multiple locations, markets, business lines, products and segments. (more…)

We were recently brainstorming what makes an analytic, reporting or planning solution effective. Reflecting on the implementation work we’ve done over the years, we quickly came up with five attributes that make a solution effective, not just immediately upon go-live but also for the long term:  

Supports an effective business process. A critical first step in an implementation project is to understand the business challenges and what information is needed to address them. After an effective business process is defined (which might be different from the current process), then a solution is designed and implemented to support it. (more…)

[A Strategic View of BI & EPM – Part 1 of 6]

Rapidly changing business challenges today require better insights and faster action. How can you harness the power of inforation to build and maintain an advantage? What role can Business Intelligence and Enterprise Performance Management play to help business leaders drive results?

I like to describe Business Intelligence (BI) as the art and science of accessing data and transforming it into useful information. This begins with identifying the right data, enhancing it through analytics, and presenting it as actionable information to decision-makers. (more…)

The question originally started as “What kind of firm are we?” I was on the Mediterranean coast in Spain in December 2014, visiting with a long-time friend who runs a management consulting practice based in Barcelona. Rather than being in holiday mode, I was pondering Analysis Team’s strategy for the upcoming year. My friend, who’s an aficionado of strategy and management techniques, shared with me an article that appeared many years ago in the Harvard Business Review.

The article, “Customer Intimacy and Other Value Disciplines” by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema, describes the three Value Dimensions and how companies that become leaders in their industry select one as their primary strategic focus: (more…)