Unleash The Profit Power Of Your Most Hidden Asset--Your Data!

Information. It’s what every company needs to answer the important questions that lead to profitability and growth. For many companies, though, those answers may not be so easy to come by.
Here’s the story of one of my clients, a leading eyewear distributor…
Their data was in disarray. They produced huge stacks of lengthy and hard-to-read reports. They were swimming in facts and figures, but it was almost impossible to find the necessary information they needed to make effective business decisions.
So, they began to put the information into Excel spread sheets, resulting in many versions of their sales and expenses. Huge amounts of time were wasted on building, designing and tying out all the spreadsheets. Worse, the company was making decisions based on bad information. The process was fragmented, inefficient and ineffective.
When they realized that they couldn’t continue this way, they brought us and our Business Intelligence (BI) Software tools in to help. Working with their IT department, we were able to establish a foundation of data and reporting so that they could access their information in a meaningful way. They were able to get the key metrics that allowed them to make effective and profitable decisions.
And they were able to get at this information quickly; going from summary data to details in a matter of seconds. BI tools enabled them to have access to consistent and accurate information. They were able to spot trends, evaluate performance, track re-orders, manage inventory, identify which products were most profitable, and conduct accurate financial analyses.
BI tools gave everyone access to the same numbers. This led to better sales management, greater sales force focus, better product management and most importantly—increased profitability.
So, what does it take for you to get the answers to these vital questions?
• How is the company performing? Compared to last year? Compared to budget?• Who are our most profitable customers?• Which products have the best margins?• Are we on target?• How are we doing compared to industry benchmarks?
And even if you can answer these questions, do you have what you need to answer the inevitable next questions? The profitability of our companies lies in the answers to these questions… Why? Where? How come? When? How much?
The real challenge every company faces is getting that “next question” answered. And how long does it take to get it answered? Here’s what I mean… Let’s say a report gets requested. And it takes a while for that report to get produced. Management looks at it, reviews it at length and then invariably will have a “next question”. At that point, it’s back to waiting for a new report to be created. Business Intelligence Tools eliminates the wait.
You might be saying to yourself, “Don’t we have all the reports and spreadsheets we need?
My client thought so, too. But like them, you’re probably overwhelmed with data and information. There are so many ways to use it, but are you using it in the most advantageous way? It’s like water. There are many ways we can access it, but it may not always be convenient for us. We can’t go to the sink when we’re on the soccer fields, golf course or biking – but we can drink from a bottle. Why? Because it’s packaged in a way that is usable and adds value to us! With our data, we may have all we need, but to make it valuable to us we need to use it in ways that increase the performance of our companies.
Business Intelligence Software will let you look at your data in meaningful ways so you can truly understand the critical issues facing your companies. Most importantly, it allows you to view the data in ways that fit your decision-making process, giving you the information quickly to answer the key questions… How can we increase sales? Where can we save on expenses?
Finally and most importantly - all this translates to profits. You have the information. Business Intelligence Software makes it easy to profit from it.