Now more than ever, companies are discarding the urge to make "gut-feeling" decisions based simply on instincts, along with the "We've always done it this way" mentality, and are now turning to company data to help derive accurate insights and make better business decisions. At its core, the term "business analytics" refers to the use technology, exploration, and investigation of past business performance to gain insight and drive business planning. Corporate budgets, forecasts and strategic plans now incorporate data which is used as a competitive asset and helps to empower companies to outsmart, and out-perform their competitors. When business analytics are used effectively, they gain a significant competitive advantage.

 

More companies are now placing a greater focus on their data and allowing it to help drive their decisions at every level of the organization. An analytics-focused company encompasses more than just IT and accounting/finance working together. A new culture is evolving in which everyone thinks about the analytics and makes their decisions based on company data. This analytic focus creates an environment where all employees within the organization work in tandem to accomplish the same goals. Business analytics create real value inside a company that can be generated through improvement and gained efficiencies in business, operational and technological processes.

 

Business analytics are used to help companies understand what is currently happening and why, what could potentially happen next, and what could be achieved if specific objectives are met. If a sufficient amount of relevant data is collected and assessed, it could reveal crucial information that may have never appeared on the radar prior to the research. Business analytics can also be used across the organization in sales, marketing, product development, supply chain management, customer service, strategy and planning, human resources and information technology to name a few. For example, analytics can also be used in marketing, to help answer a number of questions: How are our marketing initiatives currently performing this year? How will they perform in the long run? Are our marketing resources being properly allocated?

 

When considering your company, what are some of the areas you feel could benefit the most from applying business analytics? How would you apply these principals and what could you gain from taking a closer look at your data to help you make better business decisions?

 

Five Steps to Create a Business Analytics-Driven Environment 

 

1. Gain the Support of Management to Champion Business Analytics   

The use of business analytics throughout the organization must be championed by Management to be truly successful, and should be aligned with the overall company strategy.

  

2.  Develop Your Analytic Strategy 

Determine the business objectives that you are intending to achieve, and then develop the analytics strategy that will support these objectives. 

 

Companies that effectively use business analytics within their operations also use a combination of the following tools: business reporting, key performance indicators (KPI) and dashboards, forecasting tools, data and text mining, simulations and scenario development, optimization tools, and web analytics.

 

3.  Develop Procedure to Incorporate Within Specific Business Processes 

Incorporate the analytic capabilities within the business and operational integration points within the organization. The company should change its operational procedures to include analytics, as well as the technology infrastructure to report activity, such as scoring, rules-based or business metric mechanisms.  

 

4.  Proactively Manage Change 

Make change management a priority to address roadblocks, skepticism and potential challenges. This will help to fully embrace the revamped processes and systems to work the way they were intended.

 

5.  Consistently Evaluate Performance 

Analytic performance should be consistently evaluated to ensure that objectives are being met. Consistently check the results by asking yourself, "Are the analytics achieving my strategy? What needs to be tweaked or fined tuned to better meet our goals?"

How Can Nperspective Assist With Creating a Business Analytics Driven Environment?

 

A "2014 PWC Global CEO Survey" showed 81% ranked technology advances as the No. 1 factor to transform their businesses over the next 5 years. For this transformation to be successful, there should be a comprehensive data management approach, incorporating system-generated and human data, from all sources and updated in real-time. "Stale data" will no longer be relevant, but current data needs to become accessible at a moment's notice. Once a company understands the information that is being gleaned from in-house data, they will be able to unleash their full potential and transform their organization.

 

Nperspective can assist our clients to create strategic plans that will incorporate business analytics and ensure that the analytic strategy is in line with overall company strategy. Also, Nperspective can assist with identifying analytics that are derived from operational and business processes that can then be scored and evaluated on a routine basis. If a more robust software package is required to use analytics platforms to develop business metrics, Nperspective can then assist with the Request for Proposal (RFP) and selection process of the new software.

If your company or one of your clients may benefit by our experience and knowledge, contact Russell Slappey at 407.448.1781 or rslappey@npcfo.com  for a complimentary consultation.